Most Important Thing On Your Layout Besides The Trains?

Having Signals my layout. It's is all about NYC Transit Subway Signals. 

Smooth running Turntable.

Dependable operating accessories.

Dependable track and switches.  When they aren't it gets frustrating.

It would have to be the bridges over the stairwell. Critical when dealing with that 32 ft/sec2 "Sir Isaac Newton" thing.... 9' 8" to the stair tread. If there's a crash, Gomez Adams won't have anything on me!!!

 

 

And to make sure everything stays on the bridges, 5 rail Gargraves track...

 

 

On mine, the buildings, most of which are kit-built, kit-bashed, or scratch-built.  I have a lot of time and labor in them, and many are unique.  While every layout is unique, down to an oval and a three car set, in which you chose to put the gon in front of the boxcar, rather than the reverse, and maybe run the caboose with the smoke stack toward the front rather than the rear, it is the personal touches that matter.

Lots of cool PW operating accessories.

Wow!  Gilly takes risks, and it is not even a through-girder bridge.  I would chicken

out and put in a through-trestle bridge, to catch any wayward rolling stock.

Under construction,I have a couple of focal points.  One is my curved trestle,the first thing that you will see on my layout.  Then my bridges which span my layout.  I have 2 inclines that are not quite prototypical at slightly over 2% grade.  Last of all come my signals that are being installed at this time.

Ballasting will be next with scenery following.

One day I will learn about photography and post photos.

Norm 

Me

With trains, factories, houses and scenery all playing an important role on a layout, I feel that people in all walks of life doing everyday things is the glue that ties it all together and brings each scene to life.

Turntable and Lighting.

Mikey

Operating accessories.

My Miller signs operating off transformer power going through one of their converter thingies.  It took me a while to get it right but it's right now and I am ready to add more signs!

For me; it's my personal vignettes.  I have one representing the five years we lived in Mississippi that has my three boys and I fishing in a catfish pond; one of my sister and I as kids standing at a crossing watching trains; one that represents my cousin and I canoeing on the Juniata River up in PA; and a Lionel grain elevator I turned into an Imperial Sugar facility representing when we lived in Sugarland, Texas.

Curt

All my great friends that have signed my wall.

Track and transformers...my trains won't move otherwise no matter how nicely I ask

This guy!

It would have to be Paul Romano

I'd say scenery for me.

May you never have a derailment Gilly! That's a loooooong way down!

 

 

 

The Beverage.  As far as accessories go....this is my favorite.  I find it valuable as it has a multiplier effect on the enjoyment of running trains.  It comes in many "liveries" and switches out easily if you need a replacement.

 

 

1. Adult beverage
2. Adult beverage
3. Adult beverage
4. Repeat steps 1-3

1. Properly functioning switch tracks.

2. Even track voltage all around the layout.

3. Good track work with ample but not exaggerated clearances.

4. Intelligent placement of accessories such as no missile launchers next to train stations or an oil derrick just above a tunnel portal.

No easy answer, and frankly I often wonder if the trains are the most important thing.  They are the reason it is all there, yes, but  . . .

- the trains and track certainly are as important as anything else so I will list them first

- the layout itself - after ten years and all this work, it is more than the sum of its parts

- the 'Streets roads and system installed on it

- buildings and scenery

- diecast cars and details like that

- operating accessories and signals

The trains are the least important things on my layout. The scenics are where the "personal touch" has come in, thereby making my layout unique from all others.

 

I remember one time I showed my layout to a group of non-train visitors. Their attention was held for about 20 minutes on my small 5x8 layout. I was not until we got downstairs that it occured to me that I forgot to turn on the trains.

Paul,

   The most important item on my layout, is invisible to the eye, it's the memories of my family, especially at Christmas time, that have been passed down thru the years, that make our O Gauge layout so special.  

PCRR/Dave

Don't forget a comfortable chair!

 

Jerry

Train Station.

I'm stumped. I really don't have an answer for this post.

well someone already made the track/transformer joke...

 

so for me it's important to have switches and operating accessories.  I need the interactive factor. 

Either one of these pictures below. The bridge represents my home state, and the passenger station by Alex Mallaie sets the tone that we are all about passenger train service. Great thread!

 

 

A diecast mobile crane truck that my Dad gave to me when I was a about 10.  He was a mechanic for the electric company and wanted to show me what he worked on at work.  At 10 I really didn't really get it and I put it away and forgot about it for many years.  The reason it is so special is that he passed away when I was only 14 (he was 37 at the time) and when I found this in a box a few years ago I knew it had to go on the layout as a remembrance to him.  It is actually a beautiful piece in the right scale 1/50, although that doesn't matter as much because I would have found a place for it somehow. 

for me its the bench work because that's where it all comes together

What neat answers to an interesting question! I would say a #96 coal elevator I searched 'high and low' for years ago. I enjoy making and changing vignettes associated with Ivor the Engine's episodes..

Good track power, good track and switches and scenery. To me if you don't have the first three then you can't enjoy the trains running through the scenery........Paul

Most important thing on my layout, besides the trains? For me, its not what you see, but rather what I feel, and then see. I see and feel a time long ago, and far away each time I step in the room were the small layout is. Its called "memories". Christmas of long ago, friends and family that are with me again. Memories, they come alive again, and just sometimes, they seem so real.

 

My empty wallet......

just starting track work but the most important part to me is the buildings and scenery.