So I'll be moving to a new place by Christmas it looks like... so I've pretty much stopped pouring money into the current layout. I still plan on ballasting and doing a few scenic things to practice, but buildings and track will be on hold as I save for the new layout.
Anyways, instead of getting a small corner of the house in the hallway i'll be getting a full on spare room. About 9m square... I haven't done the conversion to imperial yet...
I'm wanting to build a double deck layout using a small helix to get up to the second level. I'm thinking a 2.5 foot seperation should be okay. The radius of the helix will end up being about 14" and have 2.4" of height per level. 3% grade.
Anyways, here is my first draft of my track plan. I already know areas I need to fix, mostly that of reach.
The door way is right beside the engine faciilty...but once I move in I'll have to take a more acurate measurement. I'm also going to note that the lower left is too 'fat' and will create a big issue with reach. It's about 3.5 feet I believe of reach needed there. I can reach about 3 feet.
The one thing I know people are going to say right away is 'where is the main yard' well that will be on the upper level.
The lower left section is planned to be more scenic than anything.
The middile section will have a 'scenic divider' to separate the two scenes. There will be a station on the right side, and a nice large suspension bridge on the other side. I'm thinking of using a Mirror in place on the left side to create depth, while a photo of a city on the other side for the backdrop of the station. Both these elements i'm quite happy with as they sit. The suspension bridge is 4 inches higher than the 'flat' land.
Helix in the bottom right will be molded into a mountain side.
I'll finish the lower section before I start work on the upper section.
What I wanna do is have a nice scenic layout based on the rocky mountains. There will be a second passenger depot and the main freight on the upper level. I also wanna do a lumber yard on the lower level (where the small yard is there). Other industries will be a berwery on the upper level and a small farm up there as well.
This is a transition era layout (1955-1960). So motive power will be mostly steam...in fact the current roster looks like this:
- Challenger UP: UP Kato passenger train (8 cars)
- Heavy Mountain (x2)
- Light Mountain
- Mikado (x2)
- 0-8-0 switcher
- F7A (x3)
- F7B (x2)
- GP9
- RDC1
- RDC2
- JClass 4-8-4
- Northern
- Shay (x2)
So far thats what I have planned for motive power. There will be three passenger consists (UP, CN, CP) and a couple of freights.
ideas? suggestions?
Joined: 2008-01-26