Hi guys. So I have this large room in my house that I am doing nothing with. I have always loved model railroads and would like to use the room to make my own. It is not the case that I am made of money, so I was going to do one table at a time. Especially the first table, because I will have to inure the cost of my DCC setup too.
My main question is about elevation gain. (I would love for my railroad to have at least one level of elevation.) I have done a lot of reading here and it seems that I need to keep the grade absolutely no higher than 2%. I have included a picture of the room's layout that I would like to use (however if someone has a better idea I would be interested in hearing it).
If I am limited to one table to start, it would seem that enough elevation gain to have one train pass over another (4"?) is not an option. I can live with that, but would like to plan for a future where this is possible. I don't mind having track on my first table that is not used.
I would like opinions for the best way to find the elevation gain in a visually appealing layout in the space I have. My best idea is to have tables 3 and 4 do the work. Where the first inch is found on table 3, the second inch is found on table 4, then a 180 turn to find the 3rd inch again on table 4 and the 4th and final inch on table 3. This would leave tables 1 and 2 with a multi level layout. My concern is that I am wasting lots of space with that idea, basically doing nothing with tables 3 and 4. I envision a few industries on those tables, lumber and some mines, but that might not make up for it?
Any advice would be much appreciated,
~Eric
P.S. The closet area can't really be used. It's the entire width of the room, but has walls on either side making little cubbyholes where the top part of table 1 is and table 3 is. I don't care if I can't get to that space, but I can't use it for layout because no one would see the trains.
My main question is about elevation gain. (I would love for my railroad to have at least one level of elevation.) I have done a lot of reading here and it seems that I need to keep the grade absolutely no higher than 2%. I have included a picture of the room's layout that I would like to use (however if someone has a better idea I would be interested in hearing it).
If I am limited to one table to start, it would seem that enough elevation gain to have one train pass over another (4"?) is not an option. I can live with that, but would like to plan for a future where this is possible. I don't mind having track on my first table that is not used.
I would like opinions for the best way to find the elevation gain in a visually appealing layout in the space I have. My best idea is to have tables 3 and 4 do the work. Where the first inch is found on table 3, the second inch is found on table 4, then a 180 turn to find the 3rd inch again on table 4 and the 4th and final inch on table 3. This would leave tables 1 and 2 with a multi level layout. My concern is that I am wasting lots of space with that idea, basically doing nothing with tables 3 and 4. I envision a few industries on those tables, lumber and some mines, but that might not make up for it?
Any advice would be much appreciated,
~Eric
P.S. The closet area can't really be used. It's the entire width of the room, but has walls on either side making little cubbyholes where the top part of table 1 is and table 3 is. I don't care if I can't get to that space, but I can't use it for layout because no one would see the trains.