Designing first layout, lots of questions!

[TheGloriousTachikoma]

Originally Posted by rdemattio91

I've started reading the book and I'm going to try and stick with it, got 20 pages in. I agree with alot of what your saying, but I don't think I can do alot of that with the space I have. I mean I have a 13x10 room, but I dont want a around the wall layout because I dont think I will be here very long- 1 to 2 years. I appreciate all the help, keep it coming. Eventually I will get something planned out here

Take your time with the book. And please don't discount a shelf layout. It would just be two screws put into the vertical joists every few feet. See if the landlord has some extra paint for the room to color match when you move-out and fill-in the screw holes. It makes the benchwork alot easier and a shelf layout usually uses the space sooo much better than a table does.

And Railfan, $15 will buy you maybe one Atlas Custom Line HO turnout. The book is a better investment.

[rdemattio91]

Originally Posted by TheGloriousTachikoma

Take your time with the book. And please don't discount a shelf layout. It would just be two screws put into the vertical joists every few feet. See if the landlord has some extra paint for the room to color match when you move-out and fill-in the screw holes. It makes the benchwork alot easier and a shelf layout usually uses the space sooo much better than a table does.

And Railfan, $15 will buy you maybe one Atlas Custom Line HO turnout. The book is a better investment.

Yes but for me to have a continous shelf layout I would have a few problems because of the way my room is set up. The closet doors would be a problem, and how do I get around the entrance door?

[TheGloriousTachikoma]

Originally Posted by rdemattio91

Yes but for me to have a continous shelf layout I would have a few problems because of the way my room is set up. The closet doors would be a problem, and how do I get around the entrance door?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

Iain Rice likes to use lift-out bridges across doorways and other obstructions. there's alot of really good general information in that book about building shelf layouts.

[railfan]

Originally Posted by TheGloriousTachikoma

Railfan, $15 will buy you maybe one Atlas Custom Line HO turnout. The book is a better investment.

Was just kidding about library............track planning for realistic ops.....is on my must have list. Going to see if amazon sold out yet. More on the way anyhow.

(I'm an N scaler....BTW)




Mike

[TheGloriousTachikoma]

Originally Posted by railfan

Was just kidding about library............track planning for realistic ops.....is on my must have list. Going to see if amazon sold out yet. More on the way anyhow.

(I'm an N scaler....BTW)

Mike

Oh. Well...you're dead to me then.

[railfan]

Originally Posted by TheGloriousTachikoma

Oh. Well...you're dead to me then.

I know......I tend to have that effect on people.



Mike

[rdemattio91]

Originally Posted by TheGloriousTachikoma

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...condition=used

Iain Rice likes to use lift-out bridges across doorways and other obstructions. there's alot of really good general information in that book about building shelf layouts.

Thanks, I'm going to buy that book but I really don't see how I can make it work, cause ill have to have a 4 foot lift bridge over the closet (enless I just take the doors to it off, but the old lady wont like that ) and secondly, a shelf layout cannot be very portable cause what are the chances that I have another room w/ the same dimensions I can bolt the layout too?

[OCN Guy]

Let me explain a little about sidings, just to help. Yes, they're to hold the train, often so another train can pass by.

If you're just mesmerized by watching trains go round and round, your layout will be fine. But if you think there's a chance you'll get bored with that, then you're about to make a costly time-intensive mistake.

What do trains do? Take things from one place to another. So, a yard helps, so you can do the "early morning" car sorting.

You should have industries. What are you taking your load to? What will they need? Paper mills need a bunch of stuff. And they produce a bunch of stuff. so do steel mills. Steel mills take coal, anthracite, coke (a coal by-product), and a million other things. They produce steel, beams, wire, and a million other things.

So, you could have an industry to process the paper, if a paper plant. You could have a coal mine to fuel the steel mill, and an auto factory to take the stuff from the steel mill.

Basically, your railroad is a play featuring industries a, b & c all processing and making things from each other, or other off-layout industries.

Each industry needs sidings to drop off cars, gondolas, or tanker cars. You take cars 155, 161 and 122 and leave them at industry 1, pick up cars 173, 248, and 965 and take them to industry 2... or drop them onto a hidden staging pretending they're going to Universal Manufacturing at Attuma, Iowa or whatever. (Proprietor, Radar O'Riley).

Before you start building benchwork, all this needs to be kept in mind. And you should know what they'll be - like a treatment for a script.

take some time. Hasty work now means lots of wasted hours and dollars.

[OCN Guy]

Additionally, the sorting yard (or Hump yard) for your layout is where all the cars go. referring to the previous example, two of the cars are on track one, one is on another. There's eight other cars all jammed in. Think like this.

Staging track one - 923, 155, 443, 161, 822, 823, 105
Staging track two - 122,123, 106, 514

To cut the cars you need to go to industry one, you'll have to foul one of the two mains by dropping 923 on one track, 155 on the next one, go back and drop 443 on it, etc.

4 tracks is your minimum of off track staging. it looks like you've got only two, plus mainline and passing line. In reality, sorting and cutting would jam up all overnight passage for hours.
Print out your track plan and operate it with paperclips. You'll get the idea.

[TheGloriousTachikoma]

Originally Posted by rdemattio91

Thanks, I'm going to buy that book but I really don't see how I can make it work, cause ill have to have a 4 foot lift bridge over the closet (enless I just take the doors to it off, but the old lady wont like that ) and secondly, a shelf layout cannot be very portable cause what are the chances that I have another room w/ the same dimensions I can bolt the layout too?

Again, it's explained in that book, on how to make the pieces lightweight and strong, and on how to line sections up. And yes, it's possible your next home will not have another room exactly the same dimensions. But it isn't difficult to engineer a shelf layout to be portable so it isn't much investment lost is you can't take it, and if the future room turns out to be bigger, then you can just expand.