Door Score!

I love junk day. It's a day when you put all your junk out at the curb to make room for the new junk your neighbors junk pile. I was driving home from work this morning (I work night shift) I spied three doors with a nice wood furniture kind of finish. My truck pulled over and parked all by itself and flung me out of the driver seat because the next thing I know I'm loading my truck. Sure, two have fist holes in one side, but a layer of Styrofoam will cure that.
My layout is currently 2, 18" X 80" doors end to end with 1" foam board, 1 industrial switching, 1 rural switching, that will grow to be a point to point (or loop to loop, or point to loop, etc...) rail system. It's my version of the domino theory, being able to move and expand as space and money allow. My short line controls north/south movement in Arizona, providing bridge service between Santa Fe and Southern Pacific. Of course I want to run passengers too, maybe an F59PH Super Chief.
I wasn't really planning on expanding soon, but since I found these I thought I'd pick the minds of my fellow forumites for ideas on what to do with them. I have 14' X 18' of basement to work with, as long as my daughter can have the floor.
I have 1 door 32" X 79"
and 2 doors, 30" X 80"
(+ my 2 existing 18" X 80")
Any great ideas on how to use them?

 

Sounds like you have the right ideas already - the modular type approach to the layout is great. You probably still have enough room without having to double-deck the layout.

I used to live in a town that had a junk day, although they called it "Large Garbage Collection Day". We called it "Large Garbage Exchange Day".

Andrew

 

John,

Sounds like the perfect opportunity for an around the walls C or G shaped pike. I would rip the 32x79 door into two 16x79 pieces for mainline length with some towns for switching, and use the two 30x80 doors for end loops at division points.

Alternatively, if you want a central division point yard use one of the 30x80 doors for that and use the rest of the narrow pieces for the East and West trackage from the main yard. Cut the other 30x80 door into two 30x40 pieces for end loops/staging/whatever at the ends.

BTW - you are _exactly_ ten years younger than I am (May 8, 1953). A very auspicious day (May 8) to be born, IMHO. <g> I was born at 8:05 AM; you?

 

Something was bugging me about your doors, so I didn't reply right away as I wanted to figure out what was bugging me and to determine my response.

Now what follows is my prejudice or preference, pick your poison. I like layouts to have smooth lines, not obvious rectangles attached to one another. In attaching your doors - rectangles - to each other, some will be wider than others. What I would do is this. I would make plywood long curves that would fit into the space protruding out and the next rectangle so that the visual line would be smoothed out from rectangle to rectangle.

Then when all these curves are installed on your layout, I would run the fascia following these curves. Once the fascia was in and ground cover was on, no one would know the door wood from the plywood curves. This would visually look much better. Contemporary layouts favour curves rather than right angles anywhere.

I'm not sure I've been clear, if not let me know and I'll try to give it another go.

But then again, if you're happy with rectangles, then go with it.