That is an impressive layout you have there. I am assuming that it is N scale or it would take up a basket ball court in a larger scale. Almost mind boggling watching so many trains running together at one time. You have apparently really taken your time putting down reack as everything is moving so smoothly, but I do have a question about having access to areas in the center of the layout. What happens is there is a derailment?
Nice work, thanks for posting. Post as many as you like. I would like to see more of your empire.
Thank you for the compliment, and yes it is N-scale.
I did put a 2' square cutout in the middle of the layout so that the center could be accessed. The layout is high enough that it's fairly easy (if not particularly dignified) to crawl under and pop up in the middle. A few portions of the video are actually taken from that location in the middle. Derailments aren't common, so it's not a huge hassle. As you can imagine, though, as I've been adding tortoise machines to the turnouts I've been working from the middle outward. Derailments are one thing, but crawling in there every time you need to throw a turnout is just...no.
Just to explain why I even designed it this way: This layout was me getting back into model railroading after 30+ years being away from it. I'd become re-fascinated by them, and with the vast quality improvements in N-scale since my teen years it seemed like it would actually be a great hobby these days, and it has been. The locomotives run so much better than they ever used to, DCC is a dream come true, and I've loved figuring out the custom paint jobs and wired DCC installs that I've done. There are so many different things to do that even when something starts getting old and annoying, you just switch to something else for a while and it all becomes new again. At the time, however, I wasn't really sure I wouldn't burn out and sell everything. Therefore, it made more sense to put a table in the middle of my shop than to demolish the shop and all its workbenches and shelves in order to wrap the layout around the outer walls (which obviously would be more ideal).
Of course, I still have a long way to go on this heavily-tracked and heavily industrial portion of the layout before I even consider it, but now that I know I'm sticking with it there are plans for the future that do include wrapping around the walls. Not that I'll be doing away with this part of it, but I'm planning to build a small addition that will function as my new workshop and can house the workbenches and tools, while then wrapping new layout sections around three of the walls. I can then have tracks that move from this industrial area through a downtown section, on to the suburbs and into some rural countryside. Much more scenery-intensive rather than this current track-intensive section, with passenger rail that goes beyond just the railroad museum excursion line I've got now.
Probably more than you wanted to know, but that's the evolution of the layout so far. Thanks for watching the vid and for the comments.
. Really awsome!
