Would this make a fun layout? Around our extra room. I'm just learnning xtrkcad, and got this much done with help from a tutorial. Gray area is open floor. And Orange is bench for track. I just dont know how many main lines I can expect to get out of this. Or how many curves, sideings, maybe a yard. I want two small funiture factory buildings, two granit quarrys, and 1 feed mill. With maybe a few trees here, and there between the main lines, a couple tunnels. Once I get an idea of what I want, I'll try to put it into xtrkcad. 7' 8" X 10' is wall-to-wall
0k, which gray is the layout and which gray is the open area? If the real gray is layout, Where is a lift bridge gonna be to get into the room from the door?
Opps, I edited it. The gray is open floor, and Orange is the layout. Also each section will be made it's own modual, and bolted together. So the track will need to be able to comapat at each square, or rectangle section.
That's a pretty decent size for an N scale layout. I think you could easily squeeze two mainlines in that space.
You'll have plenty of room for a nice layout, but I'm with Tudor - how do you plan to get in/out of the room? Liftout or duck-under? The latter is a pain (literally). I have a lift-out bridge across the doorway to my 7.5 'x 14.5' room.
You could run a nice double track main on that if you wanted. Are you thinking of one staging yard to serve both directions? Personally, I like to knock the points off the inside corners that stick out and use the leftovers in the inward corners so I can use larger radius curves. (I hope I explained this well enough. Tough to articulate without pictures.) You may have plans for those like a place for a siding and industry but it's just a thought I had.
I'm working on some ideas, mainly I'm looking for 3-5 main lines, or 5 that will merge with 3 something lick that. A few spurs, going to my factorys, granite quarrys, ect. And I'll need a switching yard. Not sure what stageing is all about. I'm not sure if I'll ever have any passanger cars. Maybe a Amtrak line, over head, abouve the main layout. Like a viaduct thing.
Staging is where you hold trains coming onto the layout. This simulates trains coming from other cities on the line or a connection with another railroad. Staging can be hidden behind scenery or be on a lower level. Some people stage their trains by using the yard on the layout and saying that each end of the yard is a different city. If I may make a recommendation, John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation is an excellent read and resource for layout planning. I reviewed it for Amazon but it is probably available at local & online Hobby Shops. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Track-Planning-Realistic-Operation-Railroader/dp/0890242275/ref=cm_cr-mr-title"]Amazon.com: Track Planning for Realistic Operation: Prototype Railroad Concepts for Your Model Railroad (Model Railroader)(3rd Edition) (9780890242278): John H. Armstrong: Books[/ame]
Hi, No one has mentioned it, but it is something I learned from personal misery. Its really hard to reach much past 24" and do any good with it, so that spot in the upper left hand corner might be kind of tough, and to a lesser extent, the area in the lower right. Otherwise, you have a really great space to work with. How about a double level point-to-point with a very small peninsula in the middle for a town or a big industry? I've always thought that a point to point with some challenging grades would be a change from the usual around the room loops. Looking forward to what you come up with. Todd
24 Inches Max Exactly. And exactly on the personal misery. 24 inches is the max for me. I still use a step stool to reach sometimes.
Most of the track will run thru the middle of the wider 3' areas, scenery, buildinds, on the back side, so I doubt I'll be reaching 3 foot for a train. Probably 24" from front to the center of the lanes of track. I just don't want to run trains in a straight line and stop. I want them to be able to go allway around. And have the option of a few straight areas, for point to point, and switching if I want to do it. Maybe buy the end of 2010 I'll have a good start on my layout.
This is our section of line thru our town. As best I can tell it's about 7 miles long acroding to the scaleing on google maps. How could I put this section of track into an N scale layout. In say a 24" X 8' section? I have tryed this useing a track planning program. And cant seem to get very far.
