What??!!?? That's terrible. I've recommended "Mike's Small Trackplans Page" to a whole bunch of people. That was a great website. Tell me it's just a temporary glitch, please! </font>[/QUOTE]They moved the URL. Mike's Small Trackplans is now at http://www.naisp.net/mfischer/m_train2.htm
Dave, I'm going to hug you hehe Been going over all the plans posted here..and in the 'show us your hollow core doors' post..and i'm working on some ideas now. Thanks a ton for all of the input! Its going to be very slow going building it though, once I've "finalized" a plan. My plate is quickly filling up, and time is going by faster than I thought. Michelle is wanting to go on vacation in August (neither of us have been on a vacation in over 5 years).. which means, I need to start saving my pennies. Plus she has started planning out our wedding next year And I need to contact an immigration lawyer soonish so we can see what importing Michelle to the US entails. Which means I pretty much cut my trains budget back quite a bit.
Todd. I have just gone throuogh the spouse immigration thing to the US. Contact me on disisme@disisus.com for ALL the info you could possibly ever need...plus a bit.... Look at my plan at http://www.railimages.com/gallery/rogerbruce/aae There is around $600 worth of track alone in that pic, but thats enough for at least 4 or 5hollow core doors (some 2100 inches, according to XtrkCad, of mainline alone, without running a single spur or siding). Expect your layout, from what I've seen on ehre, to go under $200.
Well, i bought my door yesterday. Threw a coat of el-cheapo paint over top of it just to get some color... Go to draw on some 1 foot gridlines.. its all going good... I start to put down the lines for the width of the door.. and something just isn't jiving. I look at the cat, I look at the ceiling. I throw the tape measure on the floor.. the door is 32" wide, not 36" as marked. Now, its a toss up. repaint over the lines I've drawn, and find a place in the house that can use a door, or modify my plans a bit? Probably end up modifying my plans, because getting a vehicle to haul a door around is a bit of a pain in the neck. Thinking of going with this plan, with a bit of modification, such as removing the turntable, and putting a small industry there. Anyone have any ideas on changes to that plan to put a bit more industry in there? I like that I can just run something around the outside, and still do a bit of operating on the inside. No need to mess with blocks or anything either.
Todd: I like that I can just run something around the outside, and still do a bit of operating on the inside. No need to mess with blocks or anything either. Depends on what you mean by that. If you want to have a train running on the outside while you switch the industries/yard inside at the same time you will need blocks. If you just meant that you could either run on the outside or switch on the inside (but not necessarily at the same time) then yes, I agree. Regards
I've got a few suggestions, but remember that these reflect my preferences in operation, and may not be a good match for what you want to do. Feel free to disregard them. I'll assume you go ahead and eliminate the turntable/roundhouse. 1. I'd eliminate the inside loop. To me it serves no good purpose except to let a train go round and round. It also presents a problem in that it will require steep grades to get up and clear of the yard tracks. 2. I'll assume that the three tracks coming off the yard on the right side are industries. To me, it seems awkward having them come off the yard, in addition to eliminating the topmost yard track since you need to keep it clear in order to switch the industries. I'd flip these tracks vertically 180ยบ so that they come off the mainline at the top where the right hand crossover is right now. 3. Add a spur or two coming off the mainline where the left hand crossover is now. These can service an industry located where the roundhouse used to be. 4. Extend the short yard track to the left and make it split into a two stall engine shed. You may not need a roundhouse, but an engine shed would be nice. 5. Depending on whether you want to switch the yard while you have a train running on the mainline or not (if not, ignore this suggestion) you might want to move the whole yard to the left (possibly shortening it) so that the first switch to the yard comes off the yard lead (passing track) with enough room so that you can operate a switcher and a couple of cars without fouling the mainline. As it is now, backing a switcher out of the yard requires backing it onto the mainline. Just some ideas. Like I say your view of operating your layout may be much different that my mental picture. Regards
I agree with ditching the roundhouse. Unless you've got a lot of steamers that need to be turned, I'd go with a two stall engine house. On a small layout, a turntable takes up a lot of real estate that could be used for better things. That's what I'm doing on my layout. WP had a turntable and roundhouse in Oroville, but I'm going with a smaller two stall shed for my diesels. I also like the idea of a double track main, so you can run one train on the outter oval and switch your industries on the inner. That's why my layout has 13 3/4" curves on the outside loop, so I can run my Cali Zephyr while a freight drop cars off at the cement distributor in Gerlach.
