We have moved into a new (to us) home only a few blocks from our previous home. The previous home is an old (1860's farmhouse on the coast of Maine with no viablre basement (rubble stone/dirt floor). My solution for that home was a ceiling layout that ran around one room and had a couple of sidings/spurs that went through walls into two adjacent rooms. It turned out to be the focus of every event that we held in the house. Neighbors young and old alike would come over to watch the trains run. I placed a small edge around the support board for the track which hid some flex tube lighting which highlighted the steam engines that ran on the layout.
So now we have this new home with a beautiful basement - the only warm and dry basement in the neighborhood. However, the house was a half completed bankruptcy auction and finishing it has/is consuming most of my time and money. But what I have is about 15 large MTH steam locos and perhaps 200+ rolling stock, both freight and passenger and a lot of Realtrax. Since I do not see me getting to building a layout in the basement any time soon and I really want to be able to run some of my stock, I decided to go back to a ceiling layout, though more extensive than the previous one which is still in place because it was a strong selling point for the tenants.
The new one has provision for dual loops, a Y setup to allow for reversing, loops spanning three different room spaces, and a 'yard' for storage of engines and stock. I have attached an rrt file of my plan and would be open to suggestions. One thought for a change would be to have a grade that would allow part of the inner loop in the Dining area to be stacked against the wall. A large section will be suspended from the ceiling as it crosses the large open area between the kitchen and dining areas. My plan is to build/paint backdrops for the wall mounted lines that represent the local area (coastal Mid-Coast Maine is an old granite quarry community. The 'yard' is located in the breakfast room. All curves and switches are 0-72 minimum to accommodate the 4 articulated locos that I have including a triplex. As yet, I have not refined the plans to ensure proper parallel track spacing to allow for clearance overhangs on curves.
I may still build a layout in the basement as I would love to have a large turntable and engine house, so perhaps there is a rail yard feature in my future. If so, it will be Atlas 21st century track and switches and a custom turntable large enough to accommodate some long locos.
Steve
Maine 3-Railers (brand new member)
