update: somebody downstairs likes railroads.-Basement Train Layout in progress

Layout looks fantastic. How about some measurements. Width, length, maximum radius, etc.

You are developing a great layout!!!

Looks great.

Nice layout.

looks like there is plenty of yard space. 

That is one thing I wish we had is more yard space on our layout.

I wish I had your wall space! Mine has taken over our basement, and I've tried to talk the Mrs into letting me take out the furnace and water heater, but she wouldn't go for it!

Looks good mixerman

 

Clem k 

Very nice layout! Kinda looks like a train store with a huge layout. Wish I could claim my entire basement (and could afford the stuff to fill it). My wife wants a craft area and she has a LOT of Christmas stuff. Basement is the only place to store it. That leaves me with not quite half of the basement for trains and work shop. You have a great setup there.

Very Nice!

Enjoy

 

Gunny

Dang, now I have more work to do.

 

 

...keep the rails polished...

Great layout

 

Brent

Looking awesome so far, thanks for posting the pictures. Keep us updated on your progress

 

 

Alex

Very impressive. Keep us posted with your progress.

Looks like the makings of an awesome layout & train display shelves.  Thanks for posting.

Jim AWESOME

How big is that layout?

steve

Your layout is very nice. I love it.

Looks great Mixer Man! Lots of space to keep you busy and exercise your creativity. Hope we can look forward to seeing more as you continue.

Your layout looks great!  Looks like a 4 track mainline with long straightaways.  Very nice!

 

Art 

 Some serious trains there! Very nice

Pic #six blew me away! How'd you do that?

Mixer Man,

Your layout is shaping up nicely, and you have some real beauties to run on it.  I also like the display shelves; very functional and are at an easy reach.  While on that subject, the layout height makes for a nice reach, as does the slight increase in elevation of each yard track as you move towards the back.  That makes for more visibility of your good looking fleet.  

Man, that is looking awesome!!! Keep us updated with photos of your progress.

Like the layout and the use of the basement space. Well done.

Looks incredible.  Keep us apprised of your progress. 

"beware the surveying model railroader,the man in search of space,who will find a right-of-way for his empire someplace in the house. spare room? not for O gauge- not large enough.attic? perhaps.basement? why,thats where we'll lay rail! best spot in the whole house for this kinda thing.lots of running space,and boy ,can those engines get ahold of a train.makes quite a rumble......"

 

 the context of that paragraph was taken from the nov.1957 model railroader magazine's "railroads as you like it". after first seeing that about 30 years ago,it has inspired me over the years to build a layout as physically large as possible and still be practical.

 

   about 10 years ago we were able to relocate the laundry and some storage shelves to the 1st story of our house. this set the stage to build what we have today.

 

   the layout itself is 26'x50' . its an around the walls,with a center  penisula thats attached to one end. both sides of all the aisles have layout tables.there are no duckunders. there are about 18 4'x8' tables w/ 2x4 framing ,most w/1/2" plywood with homosote on top. early tables i made do not have the plywood- big mistake,as the homosote sags badley. one end of the layout  also uses the floor of a crawlspace .track and switches are 100% atlas. i use 20-7.5's on the mainlane and24- #5.s for the yards . mainlines are 2.2 scale miles each. its a 4 track main,as chugman pointed out. there are 4 different yards with a total capacity of 600 cars. 

    there is a working signal system using insulated outside rail w/relays.

 min. radius is 49.5[0-99] with most curves 0-108 and 0-117.

i run atlasO, kline scale,and mikes premier cars,have 1 lionel car, the 4bay covered hopper for diamond salt cleveland.

 

motive power is all mikes premier,with a atlas O sd-40 high nose nor. south.

 

my main interest is operations .right now any scenery is on the backburner,but i would like to ballast the track.

  we will try to do an update w/more photos in the near future.

thank you so much for the positive comments many of you have posted here.-jim

joe: my daughter used her phone to make a video panning 1/2 the layout you see.somehow ,she could make a wide-angle pictue out of that. i have no idea how to even post photos on here .she does all my tech work.-jim

I love it

Thank you!

I would love to see more photos when you have them ready.

 

From your description I sure don't know how she did the wide angle either, but I really like it!  I like having the younger adults do my technical stuff too!  And that is coming from a guy who has an electronics degree, an IT degree and has worked in the field for over 38 years! 

recently i recieved a few e-mails about how the layout is powered. all i use presently is a single z-4000 with 1 tiu. i run 2-3 trains at a time ,trying to keep it under10 amps.about 8 switches are powered.they and the signal system are run off the 14v fixed channel of the same z4000. future plans include a 2nd z4000 and tiu.-jim

Most digital cameras have a panorama feature where you take multiple shots next to one another and the camera's internal software stitches them together by matching similar features at the edge of each pic. Usually it helps you take the pics by offering a "ghost" image of the preceding photo to help you line up the next shot.

 

Although I haven't yet read of such a feature extended to video (haven't been shopping for new phones lately), it's certainly plausible that it got adapted to work that way--start recording, pan across the scene, stop recording, and the software matches up common objects across the video frames to make a single panorama image from the footage.

 

---PCJ

   several have emailed me asking for any updates......not too much has changed with the exception of selling off the mth autoracks, and going w/ the scale lionel cars. i have 21 cars and thats about the right size for the layout.i also picked up several 86' auto parts boxcars ,so maybe i need an autoplant of some kind. 

   motive  power has changed a bit w/ a couple ps-3 locos and i am starting to purchase more 1990s conrail power. as great as i think todays railfanning is, im drawn back to the 1990s as the most interesting decade in my life.

   when i can get the daughter here, i will post a few more updated photos.-Jim

  

Layout looks great Jim! I had never seen pictures of it before but Jeff has described it to me. Is that a Lionel or an MTH Big Boy #4014 that I see?

I'm glad you posted your own thread on this great layout. It deserves its own showcase.

 

Looking forward to more posts!

Very impressive!   That Atlas track looks great - how are the turnouts working for you (I ask based on past troubles that I think have been fixed).

 

Thanks for sharing and discussing, very cool!

Nice long runs there, broad curves, that's the way to use a basement!

Keep those updates coming!! 

Great photos! Thanks for sharing!

Looks like somebody also likes SD40's

The panoramic shot really added the perspective to the size of the layout! What's not to like about large sweeping curves.

 

Operations and working signals +++++

 

Your fun has resulted in a very nice layout. Thanks for sharing it.

To answer several comments.....

the big boy is mikes first bb w/ps2, does everything i want a bb to do,and was priced right.

the atlas turnouts work great,there are 18 of the #7.5 on the mainlines,there are 22 of the#5s in the yard and ive never had a derailment that i could blame on the switches....

a few years ago ,i wanted to own all of the 1st and 2nd run weaver sd-40s from the 1990s.i think there were 17 or 18 total and im missing 3-4 roadnames.also have a few mth w/ps-2...-Jim