Bachmann Dynamis layout

[Doneldon]

Lonnie-

Yes, you can. That would be a more economical route to go than purchasing expensive connecting wires with the plugs. And it's easy to cover up the electrical bits with some shrubbery or dirt.

I like your track plan. It appears to have very good operational possibilities with the two sidings and the mine spur. Mining railroads typically broke all of the rules about steep grades and tight curves so you could enter the spur from the other direction with a challenging grade which would/could only be traversed by something like a geared steamer. That would let you make your spur longer, run mine trains up to a much higher elevation than the table surface, perhaps add a second mine or use some switchbacks. Or all of the above.

You made a good decision to include the access port. An awful lot of beautiful scenery gets damaged because we lean too far over our layouts to uncouple some cars or fix a derailment.

The center of your layout has plenty of room for whatever you might want. You could put a high plains cattle ranch there, a conventional farm, an excellent yard with a small engine terminal or several industries. You can also use one of the passing sidings for an empties-in-loads-out trick. They're always fun.
                                                                                                                                                                      -- D

[8stargazer]

D,

Hey thanks for the suggestions.  This area is where I wanted to build it in the first place and when I realized that not only would I have to practically climb over the layout to the back corner to fix issues, I would have to do the same just to build the scenery.    The table wasn't going to work either and that's when I remembered the access hole idea.  Great solution to build as well as for me and Rylan to climb up in there and watch the trains in action.   Late last night my wife and I laid the track down on the floor according to my Anyrail plan.  There were a couple of glitches that I adjusted (I learned from failure on the Lionel to test out the track plan beforehand)

I had to move the uphill run further in from the edge which puts the mining siding almost above it in a couple of places.   My solution is to elevate it from the 4" at the turnout up to 5 1/2" at the end.  This is more than enough to clear the planned 1" to 2" rise below it.  If all goes well and there's room, I will make a 'pass' on each side of the ore siding.  At first I thought about building a tunnel below it then decided I'd rather have a wooden trestle bridge above. 

I have the 2880 C&O steam locomotive that came with the Dynamis set which would be fitting for the ore mine.  I bought a DCC Santa Fe (blue/yellow) that I'll run down on the lower level.   In the long run I'll add a passing siding on the lower level between the RH Remote turnout at the top and the access port at the end.  You are correct in saying that this layout even though it's small by most standards, does have many possibilities for further expansion.  Once I had the main layout put together and took some dimensions from it, I experimented with the turnouts for future sidings and such.  I can do several off of that long one in the center but for now, I've pretty much used all of the track I acquired and am satisfied with that.

My biggest concern was the grandson, at his young age, messing with it unsupervised.  My wife came up with a great idea.  She said isn't there a something like a temporary fence with a locking gate I could put up.  Even better that gave me the idea to  build a 42" wall on the outside and cut an old bedroom door to fit.  Problem solved until he gets a little older. 

The good news is that I screwed the table frame and legs so that was easy to take apart and salvage. And the blue foam board has a plastic sheeting on both sides.  I removed the top for the surface and when I started taking it up, the board separated from the sheeting and popped right off.  I cleaned up the mdf paneling with a large scraper and will turn it over to reuse.  So other than time, no loss in material.   I never was fully satisfied with a 4x8 anyway.   In the long run I'm thinking I'll keep pushing that ore siding on around and upward .

You've been a great acquaintance on this site as well as others that have commented and/or answered my questions.  I'm getting pretty stoked up about this and I know this little one is going to go nuts.  I have him again today and we're about to build the table.

Lonnie

[Doneldon]

Lonnie-

The 4x8 has several real problems but it is nevertheless the most popular way to start in HO. In terms of access and length of run, however, an around the room layout is ideal. My recently deeded train room is about 13x14. Floating a table in the middle would give me, at best, 8x9, but running my tracks around the room (with a lift out across the door) gives me a twice-around mainline roughly 100 feet long. That means about 70 square feet on the table, less at least two access hatches, versus almost 200 square feet for the around the room at an average of two feet wide and with a small peninsula.

                                                                                                                                                 -- D

[8stargazer]

Doneldon,

That, my friend, is my longterm goal.  I hope one day to have the 12x12 bedroom plus the 5x5x8 that I'm currently building.  I decided to fill the whole 5x5 space in the former closet for future expansion.  I also made the access hole a 20x24 rectangle instead of a circle







My grandson has already moved the unpowered Lionel track underneath.  I think you  can barely see him in the 2nd pic

[Bob_B]

FWIW, I'm currently using a basic Dynamis DCC system with 112' of track covering an area of about 16' x 6' in a dual track format with sidings and 6 turnouts. I run 3 locos all with sound and because the layout is temporary and on the floor, I have just one feeder at this stage.
It runs fine

Not a great pic but you get the idea.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ilvxbxqcvgt5zoi/HO_Layout.jpg

(Even with the [img] tags I can never get pics to show in the forum

[Doneldon]

FWIW, I'm currently using a basic Dynamis DCC system with 112' of track covering an area of about 16' x 6' in a dual track format with sidings and 6 turnouts. I run 3 locos all with sound and because the layout is temporary and on the floor, I have just one feeder at this stage. It runs fine

Bob-

This is fine while you have comparatively new track and rail joiners which will "rescratch" the connections between track sections every time you set up. However, you'll start experiencing power problems sooner or later, whether you make a permanent layout or not. I do hope that you're able to build a permanent layout sooner rather than later as running on the floor leads to lots of problems over the long run. It's great that you can run three sound locos, too. I'm guessing they're all pretty new. You may have power capacity problems if you acquire any older locos, or even if you try to operate another engine.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                -- D

[Bob_B]

Bob-

..... I do hope that you're able to build a permanent layout sooner rather than later as running on the floor leads to lots of problems over the long run. It's great that you can run three sound locos, too. I'm guessing they're all pretty new. You may have power capacity problems if you acquire any older locos, or even if you try to operate another engine.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                -- D

A permanent layout will never be an option for me. I'll be travelling a lot and will never be in one spot for too long and even if I do I'll be renting.
I will however be adding track feeders and possibly a booster as well if I get more locos. I intend expanding the layout with more main track as well (triple track), space allowing.