All the Layout I Can Handle

Lee: Your a heck of a guy. Im glad to be on this forum, and look forward to your post's. You always tell it like it is. Thanks a bunch. Regards, Casey.

Lee,

I feel the same way about my 11.5x12 (plus 2x8 extension) layout.

Since I moved it from the garage (7x16) to upstairs it's gotten less complicated, even though it's 42 square feet more room (with the extension).

I think if I ran more/longer passenger trains I'd probably want a longer mainline, but the only way I could do that was if I took over the entire upstairs of our house.  But if I did that I would try to make the track work even simpler, so as to have a more scenic route for the passenger trains.

Right now I enjoy switching small freight trains of less than 10 cars.  5 online industries and a small yard keep me busy.  All turnouts are hand-thrown, I have only 2 wires going from my TIU to the layout, and a wall wart powering the small, 7-building downtown with LEDs.

If I was to give anybody advice I would say to lay down some temporary tracks and run trains for a year prior to doing any scenery.  I've changed my track plan a number of times since the 1st of the year and as a result I have to redo a bunch of scenery to cover all the bare spots.

I have just about as much as I can watch over, but I do plan on a "L" adding another 5 feet. But the track configuration will remain the same. I can run two trains independently without worry.

Funny thing, I just finished a run downstairs, and had my 1st head on collision in years!Luckly I saw it just a second before and was able to hit the "Stop" button on the remote, so nothing derailed.

I would like to add a few industries to stop and switch, but the main lines are a much as I want. I do have a semi complex interlocking that I always have to watch, Thanks to the AIU, at least all the different routes can be lined with a puch of the button

I am just now starting the installation of Custom Signals/Atlas working signaling system on part of the main. Having to separate track to insert insulated pins everywhere to isolate blocks is a pain, but keeping the rail cuts to a minimum is my goal here. As much track as there is no of it is attached to the table.

I have no scenery, never have, just never ventured in that direction, maybe one day? 

Dan Schroeder

St. Louis, MO

I agree with everyone so far, there is a point where a layout can be too big for one person to handle.  I have a 13.5 x 8 layout with a single loop for  the mainline, a wye in the middle and a few industries.  I am going to build a staging yard in the next room, so I can bring trains on and off the layout. 

I think I can do some pretty realistic running this way.  

1) Bring a train onto the layout from the hidden staging yard as if it came into the "town".

2) Break the freight train up and switch cars in and out of industries.

3) Turn the locomotive on the wye.

4) Build a new train from the cars that are at the industries.

5) attach the locomotive, and run the train off the layout back into the hidden staging yard.

I plan to have as many as 6 different trains on the hidden staging yard.  The passenger trains will be small, such as daily commuters.  I will have one larger passenger train "The Cherry Blossom" that will stop in my small town on summer weekends bringing vacationing passengers to the small Lake Michigan shores towns.

Most of my switching will be done with (2) 0-8-0 switchers.

The post brought several thoughts to mind in regard to my own experiences over the decades, one of which is that bigger is better, which then has both a downside and a upside for "lone wolf operators", a term that was once common. Most of the larger layouts I have seen tend toward more accurate mimicking of prototype operation, which for me was fine if only one train consist was out on the line..one eye out for opposing moves, one to switch routing, one to speed, etc. I always preferred more than one train running. Now I switched to three separate loops.

Another was a sort of the same regret when I finished my current tinscale layout, no more room, nothing else needed, etc. Now what? So, in response to that I have running themes in consists. One is postwar, one is Marx, one is prewar. Instead of one era being modeled in terms of era by manufacturer, the variety is there. In other words, variety in equipment versus that in operations. A workable compromise but I have found that I wish I had another loop!

Nicely worded Lee

Great article!

I have started to ensure that mine is modular to a point. Because the final space for a permanent built in place does not yet exist. The engine area is already going to be around 5 by 9 or equivalent. No bigger and no smaller. Same with the yard area.

How big is too big? Well, give me a few years to reach that point.

I have reached that "level". After years of buying way too many things for my grandiose theoretical layout, I managed to design a layout that incorporated almost everything I wanted to use. Reality reduced the design from a three level huge layout to 2 independent layouts. One 8' x 16' 3 level - 6 operating trains which I am working on and an additional 2 level 4' x 16' with dept 56 items and 3 trains along the wall beside it. This is big enough for me to really enjoy, but remains capable for me to operate and have reasonable access to maintain. I also began my first layout many years ago on a single sheet of 4'x8' plywood on 2 saw horses. Maybe the progression isn't as much as I think - now 9 sheets of plywood and a lot more "saw horses" (built like tables)?

Often times I wondered if (for me), if I am to be honest about my many past layouts or even the current one, that the greatest fun was gathering all this stuff, planing it, executing it and then having done that, the actual operation sort of paled in comparison as an experience, not to say it's not enjoyable, which would be ridiculous from my own point of view.

The other issue with a large layout has to do with my moving over the years and having to personally demolish what I spend so much time having to create, which after the third time this happened, I was swore "never again!" and this lasted about a year. Big and permanent versus smaller and more portable..was a question I posed to myself as well as making operations more manageable. Another consequence was the ratio of the collection size to the amount of storage space eaten by yards, which took away routing options..

The simpler layout I now have ( because it's simple) avoids the inevitable consequences of destroying my own creations ( over and over again) to the point of thinking this is a masochistic cycle of building "works of art"  to destroy them with a hammer..So folding tables, came to the fore bolted together, When the inevitable occurs I can easily resurrect or even expand what exists rather than have it explode in a cloud of plaster dust.