Hello, Also some questions


G

G&MRR

New Member
Hello from Northern NY, My name is Dave, but my forum name is short for the somewhat fictitious "Glenfield & Monteola Railroad" (there was once a logging railroad called the Glenfield & Western which ran from Glenfield to the hamlet of Monteola near where I live) here on the forums as well as the "Model Train Forums". I'm 24 and have a had a little experience when I was younger with HO scale layouts. I have a plan for the benchwork which is in the attached image as the large "L" shape that I marked in the top corner, This is the best configuration I came up with for this room and have gave the dimensions on the image as well. I'd like to stick to HO since its what I have experience with. Also I'm not sure what era or location I plan on modeling, I'd like to model a modern "what if" of the now said logging railroad above or maybe something out in the American Southwest. If you guys have any suggestions on the benchwork I'd be more then willing to take them into consideration.
Here's the layout of the room I can currently use
myroomlayout.jpg
 
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Nice drawing! What you have is going to be tuff for continuous run but is great for a switching layout if you are into that. The 3 foot thing will be tight for a loop but is there a way you can move the bed and desk to the other side and the layout to where the bed was? That would give a larger area for a loop but you would still have a heck of a reach. Just a thought. Good luck and keep us posted. Edit: Is N Scale a possibility for you or are you set on HO. Your size is perfect for N.
 
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Thanks for the reply, Yes I could do that, but the bed is something around 7'4", and the door wont open fully enough to move large objects in and out of the room. I also have another room that's 12'X9' that is not in use other then storage but have to wait till summer time to put that stuff out for yard sales. N scale could be an option, but like I said most of my experience is HO and would like to continue in that direction. The 7'X2' area could be moved out to 3' but would limit access to the window during the summer months hence the notch. Thanks for the advice, The program I used was Smart Draw and a tape measure.
 
Welcome, Dave. If you are not heavily invested in HO and are not adverse to switching to N scale, you would have an excellent space for a good size layout. Lots of operation could fit in that area.
 
Thanks Dave S, and Bob. Bob I have not invested anything other then some energy and brainstorming lol. I may just make a switching layout with the possibility of expansion, or could try like one person suggested over at modeltrainforum.com and and go with 15" radius turns or try a combination of 15" & 18". I would like to have a small town with an industrial area on one end of the layout but I don't think I would be able to have a loop. Although I'm still unsure what time frame to model or to even still go with the logging theme anyways thanks for the help guys.
 
Thanks Abutler, But like I said I have prior experience with HO. Also I have created another layout of the room with the benchwork marked in green that will be 4' at its widest and 1' at its narrowest-


layout2aa.jpg
 
Prior experience with HO gives you experience with N. I would go back to your original plan, do it in N scale, and the door will open. Reaching 4 feet into your large section is not feasible and the small section will not give you continuous run. My vote is for N scale the way you had originally planned. Way more possibilities and structures!
 
Hello and welcome aboard. A switching style layout would be fun and you could expand if/when you get a bigger space. You could look into HOn3 (narrow gauge) as a possibility seeing as you want to do a logging layout.
 
Thanks Photogdad, I was thinking I could do HOn3 but the original line that ran was standard gauge and I believe I'm going to model it present day(the original line lasted approx 30 years in the last century. Bwells, I put access points on the benchwork to be able to work around the 4' width, The green in the 2nd image I posted is somewhat of the idea I have to maximize the space I have. Thanks for all the advice guys.
 
Can you still hang a "UEE" in the space by the window? Do you want continuous run? I'm still voting for N scale!!!
 
Hi Dave from another David,

Welcome to the forums, I'll have to admit I too fell into the continuous loop style HO std gauge layout but a point-to-point layout has a lot to be said for it too, especially from the standpoint of realism! Also, we each have to work with the area we have and mine initially was going to be much smaller.

Being that your also interested in logging I can see where your second plan can offer a considerable number of possibilities for that as well as possibly even working a lift out in across the entrance if you did want a continuous run? It could even be worked in coming off a spur from either side.

I like HO or possibly HOn3 as I personally find it easier to work with especially at my age of 66 and yet it's big enough to see fairly easily. Well I do wear glasses and do use a jewelers head magnifier for fine work.

I think your on the right track, npi, and can do a lot with the second plan.

Glad to meet you and most all the logging done out West was done in the Sierra's which do stretch from below the midpoint in Calif to the extreme North in the state as well as into Oregon and Washington here in the Western U.S.

Where I'm at in Calif is very close to where the original USGS marker was set denoting the exact center of the state. I even had a couple of pictures of it if I can find them. Interestingly enough there was an old trestle bridge over a dry wash a few hundred away too.

Also, the town of Raymond & Knowles are just slightly South of where the marker is/ was and Knowles has the largest Open Face Granite Quary in the U.S. It's just 11 miles West of where I'm at. Just some added info you might be interested in?
 
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