JeffH
Well-Known Member
Both sides of my family have deep roots in the panhandle of WV, and I have very fond memories of watching train and barge traffic along the Ohio River. If you're familiar with the area, this is my fictitious area similar to Mingo Junction. It turns out the the Ohio Central (now part of Genesee & Wyoming) runs through Mingo Junction as it travels to and from Columbus Oh. The locomotives are still painted in Ohio Central colors, and I live about a half mile north of their track as it makes its way through the small town of Pataskala, Ohio where my wife and I have built our retirement house. I was lucky enough to find an Atlas C420 decorated in Ohio Central.
This is N scale, and I started this a little over a year ago when my wife suggested I get my old train set out for something to do last winter when we all were sequestered to our homes.
The fuse was lit... Our new house has a huge, and very dry, basement, so my wife has about a third for her crafts, and I have about a third for my train area.
Long story short: It took me about 6 or 7 months to put together a plan that I liked. I ended up getting a lot of tables for free, so I used them to design a U-shaped layout that floats in the middle of my area in the basement. Total footprint is 10' x 11'
I bought AnyRail, which really helped me come up with a design that would 1) fit onto the table, and 2) provide for some "job" operations (like making deliveries to a depot) as well as just watching trains run through a rural area like Mingo Junction.
Here are a few pictures of how I started the build:
This first pic is when I first got the free tables, which are really desk shaped work surfaces. But rather than assemble them into L-shaped desks, I had rectangular tables that are 4.5' wide by 5.5' long. The track you see is my old (mid 90's) Bachmann EZ-Track.
I continued to refine my layout ideas using Anyrail. This led to slightly modifying how I arranged the tables. By this time, I knew I wanted teh Ohio River to flow north to south, with WV to the East and Ohio to the West. In Ohio would be more rural, with a logging site, a coal mine and a dairy farm. On the WV side would be a county seat type small town. When I thought I was happy with the design, I printed the layout in 1:1 scale, and laid down the printout so I could visualize the layout in real-size.
This was great, because it allowed me to do a couple of things. First, it gave me a sense for how all the structures I had built up to this point would fit. I wasn't sure if I had enough buildings. BUt more importantly, it gave me a perspective I couldn't get by looking at the layout on a computer screen. Being bale to see the layout in full size, gave me some ideas to further refine my layout design.
Keep in mind, that I'm not really into yard style layouts. I wanted a very rural look, with long sweeping runs where I can watch trains run.
By this time, I had come to the conclusion that I would have 2 separate tracks. One at ground level, and one up in the hills. Also by this time, I hade decided to use Atlas flex track along with Peco Turnouts and Peco turnout motors (PL-10).... All Code 80.
The next step was to layer foam in a manner that allowed for "voids" in the foam layers to become tunnels. In other words, a 1/2" layer of foam on top of a 2" layer. With the 1:! printout of the layout taped into place, I traced the centerline of the track, and made marks where turnouts and other key pieces of geometry were important.
I wanted to be able to control turnouts from a central control panel, so I printed a poster size version of my layout, and laminated it to a piece of Masonite, inserting toggle switches.
This is N scale, and I started this a little over a year ago when my wife suggested I get my old train set out for something to do last winter when we all were sequestered to our homes.
The fuse was lit... Our new house has a huge, and very dry, basement, so my wife has about a third for her crafts, and I have about a third for my train area.
Long story short: It took me about 6 or 7 months to put together a plan that I liked. I ended up getting a lot of tables for free, so I used them to design a U-shaped layout that floats in the middle of my area in the basement. Total footprint is 10' x 11'
I bought AnyRail, which really helped me come up with a design that would 1) fit onto the table, and 2) provide for some "job" operations (like making deliveries to a depot) as well as just watching trains run through a rural area like Mingo Junction.
Here are a few pictures of how I started the build:
This first pic is when I first got the free tables, which are really desk shaped work surfaces. But rather than assemble them into L-shaped desks, I had rectangular tables that are 4.5' wide by 5.5' long. The track you see is my old (mid 90's) Bachmann EZ-Track.
I continued to refine my layout ideas using Anyrail. This led to slightly modifying how I arranged the tables. By this time, I knew I wanted teh Ohio River to flow north to south, with WV to the East and Ohio to the West. In Ohio would be more rural, with a logging site, a coal mine and a dairy farm. On the WV side would be a county seat type small town. When I thought I was happy with the design, I printed the layout in 1:1 scale, and laid down the printout so I could visualize the layout in real-size.
This was great, because it allowed me to do a couple of things. First, it gave me a sense for how all the structures I had built up to this point would fit. I wasn't sure if I had enough buildings. BUt more importantly, it gave me a perspective I couldn't get by looking at the layout on a computer screen. Being bale to see the layout in full size, gave me some ideas to further refine my layout design.
Keep in mind, that I'm not really into yard style layouts. I wanted a very rural look, with long sweeping runs where I can watch trains run.
By this time, I had come to the conclusion that I would have 2 separate tracks. One at ground level, and one up in the hills. Also by this time, I hade decided to use Atlas flex track along with Peco Turnouts and Peco turnout motors (PL-10).... All Code 80.
The next step was to layer foam in a manner that allowed for "voids" in the foam layers to become tunnels. In other words, a 1/2" layer of foam on top of a 2" layer. With the 1:! printout of the layout taped into place, I traced the centerline of the track, and made marks where turnouts and other key pieces of geometry were important.
I wanted to be able to control turnouts from a central control panel, so I printed a poster size version of my layout, and laminated it to a piece of Masonite, inserting toggle switches.
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