New Layout HO - Feedback Requested

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R

richmondrocky

New Member
Hello Modelers :)

This is my first post. I have room 12X15 which I have converted to my train room. I have no hands on experience with designing or laying tracks. After years of search found some one from MD who agreed to work on hourly basis. I have attached some pictures, will try to post some more. I just want to run trains with lots of switching (using turnouts) and not planning for any scenary as of now. The person who has worked on it did a good job but did not install any turnouts. According to him, train will just make a loop and come back. I am interested in changing tracks and running multiple trains at the same time. I am very new to this hobby and really enjoying it but struggling with ideas. I want your experienced valuable suggestions in the below areas.

Extend the design and add some more tracks and turnouts
How and where to add turnouts in the existing design
Yard
wiring

Thanks for all the advice. Will post some more pictures.:)
 


Layout Design & Table Measurement

I have attached hand drawn picture. Hope pictures are clear.

I am ready to some rework if required like removing tracks and putting turnouts.

I am very very new to this hobby. PLEASE HELP ME.

Thanks for all the help !

Rocky
 
Rocky, there is some good work there so far. It looks like the person who put the track plan together wanted what we call a 'rail fan' layout where he could watch trains as if he were a fan standing beside the tracks and watching for trains to go by. For many of us, that is what we like best. For others, they bore quickly and want something more.

I would ask you, why do you want something more? What do you feel is missing?

I ask these questions because your answers will help me/us to help you. If you want more make-believe work for your trains, and places for passenger trains to stop, a small yard for some switching, some industries...well, I am afraid this will take some extensive revision, and more than just three or four turnouts cut into what exists now. There is too much long mainline track that is twinned (double main line), which is great if you want to run two trains and do railfanning, but not great for what you seem to want to do. There is little useful room left!

Once again, what do you feel is missing? What would your railroad do to earn revenue?

-Crandell
 
Crandell,

Thank you for the reply ! I miss turnouts / switching.

I have some place left for yard (pic10). I agree with you that there is not much place left for adding turnouts in the existing design. I want to have some controls where I can decide which track the train runs. Either it can go back to the loop or go to another level. I think there is more fun to change tracks and run multiple trains at the same time. For these reasons I want to build one more level up where there can be multiple tracks so that I can add turnouts and run the train just in that top level. After 1-2 runs train can go back to the loop and return the lower yard. If I can have option to have one more small yard on the top level, I can run the train from lower yard and end in the upper yard.

Rocky
 
I agree with Selector.

Is there any way you can post a plan more-or-less to scale with your benchwork and elevation outlines? It looks like you can fit in a small yard in the area of Pic 10 and a spur or two in the area of Pic 21 but beyond that I'm having a hard time visualizing the space you have to work with for spurs, etc.
 
Selector,

Thanks for the reply ! I have just hand drawn picture which I have attached. I am willing to have one more level where I can do some switching.
 


richmondrocky said:
Crandell,

Thank you for the reply ! I miss turnouts / switching.

I have some place left for yard (pic10). I agree with you that there is not much place left for adding turnouts in the existing design.
Click to expand...

Learning point:

It is a lot easier to design operation in on paper BEFORE you start building then it is to build it and then try to fiugure out how to add operation.
 
dave1905 said:
Learning point:

It is a lot easier to design operation in on paper BEFORE you start building then it is to build it and then try to fiugure out how to add operation.
Click to expand...

Dave makes an excellent point. Rocky, since you are in a position where you have to make modifications, don't rush it. Take your time and think carefully about what you want to accomplish and the operability of your revised design. Run some trains on your very nice mainline.

It's going to take some self-discipline to control your enthusiasm, but often newbies let their excitement overrule sound planning / building principles only to find out later that they are unhappy with what they've done. This is something that's seen over and over again.
 
Have those grades actually been calculated out so you know what percent grade you're dealing with? Maybe it's just an illusion of the camera, but those grades to get up two levels look pretty steep. Without seeing a plan view of the room and layout, I'm just guessing, but I don't think you have enough space to run up another level with anything like a reasonable grade.
 
I see where the WS risers are, but that track that's elevated on foam with wood bloocks sure looks like it's steeper than 2% to me. Your hand drawn layout plan doesn't help me figure out where the start of the grade is and how much run you have. What's the highest point in inches the tracks climb to above the zero point? How many feet of track do you have between the zero point and the highest point? That's information I need to properly calculate the grade.
 
Beachburn,

Yes I run trains all day until end with out any problem. I have to yet to the wiring.

I think with the raisers train runs just fine. The person who was working on these was doing lots of measurements when putting the foam.

I dont think much can be done for the existing layout. I want to have 1-2 levels up if place permits where I can run the trains and play with turnouts.

I am not familiar with most of the terms used in this forum. I am very new to his hobby and as you said I was very excited to run the trains. Now I think , it could have been done better. I have decided to wait , research , take help from all experienced modelers and then continue the rest. I will be going to Dulles, VA show which is on 23 and 24th and buy few things for my layout.
 
Rocky, it is truly a wise move to pause here, put the enthusiasm on the back burner, and think hard about how your current layout will permit you to add what you want. You seem to have a strong interest in the function of turnouts. No problem....they are necessary to earn revenue in the real world. Cutting into an existing track plan with a commercially available turnout where your thinking says it should go will probably present some serious challenges, particularly if where your thinking says it should go is on a curve of a given radius. You may be much further ahead to use a 'curved turnout, and several companies make them, Walthers/Shinohara being examples. However, if you are active on eBay, people sell hand laid ones using either CMT or Fast Tracks methods of construction. You'll pay some, plus shipping, but you will have a wonderfully smooth turnout, better than most any commercial one.

Your last statement says that you accept that the layout you have could have been done better. Well, considering what the previous owner had in mind, I would only agree if you truly know how it is defective or deficient in your new purpose for it. As it is, I would expect that the previous owner new exactly what he was doing. The fit and quality is very good as I see the images. He wanted a certain vision and purpose, and I am pretty sure he was getting there handily. Now the picture has changed, and you are finding that it will take some hard brain work to figure out how to make it into something it was not intended to be. A rather sobering reality I'm afraid. :confused:

Study how he constructed the ends of the grades. He knew that you can't start a ramp as if it were merely an inserted block of wood. You need a curve rising vertically so that engines don't lose contact with the rail on a sharper onset, or that their front pilot/cow catcher doesn't actually rub on the tracks rising ahead of them suddenly...if you follow. At some place, to get this other level where you can build it with turnouts and such, you will have to make a gap measured to fit the turnout you intend to place there allowing you to move off what you have currently and climb to another new part of your layout.

You wouldn't place this cut-in turnout on an existing grade because now you are at least doubling the steepness and the work that the engine has to do. In fact, in reality, every half-percent of grade requires double the power on both the real railroads and on our layouts. A train running on the level that encounters a mere 1% grade will need to notch up to provide twice the horsepower it took to sustain motion along the level tracks.

So, when you are doing your pondering, forget the current grades as places to help you get to where you want to go....unless you want a steep industrial spur where heavy tank engines or switchers would take fewer cars back and forth. You could build a coal mine, a logging operation, a sawmill....whatever...at the end and have a small switching yard if the industry warrants having several trains leave there each day with loads.

-Crandell
 
richmondrocky said:
Beachburn,

Yes I run trains all day until end with out any problem. I have to yet to the wiring.

I think with the raisers train runs just fine. The person who was working on these was doing lots of measurements when putting the foam.

I dont think much can be done for the existing layout. I want to have 1-2 levels up if place permits where I can run the trains and play with turnouts.

I am not familiar with most of the terms used in this forum. I am very new to his hobby and as you said I was very excited to run the trains. Now I think , it could have been done better. I have decided to wait , research , take help from all experienced modelers and then continue the rest. I will be going to Dulles, VA show which is on 23 and 24th and buy few things for my layout.
Click to expand...

i'm going to be there as well. i can't wait. also, as i understand it, that show is tailored more toward the beginner crowd, so it should be perfect for both of us.
 


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