Help with Layout Expansion

Plan ahead.  You need to decide if you want alternative routes, reversing of trains, operating accessories - for kids or to support and give a mission for the the trains for their operation.  Also consider if you want  a permanent layout and if moving houses is probable.  My layout has been in five houses and portable and only on the den floor for 6 weeks around Christmas.  It was build in Jamaica and sized to fit in two and later three mattress boxes for moving.   It now has been up permanent for the last 10 years.

My layout has 31 switches, three ways to reverse trains - fig 8 and loop, double dog bone and a Wye. 10 or so operating accessories like coal mine with coal dumper, saw mill, milk and cattle un-loaders, icing station, operating gantry crane, drum loader, barrel loader, and the ultimate - a $10 homemade turntable.  I will admit the TT and milk and cattle pen and figure 8 and oval were the only ones installed in initial construction but I had room for the others including a 50% layout expansion.  Since my layout is 027 postwar conventional control I also installed a 2 trains per 1 track relays and contacts in the initial building.

I believe the time spent to figure what things you want to do when running trains at the planning stage and OGR forum is an excellent source.  Just running trains in a loop or two will get old very fast as I learned with my childhood layout.  My current layout has evolved and kept up interest for 44 years but trains are not my only hobby and interest.

Details on how I built my layout are on the OGR link below.

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=1  table of contents on bottom of page 1

Charlie

I assume when you say "expand", you only mean to add details, scenery, structures, etc. and not physically enlarge the trackage or layout, itself.

People do it both ways - some like to have everything planned out to the nth degree, while some like to play it by ear and develop their layout as it goes along.

Personally, I like a combination of both. I think it's a good method to have at least a general idea of where you want certain areas to be located, like towns, sidings and spurs, industries, trees, mountains, bridges, train stations, etc. It doesn't have to be anything fancy - maybe just a piece of paper with the layout on it and then thinking about filling in where you want these things to go and how they will fit in. Then, as you start building and adding, you can change things on the fly if something looks out of place or there's a better place for it to go. You might also have one structure planned and then a new product comes on the market that will be a better fit and you have the flexibility to do that.   

Attached is a list of some common Lionel, MTH and Woodland Scenics accessories, with advertised/approximate dimensions.

Charlie's advice above may be fine for some people, but not necessarily accurate for others, especially those with children.  As long as you don't permanently fasten anything down, go ahead and build a few ovals with operating accessories along the track, no switches required.  Kids are great at "pretending" and they can pretend that each accessory is in a different "town" requiring at least 5 trips around the loop before reaching the next "town" accessory.  Then the train stops to operate the next accessory before continuing on its way.

Now, while their having some fun, you have time to plan what you really want to build.  Determine your limitations ("givens") such as space, space impediments (electric, plumbing, doors, windows, closets, etc.), cash limitations, etc.  and desires ("druthers") such as type of equipment you want to run, type of layout (ovals, dogbone, folded-dogbone, point-to-point, point-out-back, etc.), and type of railroad you want to model (Class 1, Class 1 branch, shortline connector, industry specific, etc.).  The last piece of work is to see how your givens will limit your druthers and determine if that is acceptable to you.  If so, use SCARM to begin planning your layout, but, if not, either adjust your druthers to meet your givens or consider another hobby.

No sense spending money on a hobby that will not satisfy you.  Oh, and remember, this is a hobby; so, if you don't like anybody's suggestions, including mine, just ignore them and have some fun!

Chuck

It really depends on how big the layout is and how you will be controlling your trains.   Assuming it's at least a mid-sized layout, at a minimum I'd want to know where my main lines will be so I will be able to plan my wiring schematic and install the wire runs BEFORE putting on the top of the layout.  Additionally, it's good to have some idea of what buildings or accessories you will have and where they may be located so you can install electrical docking stations to support the needed wiring (again, BEFORE putting on the top of the layout).   You just run one hot and one common wire to the docking station (nothing more than a terminal block) and from there feed hot and commons to your buildings and accessories).

As for scenic elements, if you want mountains, tunnels or a section of track to be elevated it's MUCH easier to do prior to wiring up the track and running trains.  You don't have to finish them, but at least get the foundations in place.  Like this:

I learned a hard lesson from my previous layout - do as much planning ahead of time as you can.

-Greg

Thanks for all of your time. Based on the feedback, I need to answer a few questions. I'm going to create a diagram with what I had in mind. I'll submit it to this group for feedback. I really appreciate the help.