Loosely speaking, 27" radius in S is comparable to 18" in HO. I think your choice of 30" is fine. Personally, I'm leaning towards the 36" or 40" radius for the mainline. I will use the 27'-30" radius for the branch line and industries. My mainline will be minimal, since it is really a connection to a staging yard. Also, with my two SD-60's, I'm planning on using them for through trains, with minimal switching. I also like the suggestion of 30" isle ways. Kind of a happy medium from the 2' and 3' I was considering. Greg
Hi everyone, I like the idea of chalking circles on the ground and seeing what looks good. We don't have basements in Houston, but I can do it in the driveway. I will try to use 36" radius on the main line, as I think I will be happier with that. It sounds like 27-30" radius will work pretty well for the yards and switching areas such as the lead into the island. I can and will probably fudge that a bit if necessary, but I agree with Boxcab that much less than 24" will probably look pretty weird. We are saved a little bit by the fact that a lot of industrial trackage has tight curves. Keep the comments and ideas coming. I hope to have some time this weekend to start working on my designs. How does one post a drawing here?
HI Don: Don't know how to post a pic, but, had another suggestion on a way to check how you likek your layout. The last two places my wife and i moved into, before we moved anything into the house, we'd go there with a roll of masking tape and layout out the furniture on the floor. Then we could "sit" in the chairs and see how we liked the view. Might do that in your layout room to see how it all fits. Regards, Ted
Ted, I read your post yesterday and thought about your suggestion. The more I thought about it, the better I liked it. I have some ideas about what I want to do, and I have obtained some good ones from this thread. Its really a matter at this point of pulling things together into an executable plan. I am curious about opinions on an idea I have to take things one step further. First some background information. This layout will be in a bedroom on the second floor of our house. I intend to build the layout as modules, so the dirty work can be in the garage and driveway, then move them upstairs and bolt them together and level them. I have some experience in modular clubs, so I have some knowledge and design guidelines to use. My intention is to build the tables as frames with a piece of 1/4" plywood as the top of the table. I will laminate styrofoam insulation to this in order to build land contours (I intend to model a reasonably flat terrain rather than the sierras). My thought is to actually build the tables and assemble them in the train room. I will then play with the track to convert the general design ideas to a track plan. I can mark it on the foam with colored pins (like a survey crew) and marking pens. I can then take the modules outside and do the foam carving, bring them back inside, and set the track more permanently. The beauty of doing this is that I can spike the track on a temporary basis and actually run some trains to see how I like curve appearances, clearances, and other some things which we find problematic in model railroad design. Has anyone else tried such a full scale design approach?
Hi Don: I think we all do this to one extent or another. That's why our layouts change so much! I think it's a great idea to go ahead and build the tables. You can run trains quicker that way. One negative, building the "ramp" down to staging. It'd be easier to do this if you can get to both sides of the modules involved. Rather than moving them outside each time you want to work on them i thnk i'd get a shop-vac. Look at this site, http://home.earthlink.net/~robert27529/id3.html, for one method of building a module. The neat thing with these is the lack of bridge tracks or connecting pins. Makes them easier to put together. On Greg's last sketch, the staging yard only connects in one direction, it'd be nice to find a way to merge it back into the layout so you can enter or leave the yard from either direction. That way you can model through traffic in your district. Regards, Ted
Ted, I never gave the bi-directional staging yard any thought. That is a good idea, since it is separate from the mainline. It also is a single end yard, so one runaround at least should be included. Greg
I've downloaded both drawings. And have been looking at them...... The staging yard could also be considered as being a destination beyond the layout room. A way that the railroad interchanges with the outside world. So it wouldn't necessarily need the second connection. You could use the layout to simply enjoy running rains continuously. Or operate it with the staging yard as a point to point. Boxcab E50
The out and back from the staging yard works too. Looking at my drawing, I've come to the conclusion that a second route out of the staging yard would be pretty hard to do. Your point to point is a good idea though Boxcab E50. Greg
I've not lost sight of my layout plans. I was traveling the last week or so to attend my parents 50th wedding anniversary and to take my daughter on some college visits. I got lazy about doing the design in Cadrail. I sketched some ideas and have refined it to something that looks like it will do the job. My plan is to build the benchwork starting around the July 4 weekend. I will lay the tracks out in full scale and fiddle with them until I like what I have. Then I can build the foam profiles and lay track. I have designed the bench work and such. I have a material list to order from my local lumber yard as soon as I get around to doing it. I will keep everyone posted on progress.
I need to figure out how to post things. I also need to find a version of the sketch which is reasonably legible. The ones I have are sort of covered with scribbled notes and yellow sticky notes to remind me of ideas. If time permits, I'll sketch a clean and neat version and scan it. Can anyone tell me how you post images here?
Don- Do you have, or can you access a flatbed scanner? If so, get it made into a jpg. (Keep it under 100K.) Then go to www.railimages.com, and request an account. It's free! The uploading instructions are easy to follow. Come back to this thread, or start a new one. Below this box, click on the button "Image", and enter the URL for where the photo is uploaded. Use the "Preview Post" option to be sure all is working. Then "Add Reply." If you need help, there is always someone who can assist. Just ask! Boxcab E50