I am trying to make a Christmas Tree layout. I got the original idea from a Lionel Fastrack book. But I added the 0-48 outer loop.
I would prefer to have an 0-72 loop, but I would like it to still be connected to the inner loop.
I have been banning my head against the wall for a while on this now and just need to ask for some help.
Any suggestions would be very welcome, thank you in advance.
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The inner portion of that plan was my favorite when I was a kid. Overall, your plan looks like a pretty ambitious around-the-tree layout.
While I understand the desire to have O-72, doing so outside of what you already have will cause the overall size to grow to 7x7 or 8x8 - that's a lot of real estate under the tree - a long reach for hanging ornaments or reaching derailments on the back of the layout. One option would be to keep the O-72 as a separate loop and use trestles to raise it above the rest of the layout. However, doing so would probably require putting the tree on a raised platform so that the lower branches and ornaments don't interfere with the trains.
072 outer loop will take up a huge foot print. But if you want to do it, I would start with an 072 circle. Add 072 switches on the left and right sides for the crossover and then reconstruct the inner “double loop” with 060 and 048 curves.
@Mallard4468 posted:The inner portion of that plan was my favorite when I was a kid. Overall, your plan looks like a pretty ambitious around-the-tree layout.
While I understand the desire to have O-72, doing so outside of what you already have will cause the overall size to grow to 7x7 or 8x8 - that's a lot of real estate under the tree - a long reach for hanging ornaments or reaching derailments on the back of the layout. One option would be to keep the O-72 as a separate loop and use trestles to raise it above the rest of the layout. However, doing so would probably require putting the tree on a raised platform so that the lower branches and ornaments don't interfere with the trains.
I came to this conclusion about 2 minutes after I finished this post! In short I live in an apt. I am tearing out my layout and converting the train room to an office. In the end I am super unhappy with my layout. I want min o-72 and can’t do that with my space. So the layout just made me mad. End goal of new layout will be modular that can fold in half and live under bed. But point taken on adding the O-72 loop. I think that’s a bride too far.
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