Building A New Layout

Hi Jerry

   I would start off with watch a lot of You Tube Videos to see what other O Gauge Railroaders are doing, even some of the club layouts. There is also a lot of ideas in all the major model railroad magazines. Like, O Gauge Railroading. Good Luck

Jerry,

If you are running scale articulated steamers, I'd try to go bigger than 36" radius (0-72) curves.  Those scale articulated locomotives will look much better.

With articulated steamers, I'd try to have 5" between track and wall due to the overhang of boilers.  The wider the radius, the less the overhang, the less clearance required.

5" between parallel curved tracks should keep you safe from trains hitting.  However, a Big Boy on an inside loop and 21" passenger cars on outside loop may have some tight clearance between them (less than 1/2" or so).  Do a search on BB, there was a thread with pictures of the last example and it was on 70" radius (0-140)!

What articulateds are you running?  I have several and always like hearing what people have.

From my small amount of experience with layouts, figure whatever you think you will need for space and double it. Everything I have done so far that sounded like plenty of room to start with has been too small and outgrown very quickly. 26 x 19 sounds adequate, but I am sure it will shrink up fast when you start building your layout. I have only modern diesels, no articulated, but everyone always says use the widest curves possible.

I think an around the room will get you more track on your layout for the space used.

No duck unders, lift out, swing out or anything but having to duck. As you say getting older only makes it worse.

I think I would prefer rectangle, possibility for longer straight runs.

As many sidings as possible, but I think you need to also allow plenty of space for buildings, scenery, roads, etc. I have a tendency to always try to use too much track which is not good.

I would say at least 18" between wall and layout for access. If it will be used for operation then I would say probably 24"-30" for proper passage while operating. (Along with not being able to get under the layout anymore, I haven't gotten any smaller with age either)

LED lighting is coming down in price and I think a lot of folks are starting to use those or thinking about converting theirs to LED. Less heat, saves energy, longer bulb life. Dave Hikel suggested to me a while back that 5000k was very good to use in a train room. I tried that with the fluorescents I have and he was exactly correct, I really like the light from them with the 5000k, much better than the 3000k & 6000k I had tried before. This is a personal taste item though, so you may not like that as well as I did?

For electronics, if you are 3 rail and have both MTH PS2-PS3 and Lionel TMCC or Legacy I would get both a Legacy and DCS system so you can access the best features of both manufacturers products. If you are 2 rail I would get a good DCC system. I'm 3 rail so don't know much about DCC.

I have only been back in the hobby for about 3 years or so and I'm by no means an expert, this are just things I have learned here from reading on the OGR forum. Hopefully others with greater knowledge will be along to add more information for you.

Jerry.....you need to come over one day and we can play with rrtrack. I have all the track libraries.  We can put some room dimensions in and go from there.

With articulateds, I would say that O72 is your minimum mainline diameter. There may be places where you can go tighter on sidings. I like the idea of around-the-room. I think the Mianne lift bridge would be ideal.

We can talk in person, whenever....

Peter

rtr12, could you explain what you mean with "5000k, 6000k, 3000k," etc?  Haven't

heard of those terms.  I'm in the planning stage, so the level of lighting is important

to me.  Thanks

     Hoppy

They are color temperatures. The K stands for Kelvin. When you go to the store and buy bulbs and they're labeled as soft white, bright, and daylight these terms are friendly names for color temperature. Soft white is 2700k-3000k, bright white and cool white are often 3500k to 4100k. Daylight is 5000k-6500k. The color temperature can completely alter the way colors are perceived to your eye.

26 X 19.....Wow...I can only dream......

My next and hopefully last house will definitely be chosen with train space in mind...

I envy you folks up there with your basements. Hard to have those in Louisiana.

Tim, thanks for the info.

     Hoppy

Tim has done a better job explaining it than I could have. The only thing different on the bulbs I have, 5000k is called Natural Light and they are more expensive than the others for some reason? This was my preference, as recommended to me by Dave Hikel, he knew exactly what I needed before I did. Also, I was incorrect in my previous post about the 6000k, I actually had 6500k and that was called Daylight Deluxe. That was too bright for my tastes. The 2700-3000k Warm/Soft white wasn't bright enough for me. My eyes are not what they used to be and this was just not enough light for me. Of course, this is all personal preference as to what temperature is selected as everyone sees things differently. 

Wow, you sure have a lot of room! Did you ever see, or consider the layout for sale by OGR forum member rep56? I think it's still in the for sale thread back in late September.

Rich