Ok, so you've all convinced me not to waste time and money on "temporary" layout - Spacemouse your site is key, thank you. I'm going to skip right to building the real thing in a small spare room upstairs.
This is a rough drawing of the room -
I'm not sure why it isn't showing in-line. Can anyone help with that?
Anyway - I'm going to start with the 8' by 30" rear section, do a yard and some industry, and then the wings. Ultimately, I'll go through the wall near the bottom right and into the closet for staging and a helix up to a second level on the right side.
The concept is still Maine/New Hampshire. The yard section will represent Rigby Yard in South Portland. There will be two double mainlines running over it. Two at the far edge hidden from view and two in view representing the line through the yard. There will also be loops at each end to allow continuous running, though I will try to disguise them as industry track.
Ultimately, the railroad will serve the paper and logging industries, quarry industry, textile industry, and passengers, all consistent with the prototype. On the yard module, I will have lumber and paper mills, in addition to yard facilities.
As the project continues, I will build the wing to the left of the yard to represent inland Maine with logging and quarrying operations.
The wing to the right will become Portland. It will be served by the Portland Terminal railroad and include dock scenes. It will also hide a double track mainline along its rear edge. That line will ultimately go into the closet, through a helix and up to a small platform over the Portland wing. That platform will represent North Conway (which is technically wrong b/c the Boston and Maine track to North Conway split south of Rigby and the Maine Central track to Mount Washington by passed North Conway - but I like North Conway; its where I came out to my wife as Railfan.
From North Conway, a narrow platform will carry track over the yard module and around to left, representing travel through the white mountains. A platform over the logging/quarrying wing will represent St Johnsbury, VT.
How much of this will actually get built? Who knows? It doesn't really matter. What matters is everything done is now purpose oriented, which was the message I got from the group's collective wisdom.
This is a rough drawing of the room -
I'm not sure why it isn't showing in-line. Can anyone help with that?
Anyway - I'm going to start with the 8' by 30" rear section, do a yard and some industry, and then the wings. Ultimately, I'll go through the wall near the bottom right and into the closet for staging and a helix up to a second level on the right side.
The concept is still Maine/New Hampshire. The yard section will represent Rigby Yard in South Portland. There will be two double mainlines running over it. Two at the far edge hidden from view and two in view representing the line through the yard. There will also be loops at each end to allow continuous running, though I will try to disguise them as industry track.
Ultimately, the railroad will serve the paper and logging industries, quarry industry, textile industry, and passengers, all consistent with the prototype. On the yard module, I will have lumber and paper mills, in addition to yard facilities.
As the project continues, I will build the wing to the left of the yard to represent inland Maine with logging and quarrying operations.
The wing to the right will become Portland. It will be served by the Portland Terminal railroad and include dock scenes. It will also hide a double track mainline along its rear edge. That line will ultimately go into the closet, through a helix and up to a small platform over the Portland wing. That platform will represent North Conway (which is technically wrong b/c the Boston and Maine track to North Conway split south of Rigby and the Maine Central track to Mount Washington by passed North Conway - but I like North Conway; its where I came out to my wife as Railfan.
From North Conway, a narrow platform will carry track over the yard module and around to left, representing travel through the white mountains. A platform over the logging/quarrying wing will represent St Johnsbury, VT.
How much of this will actually get built? Who knows? It doesn't really matter. What matters is everything done is now purpose oriented, which was the message I got from the group's collective wisdom.
