I went back to the drawing board a bit on the 13x19 I posted here a few days back. I wanted to see if I could make the layout a bit more interesting. This is a 15'x22' layout that will go in my garage. Its N scale, hand laid turnouts minimum #6. No grade on this layout at the moment and all industry is missing from this at the moment. Its a duck under - the shaded area is 36" aisles. I am looking to see if the flow is okay. Any thoughts? Thanks!
I would avoid a duckunder. You will come to regret it in a hurry. What era/locale/railroads are you planning on modelling? I'm curious to see what you have planned for industries as well.
just a question, first of all: the top section, do you have access to it from the top side? probably will be quite a reach from the inner aisle. then, in terms of interest in look/view, avoid track being parallel (and if possible) perpendicular to the sides of the layout. otherwise, looks really fine! thanks for sharing... respectfully, Gary L Lake Dillensnyder
You can do a lot in that space, and only a foot or so smaller than what I have. With that much room, and if you remove one peninsula (turn the other so that it extends the length of the room), you could easily create a neat setup with single or double deck, broad curves, larger turnouts (7 or 8 is what I would use), longer trains (25~35 cars), walk-in, and have more ops to boot without a spaghetti bowl (which of course your plan above is not, but does have a couple of reach issues though). What's your favorite road and what era/theme are you after? I see hundreds of cool possibilities.
Reading your other post and what you're after, you could model the Shasta route from Dunsmuir to Black Butte and use the McCloud River RR as your logging branch/interchange. )
Gary- Accessible on the top and left sides. Otherwise it's against the wall. With the track being parallel - I was trying to give my self some good straightaways for scenes. I'm in the research phase on on the industries I am thinking, but I am looking into how I can get the track not exactly parallel. The layout will be all transition era SP. I've been patiently buying all SP stuff I can get my hands on.
I have thought long and hard about that. It's funny because I just saw on Trains and Locomotives the SP Shasta Route. It's very appealing. I grew up in Sacramento and I was going to model the SP from Sac to Dunsmuir, but I think I want more creative license. I am afraid if I choose to go down that path that I won't be able to recreate the route well enough to satisfy my desire for realism. I also want to be able to kinda make it up as I go along. I haven't moved from guy that likes to play with trains to operator. Do you have a pic of your layout. I'd love to see something in this size range. I've been having trouble finding ideas.
I think the duck-under will become a lift out or bridge, but I like the idea of the layout being surrounded. I'm not sure on the industries. I am thinking that on either side of the yard I'll model some town scenes. ON the left side we will quickly switch to a foot hill then mountains on the peninsula. I am thinking that i'll model a logging scene in the center of that peninsula. I have an atlas shay that I spent way too much money on not to use. After the mountain scene I'll probably model the pickering lumber log flume to madera. Followed by a valley scene - grain elevator - mill etc. I have thought about modeling this area desert mining, but again I'm not sure what will interest me until I look through the walthers catalog and see what I want to build. I'm working out the industries now. I'll do the union station and platforms at some point outside the yard. I also haven't ruled out a second deck, but at the moment I haven't been exposed to a double level layout that I have taken a shine too. You have any suggestions on industries? I am open to influence.
Nothing is wrong with being surrounded. But a duck under will be no less than a nasty nuisance, or worse some day when your back is nagging. Or you bang your head....
Hi Tim, A friend and I tore out my old pike, and I'm in transition to finding another to build - like anything else, delays, delays, delays... Still trying to find a suitable prototype myself, and gave away what was probably my best idea to the friend who will help with my own layout (doh!). I have a fondness for Tehachapi, but currently leaning toward a WP-themed layout. I could whip-up a sketch of the size you're looking for, but would need to know where the "off limit" areas are, as well as where the entrance to the layout is. If you were to build something along the lines of the Shasta, then you could do it in a manner as Otis McGee did with his layout. John Armstrong designed it for him (one of his last), and there were several areas of "modeler's license" taken in regards to track layout, yet it retained the flavor and operations of the SP line in the 1950s. Here's some pics taken by John Sing: http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/otis_mcgee_sp_shasta_division&page=all
I like the one peninsula that runs perpendicular to what your have. You could also do a modified G. A turnback loop at the open leg to go to under layout staging that connects with the other end that ducks under the viewblock. With either design you can go up to 24" deep benchwork and have a minimum 42" aisle. Short on time here, but I made a quick sketch of each style. Obviously, both are not to scale.
