I originally created my account back in '08 and made a whopping 2 posts. I'm back in model railroading and for good this time, got married, and starting my new life with my VERY supportive wife. Unfortunately I'm currently in an apartment, but the club I joined is only about 5 miles from home. My goal is to model CN here in Waukesha, Wisconsin via industrial switching using the books by Lance Midheim as the basic idea,built modular and expandable. The track will be hand laid code 70. The time period will be '03-'04 and this will be somewhere along the Waukesha Subdivision, aiming for waukesha itself "TONS of freight activity, roughly 50 trains a day pass through us and duplaineville is right by us." Now to find what the industries will be, and Do I model the real deal or substitute something that will look the part.
Great that you've come back, as it were. Sounds like you've got a great plan, and plenty of help and support to acheive it. I think you'll find that any model RR involves some degree of compromise, usually simply because of space requirements.
Welcome back to activity! What scale would you be pursuing? Can you do something modular in the apartment, to conserve space?
I am an apartment dweller too and have a 35ish Ft. long open-grid HO layout. Unless you have a dedicated room with the MRR separate from everything be prepared to NOT be able to get away from it when you are 'off-hobby',say. And beware if in plain sight all the time everyone who needs to enter (landlord, plumber, even buddies) sees your 'weird ' (to them) hobby. With this said, if I did it over I'd go very shelf like and steer away from grades and tunnels. If you want a shear switching outfit, find/create a nice scheme which will give you enough action to do mostly realistic moves. If you go whole hog and make a spaghetti bowl (in an apartment, not a large basement) that's what you'll get; a bowl of spaghetti with loads of track and logistics hassles. Less is more. Finally, consider a point to point scheme with wyes or turntables to reverse direction. As I'm sure you know, real RRs don't go around in circles anyway. And less so can they in an apartment. Believe me, I've been there. Mark
Mark, When I did get the apartment, I did plan on making the small guest bedroom into a small switching layout. Instead, I made it into my modeling room. I joined a club and that is my railroad until more room is available. Whats nice about the place I joined is that after your 3 month probationary period, you get keys to the building and access whenever you would like. The best part its only about a 10 min drive at most. http://www.wcgandydancers.com/
