Recent content by choops

I recommend track plan first then design the bench work. The Plan does not need to be fully detailed, but a plan of your main line and spaces for main yards or staging. You may have to design the corners differently depending on the radii you decide on. Some areas may not need to be as wide...

18'-9" X 22'-4" prototype union pacific (turbines) year 1957 double track main lines 30" minimum radii folded dog bone. no duck under. been working on the layout for about 8 months. Had to finish basement first. Steve

Insulation? Drywall? Will make the layout comfortable and help keep it clean. Steve

I used a 28" minimum radii on the plan. When I try to draw the dogbone style layout you end up needing almost solid bench work on either end of the room. This creates bad reach issues. It can be done but will not be ideal. Steve.

I drew up your room in autocad and tried to layout a folded dog bone. There is really not enough room to do it. I agree with Montanan that a shelf layout around the perimeter is your best solution. Steve

48" wide will not work with 25"radii. 22" will be fine. Go as large as possible as stated earlier. You may have small engines now but every model railroader sooner or later starts to drool over a big boy or an sd40 or dd40 etc. can you sketch up a drawing of your room with dimensions. We can...

You may want to consider painting the rails and ties a rust brown color before adding the ballast. Steve

Put the yard on the front tracks. when you are reaching into the yard to uncouple cars you are not reaching over the main line and the switches are closer to the operator. Steve

at the bottom of the layout make a turn and bring the bench work back up to the pole in the center of the room. you can put the yard in the upper left corner of the layout. Have one ladder on the top wall and the other ladder on the left side of the room. HTH Steve

read this website. http://www.housatonicrr.com/yard_des.html Steve

pencil and paper. then a cad program. Look up designing by squares. http://www.macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Drawing_Your_Layout_-_Manual_and_Software_Solutions Steve

Here are the first splines that I cut. They are only 4 feet long. I was given a large stack of 2X4 foot pieces. I am going to cut the rest tonight I hope. They cut really easy on the table saw. I am going to stack four pieces together so I can cut four strips at once thru the saw. They...

Looks easy enough. http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/dxRJ9rdyX4c/maxresdefault.jpg I would prefer to make a swinging sector plate. the rotate at the far end on a fixed point instead of having to slide sideways. Steve

start by making a layout schematic. Such as the example in the link. http://www.trainweb.org/cbw/maps/layout_schematic.jpg this will show you where you will need to have separate blocks. It may help you eliminate a few of the redundant routes you may have. I you can certainly wire the layout...