Hey guys, been a long while since I have been on trainboard. Ive been real busy painting locos and cars and building, but no work has been done on my layout. I recently knocked down a wall to give me a little more room for my layout. I have a 12*22 foot space. I would like to do an around the walls layout with the widest part about 3 feet. There are really no obstructions in the room so it should be pretty easy to work in. I have some benchwork alreay built with track layed down, but it can change. I am having severe writer;s blockl in coming up with a decent track plan. So if anyone would like to help in designing a large layout, any help would be appreciated. Thank You Travis Chance
I usually start with a benchwork shape and then go from there. In your room, you could have a walk in layout with 2 foot shelves or maybe a couple of inches wider, with a peninsula down much of the middle of the layout. If you put up a large scenic divide down the middle of the peninsula, your layout will seem much bigger. With two foot shelves and a two foot peninsula, you could have 3 foot isles which would be a decent space to work in. Or an alternative is to reduce the width of the benchwork along the walls to 22 inches following the peninsula, and add the two inches on either side to the peninsula. After you have your basic benchwork decided on, then designate areas; so area "A" is the town, area "B" is the yard, area "C" is industry, area "D" is scenicked countryside, etc. When that is done, search various magazines for parts of a layout that would make a good town, for instance on your layout, then modify it slightly, and carry on down with that. You don't even have to complete the layout design, I didn't. Instead I built all of the benchwork, then laid track on approximately 40% of the layout to give me experience in further planning. This proved helpful - I too am in N scale.
Travis, What era and railroad are you proposing on modelling or are you going to do a freelanced layout?
Hi Travis, I will not go into details for your layout because I agree with Rick, just start with parts of your benchwork and build it from there. When I started my layout in 1988 I started with a "main" part, about 9´by 10´ even if the room was 18´by 21´, but that is a later story. Here was the main station Sandy River and the first mine. About 7 years later I got a "need" for a second mine and an harbour. At least that was my intention. That resulted in an extension of about 15´. At the end of 1999 the harbour was skipped mainly as a result of a lot of discussion about if it was possible to build an hump yard in n-scale. So I did. A new addition of about 10´ along the third wall which was successful and finished in 2001. Still I have an eye on the rest of that wall, so in 2002 I created the last extension with an industrial area and a small village with a station. To shorten a long story, all layout parts was started with only benchwork and just a faint idea of what should be constructed. That works for me. The dimension and time schedule you will find below.
I am going to model illinois central through Decatur, IL, my hometown, in the mid 90's before the CN merger. I have a basic shape in mind and I have it drawn on Auto Cad. But I am not sure how to load it on the trainboard so you guys can see. Thank you for your input. Travis
Errr... did someone say Illinois Central? I used to live in champaign Urbana in the seventies. I miss the old orange and white diesels I saw back then along with the chocolate streamliners. Sounds like you want to do the black sheme. You have the space to really do it up right. Also there is tons of data and info out there on the net. As a flat lander you should check out other layouts that feature flat scenery. Mike Skibbes CGW is a good example. Seems to me you could design your mainline and have it running. Then do your more precise trackwork and scenery block by block. Sort of how this guy darren has with his layout. (I think Darren is the guy who did the rochelle sub UP. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.) I think half the fun of this stuff is doing research. I've been surfing my little heart out on the net for a couple years, here are some cool links I've found. All time diesel roster: http://illinoiscentral.net/rosters/alltimeroster.html Modern diesel roster: http://illinoiscentral.net/rosters/rosterm.html Photos: http://www.icgphotos.com/ more photos: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ic/ic.html history: http://icrrhistorical.org/icrr.history.html T shirts: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/docscaboose-online/caboosetshirts.html I have more links on a different computer. I will try to add those later.
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I think the guy Is daryl Kruse he did the Rochelle sub. It is a very nice layout. I used to live in Champaign also, but it was only a few years ago. (I am only 23). A friend of mine is coming over tomorrow to help with design and benchwork. SO we will see what we can come up with. Travis Chance
Thats pretty neat. I have never seen excel used like that before. Mitch came over today and we finished the benchwork. Now just gotta get a track plan together. I willl try to get some pics of the benchwork tomorrow. I like the excel idea. I will have to remember that. Travis
Bob - Move up here - I'll get you the space. Taxes are almost "done". While I've said it befor, (and was wrong), I really really believe it will be by the end of April. Arrrrrgggg! tc1 - I do it up in Excel Take screen shot Pasted into Graphics Program Cropped and saved. Open it in Paint and do some loose planning. In the end I did the final mockup with the actual Unitrak. Will be posting pics by the end of this week (maybe).
http://www.msnusers.com/hdcjqp3uhhl8qj76tlcaj1all3/files/trackplan2.pdf here is my benchwork That Mitch and I built yesterday [ March 27, 2005, 08:36 AM: Message edited by: tc1 ]
