15 Year Hiatus Ended!

Looks really cool! Very nice bench work and track work!! 

Looks great to me!  Welcome back.

OK, I'm going to be politely, but brutally, honest.  What you've built is an outside oval with a connected interior folded dog-bone and a small engine turntable with roundhouse potential.  This is fine as a "display" layout assuming you mostly just want trains to run.  However, you have little to no room for operating accessories.  I have three young grand-nephews who will watch that for one or two holidays each year.  But for more than that, they look for what's new and then walk away bored, even when I let them run their own trains.

Two things will help overcome that boredom for them. 

1. More industry switches and a yard where cars can be placed/sorted requiring some thinking/interaction. 

2. Make those industries operating accessories (Lionel, MTH, K-Line, whatever) that load or unload cars.  Heck, put a gondola on a siding near the table edge and watch them load and unload it with their other toys (dinosaurs, monsters, you-name-it).

Both of these steps will increase your child's (and probably your own) interaction with the trains while increasing and hopefully prolonging that interaction.

Good luck,

Chuck

That's some great looking benchwork, there!

Peter

Peter beat me to the punch. Awesome benchwork. Looks like an elephant could walk on it!

Pat

very cool!

Looks great and welcome back!!!

Thank you all!  I'm happy to say that the benchmark is very solid.

And Chuck, thank you... while I do enjoy just running trains, I agree!  The layout actually started out as two parallel loops (inside and out)... until I added the inside reverse loop and punched through the wall.  You can see the traces of the old trackplan in my drawing.

As it stands, the small number of buildings I have are just placed temporarily until I sort things out better.  In fact, due to my recent changes the areas in these additional photos are open for further development.

Then there's that workbench that would make a nice yard someday!  Hmmmm.

Keep the comments coming!  

Alan

Love the L girder benchwork.

Looks great and Welcome back.

Any one who pokes holes in walls is my kind of guy!  Great restart!

Laurel Liner posted:

Thank you all!  I'm happy to say that the benchmark is very solid.

And Chuck, thank you... while I do enjoy just running trains, I agree!  The layout actually started out as two parallel loops (inside and out)... until I added the inside reverse loop and punched through the wall.  You can see the traces of the old trackplan in my drawing.

As it stands, the small number of buildings I have are just placed temporarily until I sort things out better.  In fact, due to my recent changes the areas in these additional photos are open for further development.

Then there's that workbench that would make a nice yard someday!  Hmmmm.

Keep the comments coming!  

Alan

Alan, for proto-style Operation you would add stub sidings with spots for cars. It can be as simple as what I've done on the PER:

The "Paint Factory" has 6 car-spots including two off-spots for car storage. Incoming Resin (the gray tank car), incoming PVA (orange tank car), incoming Titanium Dioxide pigment (covered hopper which gets spotted beside the white cylindrical silo) and outgoing paint on pallets (boxcars). There is a lot of switching action here.

Also something to enable Interchange, at minimum a Fiddle track. On the PER the concept has been reduced to stark simplicity:

This is where consists come onto the PER from the outside world (1,2,3,4) and where outgoing cars leave the Pike for the outside world. Thus the cars in operation on the Pike are constantly changing as consists cycle through.

Oh, and yes, that is a hole I cut through the wall to connect Interchange with the PER in the room to the right. 

Looks great and welcome back.

FWIW, you might want to consider pushing the Atlas TT further down into the "throat" of the loop. This would allow you to put whisker tracks and possibly a small roundhouse or engine stalls/sheds up at the top of the loop.

Thanks Richie, I was considering that (and should have sooner).  I have an access hole under the TT, but still have the round piece I cut out so I have some flexibilty there!

Alan

Alan - I wish that I made your mistakes!

Nice work!

I like it.  Great benchwork.  But, I also would follow some of Chuck's & PRR1950's advice (above). 

I really like yards to do some switching.

The more play value, the more interest.  

Oh, I would suggest adding Legacy ... you'll need it.

Thanks very much everyone for the supportive comments and great advice!  And thank you for the photos, Lew! 

I'm going to take all the advice away and figure out how best  to put it into action.

Alan

Alan,

First nice benchwork! 

Second, I'd like some details, please.

Did you use 1x4 pine? Any particular grade? Where did you purchase the wood? My local big box store seems to be in short supply of decent stuff.

Have you actually tried climbing on it? If so, how strong is it, and how much flex?

Are you tied into the wall? 16" centers?

It looks like your well braced legs are ripped from 2x4s, correct?

What plywood did you use under the track?

Inquiring minds want to know! (Actually, I want to minimize my mistakes!)

Chris

LVHR

Thanks for sharing your story of rediscovery of this hobby. One great thing that has changed in the 15 years is the use of foam insulation to fill in your open areas with terrain. Makes it move a lot faster to get finished look and surfaces to landscape. You can still web out cardboard and plaster up cloth and such. I like what I see folks doing with foam.

The boys may really enjoy that activity! You don't need to be an expert with latex paint and glue and maybe a little acrylic for detailing.

Alan- welcome back to the hobby. Great back story too, I'm sure many of us could say the same. You've got a great layout there and a good foundation (no pun intended), to work from. A few track plan tweaks as others have mentioned will yield a layout that you will enjoy for many years.

There's a standing unofficial rule around here....Your Railroad, your rules! Do what you want and that will make you happy.

A couple more things to consider:
The S curve going into the reverse loop through your work room could be an issue with long trains. If you can straighten that out it would allow the trains to run better and reduce derailments.
Add sidings and industries where you can. As Lew said, a lot of play value in moving cars around the layout and delivering them to various places. A small staging yard to pick up and drop off from would be nice too.
Long passing sidings can serve the purpose. Don't just think that you have to build a standard style yard.
The industries are a great opportunity to vary the scenery too.

Bob

Love the holes in the wall and the expanded folded dog bone plan.   Good way to get a longer run in a limited space.  I cut 3 holes in two walls to expand my layout.   Was worth it since then I could run two trains on the same line.   I took down the layout last October to sell the house.   Didnt cost much to have holes patched and room repainted.