New Layout, New Location


C

conrail92

Member
Some of you may remember me, I see alot of familiar names are still around. Well it's been awhile since I was here and the summer has been busy for me and not alot of time for modeling. Well recently, as in a few days ago, I had to give up my "train room" do too family matters out of my control... So I had to tear down my layout some might of remembered it. Well I wasn't far into it, I did have all the track laid with cork in, all though. None the less it was difficult for me to give it up. I did have to give up my large layout but I'm not giving up the hobby.

I managed too save 95% of the wood/track/cork/styro foam so monetarily no loss. With that I plan on moving the layout too our basement, a bit less glamorous location (it's a unfinished basement but in good shape), it will be a 4' x 11' about 1/2 the size of my old one (maybe there is a plus in that it's easier to work with and cuts the cost a bit when working with a smaller more manageable layout). With a new layout I need too make a new design.

This new design will have the same general theme as the old one. The layout will take place in the modern era in rural Pennsylvania, It'll be ran by Norfolk Southern. The layout will handle goods from the silos, lumberyard, and a warehouse. The layout will also include a small town, farm, engine house, and too the right a more scenic area.

Below is my plan (if you have any questions regarding legibility of my hand writing, please ask, writing isn't my strong suite) also not included is the staging yard but I labeled the track that will lead too the staging area.

Old:
lay.jpg

Updated:
LayoutNEW.jpg


Please give me you opinions, this is a rough draft and the buildings aren't too scale. I'm mainly going for a functional track design more so then realistic operations. I'm not going to be showing this off too many, and the ones who will see it wont know the difference.
 
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Looks like a nice plan to me. I'm assuming the farm will also be a pop-up since you'll need one to reach the interior parts of the layout. I'd add a second track to the engine house and grain silo spurs to give your engines some flexibility in moving things around. I don't know if you intend to have the town station on the bottom area with the siding but that would be a natural location. Adding a team track behind the station gives you another location to switch and looks good. I'd also think about depressing the road that leads into the main part of town and have the railroad cross it on an overpass rather than a normal street crossing. It adds some texture to the area and I just like bridges. :)

I like the way the track doesn't overwhelm the scenery. I'm more of a scenery guy myself so I'm biased but yours is one of the better medium sized plans I've seen.
 
Picture3.png

Here's the updated version with the added track. As for the roads, I'm not entirely sure how they will be setup. What I put down is just a basic idea, but the overpass idea might work well.
 
OK, 4x11 makes more sense. As long as you have access to all four sides, you don't have to worry about a pop-up. If you don't, you'll still need a pop-up to reach the non-accessible side.

Given your sketch ideas for scenery, the changes in the track plan solve any of the problems I can see, although I'd still plan on a team track somewhere. Walthers has a really nice art deco overpass bridge that I'd work into my plan if I could but, as I said, I like bridges. Assuming you layout is going to be flat, doing things like depressing roadways for overpasses and using foam to build up some hills in your forested area will make the layout appear to not be flat.
 
I'm still thinking about a team track, but i'm trying too avoid the track overwhelming everything else, I, like you, don't want too overdue it on the track.

I plan on adding some hills and giving it some character... It will be themed to be in the Pennsylvania area, and PA does have some large hill and mountains. For those familiar with the central/eastern PA, I will have it similar too that rural farmland low hills, but hills none the less. I wont have larger mountains and such that are more so present in Western PA...
 
You can easily run a team track right off the industrial spur just after it comes off the siding. Like I said, that's kind of a natural place for a station and a team track behind the station only has to be long enough to hold two or three cars.

The scenery there sounds very similar to central Alabama, with a lot of rolling hills but no big mountains. Plan on using foam for these and arrange your landscape so the track cuts through the hills at several spots. That will make it look like the landscape was there before the tracks and the cuts will also help hide the basic flat nature of the layout. I've attached a picture of one of my cuts to give you an idea of what I mean. It is part a small range of hills built with 1" layers of extruded foam.
 
I was thinking about adding a cut around the right side bend... There is a nice railfaning spot near me that cuts though a hill a bit. It's a great place to watch trains... There's a walking path bridge that goes over the NS mainline.

p2008-02-16-2597-ns-cassandra-eb-in-cut-dusk.JPG


and this is looking the other direction rate before the bridge

2760201168_49ca5e2319.jpg
 
Here's a neat idea for a team track! I plan to do one for my next layout....There use to be a feed mill here but over time the mill was torn down and left as a team track and track repair equipment storage! I'm going to get some shots of it some day soon! It would make for a neat team track!
 
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