Your layouts

[westsidelumber12]

I am thinking about redoing my layout. It will be called the Santa Fe Alma District. it will be in steam and early diesel around 1943. It will be themed in Midwest to Kansas. the railroad is the good Ole' AT&SF. It will have a engine terminal. It will have daily branchline passenger. hourly local freight operations, most freight will be 10 to 12 cars long. How does this sound to you all?

What about your layouts?

[Yampa Bob]

It sounds fantastic to me.  I was born north of Tokeka, I thought Santa Fe was the only railroad back then.

Layout?  Wow, millions of them all different.  You have to decide how much room you have  for one, whether you want point to point or continuous running.  What I did was try to match our local line and yard, then wrapped it around to fit a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood.  Check my thread "Yampa Valley Railroad" in the HO section.

A good program to have is the Atlas RTS (Right Track Software).  You can design any thing you want. It's a free program.  Some prefer to just draw it out on large pieces of paper.

http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm

Bob

[WoundedBear]

My logger layout just got ripped out. The landlord wanted long term tenants when we moved in, and now a year and a bit later, he's bailing and wants to sell the house without tenants. Too bad he needs to get about 20% more return on the home than it's worth. I told him to walk away and I'd assume the mortgage......lol.....he didn't seem to like that offer.

I had a nice around the walls, 10 X 12 going on in a spare bedroom. But on the brightside, I now get to correct some of the mistakes I made in planning/executing the last layout. And really, after lifting out all my switches, crossings and unballasted track, about all I threw away was 50 bucks worth of plywood, some spruce 1X2 etc and about 50 pounds of plaster of paris.

So now I wait for move in day.....bored silly cause I have packed all the hobby supplies away.

The Lye, Stihl and Djheet (LSD) Line will shine once more.

Sid

[PRRThomas11]

Your ATSF layout sounds really cool. I hope to see pictures of it.

My layout is the Woodland Scenics N scale scenic ridge layout. (This is the first layout I have ever made and its not finished yet.) Its in the 2nd floor of my garage. (My garage has insulated sheetrock walls the same a a regular house.) I have always wanted to build a big layout with a yard an round house. What I decided to do is when I finish the small 3x6 layout i am going to make an extension off the existing layout to a 2 track main line which will go along the wall. At the end it will go through a big yard and go into my big station the will be the Walthers Union Station kit. Then i will have a round house and turntable.

I could never decide the rail road for it. My favorites are Erie, Pennsylvania, and New York Central. I also wanted to make my own fictional railroad (name undecided).So what I decided was this. The whole railroad would belong to my fictional railroad and the Erie, Pennsy, and NYC would meet up with my railroad at Union Station and they would all have occasional trackage rights on my railroad. It will take place n the late 40s and early 50s with mostly steam engines and some of the early diesels. It has a little bit of fiction with a little bit of reality.

[TonyD]

Westside....not related to that worldclass lumber road? Don't worry, do what you want in general, but like Yambpa says, visualize it fitting in what you have to work with... I now have 3 times the layout of my pipedreams...at the risk of repeating myself from another thread " it's all like Lord Wellington said 'the best laid plans of mice and men last the first 5 minutes of laying track'' draw ideas on scraps of paper with the room dimensions, but use your immagination as you are plugging away, this is not civil engineering on a budget, you can change your mind, try out different materials and track plans, nothing is set in stone...as for wounded bear, NEXT TIME, at each sheet or board, or like part of mine, hollow doors- 'ell' plates, screwed joints, track joints and rail connectors at these table joints, wire connectors, 'just incase' this happens again, or even if you move into a differnt room in the same house... and again, like the iron duke would have told ya, regroup, recover and reload.... open one of the boxes back up, weather some freight cars, superdetail some buildings, tune up the motive power.... or like some guys I know, make trees and bushes, when your new layout comes together, all this stuff done ahead of time makes everything go so much faster, and a dose of instant satisfaction to take the edge off of laying track (my sore spot)....(I have over 700 feet in a 250 sq.ft cellar room). Sounds like thomas 11 might think about Buffalo,NY, a nice big hub of your favorites, and a dozen other roads in the old days.....

[westsidelumber12]

Thanks guys, i go the track plan its just the timing and the operations are awkward. I will need about a billion stock cars. I need about 10 combines (they didn't have cabeese) And i need about 5 2-6-2's (that was the motive power. And maybe a H-15-44. Kinda akward ops huh?

[SteamGene]

I like stock cars, too.  So I have the Valley Packing Plant - steers in, Hormel out. <g>
Gene

[Guilford Guy]

4x8, Claremont & Concord's 3rd sub of the Shelburne Division... Real railroad, fictional division...
In 1972 Claremont & Concord's street trackage in Claremont NH was in jeopardy. Many of the online customers had closed, or moved to trucks. Trying to stay in the game they decided to expand. CCRR came in control of the remains of the New Haven's Canal Line out of Shelburne Falls. The line extended 5 miles south of Shelburne Falls, and was known as the Shelburne Division. Later that year CCRR took control of the ailing Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington, establishing a trans-load in Readville Vermont. Being miles apart, the Canal Line was identified as the first sub of the Shelburne Div, and the HT&W was identified as the 2nd Sub. In the early 1980's, D&H proposed to abandon their branches out of Eagle Bridge NY, after the slate business left. CCRR jumped at the opportunity, and for less than a million, came in control of the branches. The Eagle Bridge cluster, was then identified as the 3rd Sub, of the Shelburne Division...
CCRR operates a daily mixed freight up the branch. They also have an excursion operation based out of Cambridge NY, powered by either a B&M 2-8-0, or B&M 4-6-2. Freight power consists of a less used 44 tonner, an S4, and an RS3.
Customers in cambridge- Upstate Lumber Distributors, an ADM elevator, VeryFine Apple Juice, and Cambridge Trucking.

[Redtail67]

westsidelumber12:

I think it sounds great! I am brand new and have not even gotten my track together but my and my grandsons layout will be ATSF 1950-1960's.

So I am all for you modeling one of the Great Roads I am sure you will do it justice.

Redtail67

[Mark Damien]

Sid,

I'm sorry you had to rip up your layout, it must be gut wrenching, when you're forced. It's good to hear you're looking on the bright side though.

Tim Warris who built the Port Kelsey, featured in April-May 1997 issue of Canadian Railway Modeller magazine & August 1997 issue of Model Railroader magazine, had to tear it down, when the new owners were not interested in a model railroad in their recently acquired house. Pity a model railroader didn't buy the house.
http://www.port-kelsey.com/

My layouts barely reach the scenic stage, before I have a bigger & better plan. In the land of Oz, timber is much more expensive than in the States, so I have bought some old supermarket gondolas [shelving system] & this will negate 60% of the timber benchwork. It also has the advantage of being easily dissembled, should [or in my case 'when] the need arise(s).

My latest design has 300ft of mainline, & nearly 100 ft of branchlines. The marshaling yard & dock will have 150ft of track, not including the points, crossings & leads.

Now, to just tear down the old layout, to make some room.

[WoundedBear]

Mark....

I'm tempted to try a module format for the next layout. This was only my second layout, so it's all a learning curve.

I learned all about 15" radii....lol....Atlas will never sell me another piece of it.

I learned that although a Shay can climb 6%....it isn't very practical.

I learned to like 22" radii.

I learned that snap switches suck.

I learned that I like DCC and can utilize many of it's benefits.

So it's all good. The biggest slowdown to getting a new layout built, will be racing season. The new house has a huge garage....heated, with a 3 car capacity. I have a fresh engine and trans for my car that needs assembling, and a 4 speed short box truck to get race ready for my son.

I think the dragstrip opens in about 6 weeks time......we got a pile of work ahead of us.

Sid

[TrampTrader]

Sid,

Sorry to hear that you had to tear down your layout and were forced to move. That has to be very upsetting for your family. I'm a newbie here and am just starting to think about planning my 1st layout......looks like so much work, it has to be hard to take it apart before you're ready to.


Pete

[Mark Damien]

Tim's at it again. This time he's constructing a layout to take to Train shows with him.
You should see the quality of his work, & the speed at which it is accomplished. Note the dates on the images.
This should be an inspiration for anyone building a layout.

Well worth a look.

http://www.bronx-terminal.com/