Little more than a 4x8 board....


Kedric

New Member
I used to do a bit of train sets/modeling when I was a kid, but it was expensive and I didn't have a job. Now, almost 15 years later I've got a house and a great job so I'm gonna do what I always wanted and build a layout from ground up to run operations and to just show off at times too. Here's what I have so far, looking for any input, constructive criticism is appreciated. I plan on building my yard first so any input on mistakes or issues there would be apperciated. I used to have #4's but this redesign is now all #6's to better accommodate my autoracks and my PRR DD40.
Home basement layout Rev. D switch upgrade.jpg
 
Hi and welcome back to the hobby.
You definitely have some great operations in the plan. Will there be elevations or is it flat? I see a one river, sorry I'm a bridge and rough scenery type guy so hard to add to the layout but I do like the industry ops. Does seem to be quite a few storage sidings.
 
Glad to see you getting back into the hobby and to the forum. Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have. I'm sure you'll get answers. May save you time and money and the use of colorful words.
 
Always good to see someone back into the hobby. My biggest concern (and you probably have already made concession for this) is with the length of the tunnel, are you planning on some type of cut away or removable section to get into the tunnel if there is a derailment inside?
 
Great looking layout with lots of optional routes to run trains.
Couple suggestions below.
I would eliminate one of the connections to you industry area avoiding the duck under. This would make it like a branch line. I had an area like this on a layout I had and I never wanted to crawl into the space.
There are a few tracks on your main yare that are very short. You only need to have a couple thru tracks and the others can be single ended.
Steve
 
It's an HO scale layout. The tunnel will have small cut away's where a valley runs down the side of the mountain and the train's cutting in and out the hillside. That should shorten the space I have to reach into the tunnel/tunnels while giving a pretty nice look to it. Each square is a square foot. As for the branch line, that's a great idea. I can extend the industries then and add few more spurs for businesses. The main focus is the coal drag running on the outer rail, delivering to the power plant. There is also an intermodal yard on the west wall. Setting is Pennsylvania so there will be some grade slopes in areas but that's mainly in my head at this point. I plan on building the benchwork with a 2-4inch layer of foam atop some 7/16 OSB to allow me to sculpt the land a bit. The North wall there is a staircase leading down to my basement, and about 4 feet for walkway since I have a sink there plus few other things like storm drain and such. I also wanted to leave that open for any visitors to come and stand if they didn't feel like getting into the layout. I'll be starting with a duck under to get into the center, but over time I'll add a swinging door on the north side near the coal tower. The east wall also has a 5x10 area I didn't put anything in. That is where the workbench and sump pump sit so again, leaving that area closed to railroad. The work bench and rack built there will be my maintenance, upgrade and paint spray area. As much as I love trains, I like having a working house to live in more, so all areas that may need work done to them or around them are left as open as possible for service people to get around in. Thanks for suggestions everyone. I'll make some changes and probably post another updated layout tonight yet. We just had about 2 inches of snow fall so another lovely thing about home-owner ship is....shoveling snow. The mailman already hates my steps since my house is on a hill, so I'm gonna at least salt the walk for him so he/she doesn't eat it delivering my train cars. ;)
 
Here's what I have so far, looking for any input, constructive criticism is appreciated. I plan on building my yard first so any input on mistakes or issues there would be apperciated.
The ladder bypass track is bypassing the ladder onto the drill track - so the only loco that can/would use it would be the locos drilling the yard. What are four tracks going toward the top on the left side of the yard? Seems to me the usefulness of the yard would be greatly increased if it was stub ended using the space of those four tracks to extend the actual yard tracks. The "yard" looks big but there is actually very little to it - just three fairly short tracks, and that is if you don't use the first one for a AD track. As designed the inside main cannot even be used for an AD track as the main cannot be routed around it on the outside main.

The third track on the coal fired powerplant looks very short. I think it only adds a few cars to capacity. I would eliminate the 3rd track, or if you aren't going to run your DD40X and autoracks in there, I would switch to smaller turnouts. Looks like those #6s are consuming tons of space.

That is the purpose of the parallel tracks on the inside main near the center bottom?

The three way turnout on the far left seems unnecessary and actually creates an "S" curve situation.

The only place to cross between the mains is in the "big" yard, so it doesn't even have as many alternate routes than one would first think.

It seems like a lot of the parallel tracks have a pretty big separation (like 4"), is that intentional, an optical illusion, or just not that closely scaled?
 
have you considered using a crossover and making two disconnected ovals so that any train has to loop around twice before returning to the same point. this would require separating the rightmost track on the south wall from the yard tracks. The crossover could be on the north wall.

there are enough sidings around the layout so that trains going in opposite directions could pass one another.
 
I forgot to mention this is a DC layout with blocks. I'll upgrade to DCC down the road, but for now I'm sticking with my older equipment. But having a train on the same track as another isn't gonna work for me without adding a bunch of blocks so I'll at max have 3 trains running if I feel comfortable about my trackwork (which I'll painstakingly test) when it comes to derailments. One on each oval, and the switcher working the yard. It's also because I'm a 1 man team doing this as a long term hobby so having lots of trains with meets running at once isn't ideal. I did redesign it a bit. I appreciate the input guys. Also most parallel tracks are 2" apart on center as a minimum all over the layout. Minimum curve radius is 22" in a few areas but about 80% of all curves are 24" minimum radius. Here's updated plan, if I can get additional input that's appreciated. (The people in the layout doesn't represent how many operators there will be, I used them for size gauging.)
Home basement layout rev E, Branchline.jpg
 
That second plan is looking good!
Anything I was going to add has been added, all good points.
Well maybe one comment, like Lynn my heart beats just a little faster seeing a train crossing a river so any chance of a river crossing up by the mountain area? :)
 
Not a bad idea but I'll do one better and incorporate it into the mountain. Have a cut from one mountain tunnel to another mountain, that goes across a bridge. Small 3 foot or so (scaled of course) water fall as it's going across a small dip in the terrain and across some bubbling rapids? Maybe even have another river cut in just south of the power station as if the line follows river (which would be in the aisle way) and exits in the east side of the layout. Give it a "coal plant in a mountain valley feel on edge of a small city. Yard and inter modal are flat of course but have a slight grade increase along west wall on outer main. Inner main dips after the inter modal very slightly till you really notice the height change going into the mountain. After mountain the inner starts a gradual climb around the power station to flatten out across a bridge before going into the yard. The outer main then only had climbed total of maybe 2 inches and dips as it comes outta the tunnel before power station where it will flatten out for delivery. That way no, one line climbs or dips more than 2-3 inches but combination of the two going opposite heights makes it look like large grade changes. Took place in short area.
 
great looking layout. Should be fun to operate. You can easily have one or both mains running laps While you are switching the town or main yard.
Steve
 
That's what I'm hoping for. By the time I get done switching and seeing up next outbound or delivered the cars. I can pull another aspect into delivery. Best part is, if I have a friend come over they can help and bring it to life but same time I can automate it while I work a yard or delivery. At least that's the idea.
 
I see that a lot of the layout is along the wall. Here's an old cabinet makers trick I used that can save you both time and money. Instead of having legs holding up the front edge of the layout that you will probably stub your toes on on a regular basis, I used half inch rigid electrical conduit. The ends are flattened and a couple of holes were drilled in each end. One end is screwed into the back of the front edge of the layout and the bottom part is screwed into a wall stud. This is extremely strong. My layout has been up for over 25 years with no problems. I had a number of doubters about, but when one put his entire 200+ pounds entire weight on the outer edge, nothing budged. I did use 1x4's for the benchwork. I don't know what you have planned but this does work well and also makes storage under the layout easier to use not having to work around legs at the front of the layout.

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Blocking the layout will have no effect with the dcc and even better if you decide to break the layout up into power districts.
I echo what Rico said with the bridges and rivers.Great opportunity for a operational and scenic layout, plan looks great.
Montanan has a great idea for the bracing, think I will eventually do this myself.
 
Montanan,

What a great idea. I especially like it for the openness it would create beneath the benchwork.


It also make working underneath the layout, such as working on switch motors or wiring a heck of a lot easier not having to work around legs at the front of the layout.
 
Montanan,

One question, what would the furthest horizontal depth this system could be used with? For example, would this work for a bench area hat was 48" deep?
 
The majority is from 24 to 32 inches deep. The town of Logan goes up to 41 inches deep. I don't know how much wider would be safe, but I guess you could give it a shot. That section of my layout has been up for well over 20 years as it is part of the hidden staging and I have had no problems with it, but there is also a drop down section where the hidden staging goes to that part of the benchwork, but for the most part, it is usually down to make access to the layout easier and also because I very seldom do any continuous running on the layout.
 



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