mschreuder
Member
I'm finally getting around to actually building a model railroad after being an armchair railroader for nearly 30 years. I've gotten the space along the back wall of my basement office and even constructed the basic benchwork.
Givens and Druthers:
- N scale, modern era (1980-ish to present).
- Run-down urban or industrial park, primarily industrial switching
- Strictly freight, no passenger operation planned at this point
- Midwest location - flat with no hills
- Main line for continuous running when I just want to watch trains run
- Main line only visible in one direction (no visible return loops)
- Hidden staging tracks for main line
- In the future will want to play with computer controlled mainline/staging to automatically generate main line traffic
- Initial benchwork already built - "L" shaped benchtop layout roughly 18" wide, 5' long on one leg, 9' long on the other leg, 48" track height.
- Will start out with just a DC supply and one or two engines, but anticipate moving to DCC very quickly
My thoughts are to develop a master plan, and then start building in stages. For example, construct the mainline and a few industrial sidings, move on to the yard and other sidings, lastly add the staging loop tracks.
I have been very inspired by the work of Lance Mindheim and his modeling of Miami industrial railroads as seen at: http://www.lancemindheim.com/
I have attached jpg images of my track plan as it currently stands and would be most grateful for any critiques or suggestions. Thanks!
Givens and Druthers:
- N scale, modern era (1980-ish to present).
- Run-down urban or industrial park, primarily industrial switching
- Strictly freight, no passenger operation planned at this point
- Midwest location - flat with no hills
- Main line for continuous running when I just want to watch trains run
- Main line only visible in one direction (no visible return loops)
- Hidden staging tracks for main line
- In the future will want to play with computer controlled mainline/staging to automatically generate main line traffic
- Initial benchwork already built - "L" shaped benchtop layout roughly 18" wide, 5' long on one leg, 9' long on the other leg, 48" track height.
- Will start out with just a DC supply and one or two engines, but anticipate moving to DCC very quickly
My thoughts are to develop a master plan, and then start building in stages. For example, construct the mainline and a few industrial sidings, move on to the yard and other sidings, lastly add the staging loop tracks.
I have been very inspired by the work of Lance Mindheim and his modeling of Miami industrial railroads as seen at: http://www.lancemindheim.com/
I have attached jpg images of my track plan as it currently stands and would be most grateful for any critiques or suggestions. Thanks!