my first track

I was interested to see your plan and I turned it into a JPG image so it would display here. The minimum curves are O36 with an assortment of wider curves, O60 around the upper corners.

To put the dimensions in Imperial units more familiar to us Yanks, your tables are approximately 26"x 71" and the overall layout is 10 feet square in round numbers. It's a wide expanse that doesn't allow easy access to the inside. My first impression is to open up the center of the U if possible, to improve access. I basically favor the double-track bent dog-bone arrangement. I'll look at this some more tomorrow, keeping in mind you want to use existing table units. Could you tell us the total room size available?

Welcome to the forum ! 

Thanks for the reply Ace, have admired several of your layouts.  The middle is in fact open, the layout is a 6x2 table running along the top wall from the top left corner, 2 tables (6x4) connected to its right edge, 2 tables (6x4) along the left wall, making an inverted U where the left side is 8 foot long x 4, right side 6 foot long x 4 and base 10 foot long x 2 (tried to draw it but having trouble adding as an attachment, hope description makes sense).  Leaves me about 18 inches along the right wall, room for some shelving along the bottom wall.  Thinking of using 12 30" fastrack straights in places where possible

cheers

Sorry, and about 2 foot of space in the middle between the 2 arms, which seems enough, am I wrong assuming that?  As I say, first attempt at this

cheers

Very good start for a first attempt.  Two things jump out at me.

1) You could connect the inner and outer loops with switches to give yourself more options to run.  If you connect them, but isolate the switches with fiber pins, you'll still have the ability to run 2 main lines.

2) Right now you can conly run trains in one direction.  Adding a pair of reversing loops will allow you to run both ways. 

Here's a suggested tweek which would allow you to switch between mainlines and have reversability.  Note, you'd lose some of your spur lines on the right side.

Sinn;

A 2 foot gap in the middle is OK for a single person, but if you get friends over you won't be able to pass one another in that space.

Welcome to the forum and bottom line: Have Fun

Sinn, I've drawn rectangles on your SCARM plan to outline the 670mm x 1800mm tables as I think you have described ... ?  Looks like it needs some work to make things fit.

MichMikeM, may I suggest that you try learning the free SCARM software so you can draw your ideas to scale. Please don't do rough scribbles on our scale plans, it's not really helpful.

Ace I appreciate the advice.  I'd definitely take that approach if I could.  Unfortunately I use a company issued computer and controls on it restrict me from from downloading any type of software.  And I question that my suggestions are not helpful.  Are they scale drawings?  No.  But they are not intended to be.  They are intended to be just what the posters request - ideas, suggestions, alternate proposals, etc.  What I've offered may not look as nice as a scale drawing, but I believe everything I've done has been buildable.  And everything I've ever suggested has been at a poster's request.  Plus I like to think my sketches, being visual, are more helpful than offerings which are just words.

Maybe I'm wrong about the above, but I think my suggestions are helpful.  The feedback I've received from the people who've actually asked for help indicates it is.  Ace I respect your work on here and I've personally learned a lot from you, but I think we have a difference of opinion on this one. 

Ace, that is indeed how the tables are laid out.  Your post shows me what I had in mind won't work, thank you, that is incredibly helpful.  The entry into the room is on the lower right side wall, if I put a piece of 8 x 4 on the tables I would block access into the room, so that stuffs the easy fix.  Time for a redesign it would appear.

MMM, I have done designs with the 2 tracks linked at the top, but hadn't allowed for block pieces, so thought I might just run 2 trains at a time with a separate transformer for each.  Tried to fit a reversing loop into the design but couldn't fit it, though it appears the design is flawed from a 'fit' perspective as it is.  Could place the tables in a 10 x 6 design instead, I just found the U shape to be more visually appealing.  Time to fiddle some more

cheers

Have had another fiddle with the track.  I left the yards off, can do them at a later date.  Ace, I think this will now fit into the table scheme, and I have incorporated a reverse into the inner loop.  Again, comments and criticisms are requested and appreciated

cheers

Mr Sinn, I did a JPG of your latest idea and outlined the modular tables to see how it fits. From what you said before, I gather that this table arrangement pretty well fills your room so you don't have too many options to rearrange the tables. I happened to be working on a similar-size idea concurrently which you can compare. Both plans have potential to expand onto the 'white' table. I imagine you will want to tweak them to fit in some yard tracks.  

scarm test track 3.2 no yard.scarm

Ace preliminary version, mostly O36 and O48 curves, FasTrack.

Hey, thanks for that Ace.  Have not yet figured out how to add the boards in SCARM, must be simple, but so am I sometimes.  The white board misses fitting into the room by about 4 inches, the tables have metal braces along their long lengths about 1 inch from the edges, so can't even cut the width.  My idea was to have the top left of the white overlap the bottom right of the grey and use the white as my yard.  The design uses track I have or have ordered, only things missing are the O48 switch to run into the lower yard and about 6 30" straights, the yard is low on the priority list, will happen when funds allow.  Your design looks like it would use what I already have track wise as well.  If I like how it runs, the future plan would be to connect the 2 loops and use blocks to separate.  I have a 4 day weekend coming up in 3 weeks time, plan to have things up and running by then

cheers

Mr Sinn, I came up with another track plan variation which fits on your table arrangement somewhat better, and added some possibilities for optional spurs etc. I left out the sixth table, which you said won't quite fit in the room.

The way I added the "table" outlines:

In SCARM, in the column at left where you select the track library,

go all the way to the bottom and select "figures" then "rectangle".

Make a rectangle on the screen and size it with reference to the grid.

For properties of the rectangle, do elevation zero and height 0.1", then select a color.

Copy and paste to make identical rectangles. (drag copy off top of original)

Make them different colors or they will all run together.

Right click and rotate some of them 90 degrees as needed.

Drag the "tables" into position after the tracks are arranged. Unfortunately this covers the view of the tracks in the plan view, but the tracks will display in 3-D view with the "table" colors underneath. If there is a better way to do that I haven't figured it out yet and I'm open to suggestions. 

Tip from Moonman: in rectangle 'properties', change the height to .01" and the tracks will show in the layout view (but not in 3-D view).

The center aisle is only about 18" wide, a bit tight but do-able.

Thanks for the info on how to display the tables Ace, and the new design.  I have the software on my work computer so can only really fiddle with it during my lunch break.  Will have to put it on my home comp so I can learn the various functions this weekend.  Saw the info in the other thread about some of the features of SCARM, looks like being a wet weekend down here so may get creative.

cheers

Oh, meant to add that the white table just misses to fit flush with the bottom of the grey and yellow tables.  The gap between the wall and the bottom of the tables is about 24.5 inches, tables are 26.25 inches wide, so it can sit slightly offset from the yellow table, allows for a 72 inch yard, which has to be a good thing!

cheers

Add one more set of switches between the inner and outer loops and you'll never have to lift a loco to turn it around again, can "loop" two at a time in conventional easily, have storage, and still have switching fun. Ace has designed you "Utopia".  

Thankfully things never progressed beyond a simple 2 track 8x6 layout on 4 of the tables.  Lease expires in 4 weeks so looking for a new place, though a decent sized 'train room' is now part of the search criteria

Best of Luck in your search Sinn.

And a very late welcome to the Forums.