Hello everyone, I have started the process of designing layout for our new house and I have kinda hit a snag when figuring out the best benchwork design. Currently I am basing my track-work/industries off the amount of space that the layout will take up (the benchwork) area so the rest of the design process is on hold until a more finalized benchwork plan is found. The issue I am currently having is that I'll start design a few plans but they always end up looking about the same whether its a layout around the room with peninsulas jetting out into the middle (picture 1) and having about three lanes of benchwork down the area space (picture 2). The images have track-work just to give a sense of the area space and by no means what the track plan will look like. I really want two decks as well as a sub-level staging yard under a portion of the first deck with a dual track helix connecting all the levels.
Currently my limitations are:
Mainline Min Radius: 36" (Branch/Local 30")
Aisle Space roughly 30-36" (Prefer area around main yard to be closer to 40"
Need at least one area to be ~4' wide to cover shelving units under the layout (Layout could be divided)
The Yellow area has limited headroom so I’m trying to avoid large switching scenes in this area.
The Red Area is not used for the layout.
There is an Orange area for the furnace water-heater that I want to leave exposed on 1 side for servicing and generally want to avoid running tracks through this area, but not impossible to run trains through the area and between the heater/furnace.
I provided a blank image of the area space in case wants to chime in with their suggestions on a better benchwork.
Option 1
Option 2 ( It should be noted the center peninsula is connected to the grayed out bench-work by the water heater area, it just looks sloppy
Currently my limitations are:
Mainline Min Radius: 36" (Branch/Local 30")
Aisle Space roughly 30-36" (Prefer area around main yard to be closer to 40"
Need at least one area to be ~4' wide to cover shelving units under the layout (Layout could be divided)
The Yellow area has limited headroom so I’m trying to avoid large switching scenes in this area.
The Red Area is not used for the layout.
There is an Orange area for the furnace water-heater that I want to leave exposed on 1 side for servicing and generally want to avoid running tracks through this area, but not impossible to run trains through the area and between the heater/furnace.
I provided a blank image of the area space in case wants to chime in with their suggestions on a better benchwork.
Option 1
Option 2 ( It should be noted the center peninsula is connected to the grayed out bench-work by the water heater area, it just looks sloppy