I'm a Newbie" to model railroading and need help designing a layout for a 3ftx12ft space. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome aboard Chris!! This place is a wealth of knowledge!! Now....before we can help you much, you're gonna have to help us by telling us a little bit about what you're wanting and what you're planning. The size of the space you have is a good start, but doesn't really help us come up with anything for YOU. I (and others here) could easily design a layout for ME in that space, but we need to know what YOU want. Here's some questions to help get you started: - What scale do you want to model? - What time period do you want to model? - Do you want to model a particular area of interest to you? - Do you want to sit and watch trains go round and round or do you want to have lots of switching and operations? Basically, tell us everything you possibly can about what it is that you want and expect out of your new railroad. THEN we can give you all the help you need. Also, you might give the thread below a look see too. Rick offers some good advice on track planning and getting help from others. http://www.trainboard.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/ubb/get_topic/f/33/t/000313.html
Chris, as you are a newcomer to model railroading and to N-scale I might suggest taking a few months to "get acquainted." Use some removable track (such as Kato Unitrack or Bachmann EX-track) on a board in your available space to runs some trains and try different styles of operation. This will give you an opportunity to decide which era and equipment you like best. This will pay benefits in the long run by fine--tuning what you buy. You might like to take a look at the Layout Design Special Interest Group, a bunch of folks who spend way too much time thinking of this subject. Here is a link to their website, which also include a Design Primer that presents many basic design concepts. http://www.emuck.com/~rufus/ldsig/index.html "Sacramento" Bruce Conklin SP in the 60s Chessie in the 70s Oh, yeah, and Western Maryland anytime
A 3 foot by 12 foot space is a great space for N scale, you'll have an interesting layout and you'll have it built sooner rather than latter as most basement empires can take a decade or more to complete. Can you describe the space it is in, I was thinking even if you could get a small centre peninsula in, it would really be interesting. For your layout benchwork shape, consider a water wings shape, so the ends would be a full 3 feet wide and the middle more like 26 inches wide - easier to reach stuff. Here is a link, that is the same as above, but it takes you directly the layout design primer. Have fun reading it, you love it: http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/BFSpages/LDSIGprimer/TOC.html
This is what Im doing at the moment, in N its 7.5ftx3ft. you could expand on it if you liked. Mines 7.5x4ft, so the curves are wider. Listen to the others first, they are wise men... They do have some extremely good points. Find out what you want to model first. What you want to do, just shunting, or driving multi trains on multi loops etc.. Then look for some trackplan books, 101 trackplans is very good.
Virtual bird, are you building yoour layout as a doughnut, with operating space in the middle. Or have you filled it in, operate as an island, possibly with a viewblock down the middle to make two scenes?
Its on a board with a hidden access hole probably.. Im lucky that the room its in is on 2 levels, the layout could be down bottom, and kids behind the rail up the top! With room for adults around the board close to action.. Will fill in center with some factories, and spurs.. etc
Hoss- -It's going to be N -Scale. -I would like to have some circuit trains as well as allot of switching action. -I would like the layout to be somewhere in between a prototype and a free lance layout (leaning more towards the protoype style). -I really like the the large unit trains. -I also would like to have a large yard. -I'm still trying to decide on the era. I'm leanig towards a more modern era railroad. I like the more industrial type layouts. I found a layout that I really liked in the 101 Track Plans book. It's the #77 Jamaica and Kingsway Short Line. It's about 2.5ft by 9ft and I could expand it to 11ft. The layout will be put between three walls. So it will only be accesable from the front. I think making it only 2.5ft wide will help make reaching the back of the layout easier. virtual-bird - Is that the # 74 Nickel Plate System from the 101 Track Plans book?
yes it is, mines 7.5x4ft so far.. Thinking of making a ~3ft square yard off to the side, I have the timber, I too would like a large yard to play with, but just dont have the room. My curves are 18-19in radius, so they are WIDE... should be ok for Mallets etc.. Im not a rivet counter, so not bothered with era to a point, but mines on casters, so could have 1/2 one era, other 1/2 nutha era, with a divider board! but thats too much work. My 101 book is at dads place where the layout is, will look tomorrow. My short list was 101 track plans 46, 58, 64, 74, 79.... Im suprised there arent more on the net when you search. the 2.5 foot is good, but get a 3.5ft piece of board, and hang over it, you shouldn't have many problems reaching over that, and then it gives you OH so much more, also your curve radius can lax off a bit.. 2.5ft wide board, will be tight! Good luck
