Thanks for letting me in. I am 63 years old and many layouts over the years' This is my new area ' This room 24 by 12ft used to be a large Layout. But all the kids and grandkids love slot cars so I had to down size. This is my new area for my HO empire. Its all 24in shelf. 12 by 12 then a 6ft section and a little area which I might put my Ethanol refinery. I was thinking making a double mainline around it over to the refinery 'I know many will poo poo that. And I know it will eat up much area where more switching could go. It's just a thought to run more trains being a point to point. I do like point to point 'all my layouts were pretty much point to point. I hate just going around and around. I am more into industries and such. I gave done the mountains ' bridges' tunnels many times before. So not much of that will be included. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks
Nice area for a layout; wish I had that much space! P2P is nice if you have that much room. I'm guessing, by the choice of industry, that this will be modern era. Double track main will fit right in, and can create additional operating interest via limited crossovers, as well as run-arounds to "turn the train" at the ends. Will the Ethanol plant be served by rail for both raw material and product, or by pipeline for product? Tank car servicing can be a nice complementary industry if product is shipped by rail. And of course, grain elevators too. What other kinds of industries are you planning? How wide is the aisle in photo 3? Looks a little narrow (<24"?) to me, but then again I'm a wide-body 1:1 human. DC or DCC? Keep us posted on your design decisions and progress!
Thanks Andy for your reply' not much action here it seems. It will be modern for sure. The Ethanol plant will anchor one end as of now. I love tanks cars 'my favorite followed by hoppers. Will most likely have a large Grain silo place ' which Ethanol plants depend on. The aisle is fine about 30in. I use NCE power cab. I have boxes of new code 100 flex and over 25 turnouts from 4 to 6. Thanks
What a great space for a layout. I wish I had something like that... I'm on a hollow core door in the garage, lol! Can't wait to see how you progress Astrotrain... keep us posted!
If you don't already have it, I'd get the NCE USB interface, and install JMRI (free SW) on your computer. JMRI's Decoder Pro makes it SO MUCH EASIER to program locomotives, and keep track of how they are programmed. JMRI also includes a Wi Throttle server, so WiFi throttles or throttle apps on smart phones can be used by guests to run trains too. And if the locomotives are programmed in DP, then the descriptive name you gave the locomotive when you programmed it shows up in the loco list on the WiFi throttle/app.
