Starting over


wombat457 said:
Absolutely, beats spending ours :)
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Ha! Too funny!

Well, I'm going to add a few things suggested by y'all and get to work tomorrow building the benchwork. Really looking forward to it! Thanks for all your guidance, really appreciate it.
 
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Changed the layout a touch based on a few recommendations. I think this will make me happy and it looks like I should still have plenty of room for scenery. Hoping to get to start building the bench work today but of course the wife has me working on other projects!

BTO4Rail.jpg
 
Do you have your heart set on a table layout? I ask because you could get a longer run if you're willing to switch to an around the room shelf layout and use multiple levels. You can still do scenery like you can with a table layout, but the center is just a waste of space for actual train running. The square footage of 9' x 6.5' x 2' shelf layout with two levels works out to be 234 square feet which is double of a table layout. One thing about shelf layouts is to make sure that the tracks the go in front of a door have to be hinged to allow people to enter or exit the room.
 
Ozarks R. Lee said:
Do you have your heart set on a table layout? I ask because you could get a longer run if you're willing to switch to an around the room shelf layout and use multiple levels. You can still do scenery like you can with a table layout, but the center is just a waste of space for actual train running. The square footage of 9' x 6.5' x 2' shelf layout with two levels works out to be 234 square feet which is double of a table layout. One thing about shelf layouts is to make sure that the tracks the go in front of a door have to be hinged to allow people to enter or exit the room.
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Thanks for the tip Ozarks, this will be a shelf layout, just couldn't draw in the operating space in the middle with SCARM. Basically each side will be about 18" if there's enough room. I would totally go multi-level like you're describing, I think I might be reaching the peak for budget with this current set up though. According to the SCARM program, I should have about 925 inches of track which probably will be good for a novice like me, ha!
 
Ahh okay, the recommendation is to have 24"-36" of aisle space if you plan on running operations. To draw a shelf layout in SCARM, I drew my baseboard freehand by right clicking the mouse and selecting Create Baseboard. The other way to access it is by going to Edit>Create Baseboard. There is a tutorial available for putting in a helix for multiple level layouts and I used it when I created the helix for my multiple level shelf layout. There are other tutorials for tree, road, and house placement as well.

What scale are you planning on doing? N scale has the advantage of being able to do really long runs in a limited amount of space.
 
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Ozarks R. Lee said:
Ahh okay, the recommendation is to have 24"-36" of aisle space if you plan on running operations. To draw a shelf layout in SCARM, I drew my baseboard freehand by right clicking the mouse and selecting Create Baseboard. The other way to access it is by going to Edit>Create Baseboard. There is a tutorial available for putting in a helix for multiple level layouts and I used it when I created the helix for my multiple level shelf layout. There are other tutorials for tree, road, and house placement as well.

What scale are you planning on doing? N scale has the advantage of being able to do really long runs in a limited amount of space.
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Ah, thanks for the SCARM tips! I'll see if I can re-create my baseboard so it's clearer. I'm doing HO since my hands are a little shaky. When i was first looking at the hobby I considered it, but when I saw N scale in person I figured it'd be beyond my skill level.
 
That looks a lot better. LOL If you plan on doing two or more levels think about where you want the helix(es) at, but I would recommend them in a corner.
 
Started the bench work today. Still have to add more supports but I just wanted to get a few sides up to get a better view of how much room I'll have. Hoping to square everything up and finish this step today or tomorrow. In the process I found our basement floor in our 1904 house isn't level, imagine that, ha! :p
benchwork.jpg
 
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Unless you are really picky the floor slope (or whatever) shouldn't be a big problem. Contrary to some reports the world isn't flat either. The grades created will be miniscule. Your progress looks great. I can also agree with your budget concerns, life is expensive these days!
 
Benchwork is basically done. A little bracing to do, but here it is. I'm just glad to be one step closer to running some trains again, ha!

benchwork2.jpg
 
Hey thanks LedZep. I'm not 100% sure on using foam or not. I've been watching a few projects (like yours) where I've seen foam used and liked the results. I guess i'm curious, to the folks that don't use a foam layer, why did they choose not to?
 
Dudepants said:
... I guess i'm curious, to the folks that don't use a foam layer, why did they choose not to?
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I used 2"-thick foam cover on my previous layout, but not on the current one. I liked the way I was able to simply carve-in a river and low-lying areas. But drilling holes thru it was problematic since some of the drill bits I used were too short to go all the way thru both the foam and the plywood; I ended up having to buy a 10-inch long drill bit to do those holes. Another problem I had was mounting signal posts, that's real easy to do on a plywood surface - just drill a few tiny holes into the plywood and shove some Atlas track spikes thru the holes in the baseplate. On foam, you have to make special platforms. I didn't feel like having to do that extra work for all my signals.
 
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