fotoflojoe
Member
After forging ahead on several fronts for the last few months, I've finally got a track plan together, and I'd appreciate it if the board gurus would cast a critical eye upon it.
A little background:
My total negotiated space is 10' x 22' (half the basement). Of that, 8'x22' is actually usable - I need to keep a two-foot breezeway clear for access to the basement's outside exit. The 8x22 area is completely open.
After much magazine/book reading and lurking on multiple boards, I decided that I wanted a layout with as many of the following features as possible:
- Plenty of switching; not interested in switching puzzles, I definitely want to have realistic operation.
(No offense intended to those who like switching puzzles, it's just not my cup of tea.)
- Continuous running.
- Some sort of classification yard/staging.
- Plenty of opportunity for scenic variety (Town, rural area, countryside, etc.).
- A tunnel... By god, gotta have a tunnel!
- Varying elevation. (Given up on this for the time being, one thing too many to juggle.)
The layout will be HO scale, DCC controlled.
The era modelled will be (wait for it) the transition period of the early fifties.
Even though I definitely lean toward diesel, I reserve my right to run steam!
Originally, I intended to model the Boston & Maine Fitchburg division as faithfully as possible. I'm still calling it that, but adherence to the prototype has pretty much gone out the window.
My original plan was to start with the Heart of Georgia layout, and modify it to suit my needs. I built the benchwork to support the layout, temporarily set up the track, and then discovered that he HOG layout wasn't really for me. That benchwork is 8'x9', but will be expanded to 8'x11' to accommodate the new plan.
After twisting, turning, and agonizing over many ideas, the following plan is what I've come up with. It looks pretty good and do-able to me, but then, it's my first actual attempt at a track plan. Please tear up the design and help me make it better.
Some notes on the plan:
- North and west are tucked into the corner, so they're at a hard stop.
- Area beyond south must be kept clear for entry/exit of the basement.
- All expansion will be to the East - I could expand up to 11' in that direction.
- North is industrial area
- West is countryside, I'll try to get Hoosac tunnel into the southwest corner.
- South is sort of a transition area back to civilization.
- East will be a fifties-era town, possibly bordering on urban.
- Entrance to the "pit" is via lift-out bridge in the southeast corner.
- Random straight track in extreme southwest is meant to be an interchange with the Maine Central.
- Extension in Northeast corner is a 48" cassette used for staging. Eventually, I'd like to fully expand into this area (2'x?') to build my yard.
In the end, there's nothing original about this plan, I've lifted so many ideas from the hundreds of layouts I've perused, and tried to incorporate what I think is best for me. However, as I said above, I'm very open to change if it makes a better layout.
It's taken about a-week-and-a-half to grind out this much of the design. So far, I'm having a really difficult time trying to decide if the trackage is too little, too much, or just right. I keep looking at certain areas and thinking "I could probably fit another spur in there...", but I'm trying really hard to avoid making a bowl of spaghetti - hopefully, I haven't already done that.
My apologies for being long-winded, I wanted to include as much information as possible from the get-go.
Thanks for reading this!
A little background:
My total negotiated space is 10' x 22' (half the basement). Of that, 8'x22' is actually usable - I need to keep a two-foot breezeway clear for access to the basement's outside exit. The 8x22 area is completely open.
After much magazine/book reading and lurking on multiple boards, I decided that I wanted a layout with as many of the following features as possible:
- Plenty of switching; not interested in switching puzzles, I definitely want to have realistic operation.
(No offense intended to those who like switching puzzles, it's just not my cup of tea.)
- Continuous running.
- Some sort of classification yard/staging.
- Plenty of opportunity for scenic variety (Town, rural area, countryside, etc.).
- A tunnel... By god, gotta have a tunnel!
- Varying elevation. (Given up on this for the time being, one thing too many to juggle.)
The layout will be HO scale, DCC controlled.
The era modelled will be (wait for it) the transition period of the early fifties.
Even though I definitely lean toward diesel, I reserve my right to run steam!
Originally, I intended to model the Boston & Maine Fitchburg division as faithfully as possible. I'm still calling it that, but adherence to the prototype has pretty much gone out the window.
My original plan was to start with the Heart of Georgia layout, and modify it to suit my needs. I built the benchwork to support the layout, temporarily set up the track, and then discovered that he HOG layout wasn't really for me. That benchwork is 8'x9', but will be expanded to 8'x11' to accommodate the new plan.
After twisting, turning, and agonizing over many ideas, the following plan is what I've come up with. It looks pretty good and do-able to me, but then, it's my first actual attempt at a track plan. Please tear up the design and help me make it better.
Some notes on the plan:
- North and west are tucked into the corner, so they're at a hard stop.
- Area beyond south must be kept clear for entry/exit of the basement.
- All expansion will be to the East - I could expand up to 11' in that direction.
- North is industrial area
- West is countryside, I'll try to get Hoosac tunnel into the southwest corner.
- South is sort of a transition area back to civilization.
- East will be a fifties-era town, possibly bordering on urban.
- Entrance to the "pit" is via lift-out bridge in the southeast corner.
- Random straight track in extreme southwest is meant to be an interchange with the Maine Central.
- Extension in Northeast corner is a 48" cassette used for staging. Eventually, I'd like to fully expand into this area (2'x?') to build my yard.
In the end, there's nothing original about this plan, I've lifted so many ideas from the hundreds of layouts I've perused, and tried to incorporate what I think is best for me. However, as I said above, I'm very open to change if it makes a better layout.
It's taken about a-week-and-a-half to grind out this much of the design. So far, I'm having a really difficult time trying to decide if the trackage is too little, too much, or just right. I keep looking at certain areas and thinking "I could probably fit another spur in there...", but I'm trying really hard to avoid making a bowl of spaghetti - hopefully, I haven't already done that.
My apologies for being long-winded, I wanted to include as much information as possible from the get-go.
Thanks for reading this!