Hello everyone. I wanted to share my layout thoughts with you all. The space I have available is 18'x6.5' with a possible narrow expansion on the lower right. It will have at least 3' access to all sides except the right which will be against a wall. The layout will be on caster wheels to allow more room when trains are not running. Gargraves/Ross track and Ross switches will be used. Blue outside loop will be O64, inner O54, switches O64/54 with the main1/2 crossovers being Ross #4's. The red line is a mix of O42/64 track and switches.
The brown portion of the layout are mountain cliffs on the left, redline track support beams in the middle and the right will consist of retaining walls and industrial fronts.
The blue lines are the main level track. Main 1 has a siding which is bassically a running main loop. Main 2 is the operating loop for switching and has a reversing loop.
The red line is the upper track that does not connect to the bottom blue lines. It will be a small coal delivery line that has passenger service. My plan is to have the red line feed coal to the bottom blue lines. Above the 397 coal loader, I will try to incorporate a coal chute for bottom dump cars. I've seen some nice videos on this website and looks like loads of fun!
The black portion are the roads. I put this in to get an idea how a town could be layed out and a sense of space needed.
I'm not sure how tight things will look, may have to cut back on a few buildings here and there. Havn't started bench work yet, but I did use a method on this forum by using masking tape on the floor to lay track out and get a feel for looks and space available.
It will be a legacy based layout to start with star wiring to support DCS layer on. Red line conventional only for now and the blue lines command and control and conventional. I have the legacy base unit but not sure what else I would need at this point. I would think 3 power supplies for each line and a TPC for each line to allow running of both command and conventional? I'm an HO guy scratching my head on Lionel electronics lol.
