New to Forums, with new layout.

[CMHN]

Hi all,

Im new to this forum, here is a little history about myself. Im in my 30's, with a wife and 2 great kids. I lost my job 2 years ago and decided to go back to school. I am majoring in CAD-AAS. I will be done in May . I live in Northeastern PA.

This past weekend we went to the mall and was introduced to a local train club called Loose Ties. They have an area in the mall where they have layouts and people can walk through and enjoy them. My son loved it and my wife asked me if we could make something for him to enjoy at home. I have some old trains sitting here, old being over 20 years old. Some from my grandfather and some from my dad.

Being a CAD major, the first thing I did was see what kind of layout I could make that will handle the most trains and still give me some scenery.

So I came up with this simple design, which will give me 3 trains running at the same time and the center will let me play with switches and put some houses and industry.

Now I needed a platform. I looked at different platforms and decided to design my own. I have been doing woodworking for as long as I can remember and have a lot of tools. Now I have CAD to help design.

I came up with this design.

So off to Lowes I go for lumber. $100 later I had enough lumber to build it along with the fasteners.

And 3 hours later I had this very sturdy platform ready for layouts.

I made it so the top will separate from the legs for when I decide to move it out of the dining room and into the basement. But that will be a couple years way, I want to change my heating system first, but that's another story.

That was the easy part, making the scenery and laying out the track will be challenging. I have never done anything like that before, but I'm sure I can do it, especially with the help of the members of this group.

 

[Gary B]

Welcome CMHN! (Gotta a name we can call you?) You've come to the right place for good advice and freindly people. If I may say so I'm impressed with your carpentry skills turning out that table in 3 hours. I would if I were you look up some track plans for a 4X8. Some will advise against going the 4X8 route but it looks like you are commited. The plan you have has a lot of track and not much operating interest. Lastly that inner circle is too small for anything to run on. There's lots of plans out there on line and Model Railroader publishes books of them (Atlas too). Well good luck and hope to see you around this place.

 

[Motley]

Welcome!

Try not to be limited to a 4x8 sheet of plywood. What kind of available space do you have in that room?

I would suggest trying a 24" wide shelf around the walls type of layout. You can still use that table as part of it, so you don't lose what you have already built.

You can operate in the center, and have a drop down bridge where the door is. You get a lot more track run and uses the space available much better.

There is a very popular layout called the HOG (Heart of Georgia). And check this site out for alternatives to the 4x8 layout.
http://www.layoutvision.com/id28.html

 

[CMHN]

You can call me Chris.

I see your point about the center circle, I may move the switches to the left a couple spots, that will give me an oval. Im planning on running a Thomas the Tank engine on that section, he only has 2 cars anyway so it should be alright.

This layout is just to get my feet wet, Im sure I will be changing it up a few times, and when the time comes to move to the basement, I will have 30' X 30' to work with.

Here are the Engines that I currently have.

Got this one at an antique store, it doesn't run unfortunately, but its a nice display piece.

My son's Thomas, he loves this one, the eyes move back and forth when he runs.

This is one of my steam engines, its also a smoker. Got this one from my grandfather about 15 years ago.

One of my Santa Fe's, Runs pretty well. Not much history behind this one. Got it in a set about 10 years ago.

My oldest engine. I can remember running this one under my grandfathers xmas tree when I was 5. That's almost 30 years ago. She still runs great, amazing.

Another one I got from my grandfather, I remember going to the store with him when he picked this one up. Probably 25 years ago. Still runs but not very good.

My other Santa Fe, I plan to get some zephyr coaches for this one and put it on the outside loop.

I also have a James from the Thomas the tank Engine line. He is still in the package sitting on my dresser. I'm waiting for a larger layout to get him out.

 

[CMHN]

Well I have some good news. I decided to take the cover off this little train today to see if I could see why it didn't work. I found that one of the wires came loose. I got my soldering tool out and reattached the wire and put it on my track. It runs perfectly. I'm happy, I plan on using it for shunting cars around my rail yard when I build one in the basement.

 

[bobwrgt]

Nice going. Before you go to far i would consider adding a strip of wood along the edge of your table so you can go with 22in radius track in the outside loop. Some day down the line you will get a larger engine and have nothing to run it on.

Bob