Permanent layout for the Study

Mr George, if you look at picture #6, and take the left hand loop bottom (approx right where your train is sitting in pic 2) and straighten it out to connect more directly with the connector to the other loop you lose a little loopyness.  If you leave some of the track in that area to make a siding on that end it would look more natural for an industrial area.  You could also add some straight track in the right hand loop at the bottom  to make the loop a little bigger and make more room for your Bavarian Village.  That bridge you mentioned on the double track connector would make a really cool transition between fantasy and reality.  Warren Though Truss maybe?  River or gorge below.  Bavarian Village is begging for snow capped peaks that the train runs through with a tunnel.

Just thinkin' out loud.

Chris Sheldon 

Mr G,

Hi!

Do you plan to put the layout on a table/platform or keep it a floor layout?

The low window sills in the alcove area create a problem with setting the table height. You also don't want to block the heat convectors. So, I am thinking that a round end will permit some squeeze by space and allow heat to rise and some window access.

This design has 10" tracks in the main room area to add switches for sidings if desired.

The green under the 30" high table is the layout space from your diagram. The windows are estimated for location and width.

It's O36 curves

Hi Moonman,

Thank you for the schematic.

1.  I plant a table layout.

2.  The house is on a heat pump, so the baseboards will never be used again.

3.  Window sill in the main room is 32” off the floor, windows in the alcove are 18” from the floor.

Mr. George posted:

Hi Moonman,

Thank you for the schematic.

1.  I plant a table layout.

Check

2.  The house is on a heat pump, so the baseboards will never be used again.

You still may want access to the widows and the train stuff without climbing on the table.

3.  Window sill in the main room is 32” off the floor, windows in the alcove are 18” from the floor.

Check. Educated guess set the alcove window sill at 18".

While this idea requires a few pieces of track that you don't have, it flows a little nicer and leaves room for the scenics to dominate. The family oriented scenes that you envision will interest the family. Keep the infrastructure simple and focus the time and detail on the scenery. You will know what you like for your next build.

if you use a switch and create a reverse loop at both ends the second line in between could be eliminated.

Fireone, are these the the ideas you're suggesting?

Yes, I like it!  Your added siding on the right may prevent you from running the mainline behind the village in a tunnel though.  I like your sense of whimsy in your concept.  I keep that in my layouts.  Church with cemetery including skeletons, glowing toxic waste spill with Creature from the Black Lagoon emerging from the ooze, T Rex skeleton embedded in cliffside excavation.  Kids from 3 to 93 love it.

Chris Sheldon

I've played around with track again, and picked up an MTH 20-98106 transformer car.  That makes my Union Pacific train about 60" long.  It should just fit on the center siding, and allow room for the Hogwarts Express to travel freely.   How would you add terrain or more interest?  It's pretty flat.  I've attached the SCARM file.

Mr. G,

The green on the floor represents the initial space that you defined.

here's your latest version in 3D - file attached

Moonman posted:

Mr. George posted:

Hi Moonman,

Thank you for the schematic.

2.  The house is on a heat pump, so the baseboards will never be used again.

You still may want access to the widows and the train stuff without climbing on the table.

 

Great plan and ideas here, looking forward to the build.

He is correct, you need to be able to access the windows. We know from experience!! 

Mr George,

   Very cool FasTrack layout, if you wanted to add a Ceiling Shelf FT Layout around both parts of the room you could do it.  If you have the engineering background.  If you want to do this I would do it before you build your floor layout!  It would look super cool to have some Tin Plate running on an over head FasTrack Shelf Layout in your study, even if you only used part of the study.

PCRR/Dave

They do come out nicely with FasTrack!

BobbyD posted:

Moonman posted:

Mr. George posted:

Hi Moonman,

Thank you for the schematic.

2.  The house is on a heat pump, so the baseboards will never be used again.

You still may want access to the widows and the train stuff without climbing on the table.

 

Great plan and ideas here, looking forward to the build.

He is correct, you need to be able to access the windows. We know from experience!! 

That means the tunnel idea is out.    Still thinking of raising the village on a 2” hill.

Thank you Moonman for the 3d layout.

Dave, the ceiling height is fixed at 7ft.  Ceiling shelf would have been ideal, but sadly that’s not possible.

I’m also thinking of switching to a queter track.  But that’s after nailing down the final design.

Mr. George,

Welcome to O gauge trains and the OGR Forum!!  I like your cool looking rooms and your ideas for your layout!  I agree with you that your 7-foot high ceiling makes the high shelf problematic.  Of course Dave didn't know you had a 7-foot ceiling, so it was good of him to suggest.  Personally, I would stick with and develop your table concept.  My Ceiling Central Railroad in our small family room is set at 6' 9" to clear the top of the doors, and the ceiling height is 7' 2".  It was a literal pain in the neck to build, and is still a pain to make any adjustments.  It was my wife's suggestion as a place to run trains until our two daughters moved out.  It was a good suggestion, so I don't fault her at all.

I am looking forward to seeing what you do with this neat concept.  The Bavarian village sounds great along with an industrial area.  I have the Hogwarts set, and like it a lot. 

The village can be on the top of the access hatch. It can be sculpted from 2" & 1" insulation foam glued together.

Good idea for the different track. Keeping the design simple will keep the cost down.

I played with SCARM again, and made a layout for Fastrack and for Atlas, with Ross switches.  It's no secret, Atlas will be much quieter, and the Ross 4 way will let me run two trains at the same time. 

The Bavarian village will really be fun to create.

I made a 4-way crossover with FasTrack and play timing games with two trains changing lines. Much like real railroading, slow speed when switching is much safer.  Don't ask how I know.

The 3D objects helps to confirm any scenery ideas that you have in deciding if it will look ok or not.

It appears that you are close to your original ideas.

I have always liked the "pretty blue light" of Cherenkov radiation. Perhaps you can put some blue leds in your waste building, as if the storage pool was getting a little hot. Fukushima is still making pretty blue lights, but we don't hear of it any longer.

Have you considered the #452 Nuclear reactor and some AEC cars to perhaps stay with a fantasy theme?

Oh yeah, that's a cool reactor.  Menards came out with one too.  Gotta think about that.  What do you think?  How can I add more action and interest?  Add elevations?  Change up the track?

And let me run through a few of the elements.  

I will scratch-built this nuclear cask to fit on this transformer car

Good idea for the nuclear reactor

This is a cool accessory that I can put in that corner of the track

Should be the centerpiece of the modern side of the layout.  Will need to modify it with magnets to pick up and drop off the nuclear cask on a truck

This will be very handy to play with, especially with the Hogwarts Express.

Cool animated accessory to incorporate

Train protesters dragged off the train tracks by state police and site security, with Waldo and Carmen Sandiego someplace nearby

Centerpiece of the bridge

Bavarian Village inspiration

I will need to modify these guys to with 17th Century clothes.

I would like to build a Magnorail track through the village, and have this Musketeer looking guy riding around it, chased by the village kids and a few dogs.

That's the scene from the book that inspired that whole end of the track

The military containment vessel is unique to the submarine bases. There was an interesting thread about shipping nuclear material on trains. That is a very high tech vessel.

The Dorothy bridge seems familiar, like I-495 or I-695 in MD going around DC. The Mormon church?

Your plan looks good as it is.

it my be simpler to mimic the standard contaminated material containers that usually travel covered on flat bed trucks. The ones for anything but fuel rods.

Spent fuel rods never leave a generating station. But, it's a fantasy scene. One vendor makes a welding led light and board setup. That may be cool in a building where the rods are stored.

There are also miniature sound effect setups that play mp3 files - lots of places to trigger sounds on the layout.

Moonman posted:

The military containment vessel is unique to the submarine bases. There was an interesting thread about shipping nuclear material on trains. 

I would love to take a look at that thread.  I didn’t find anything in the casual search.

And yes, that is the mormon temple on i-495

LOL. It's from 2015 - here it is - Engine Container

I can't find the other discussion, yet...

Moonman posted:

LOL. It's from 2015 - here it is - Engine Container

I can't find the other discussion, yet...

Thank you

Here's the update.  This looks like the final final final layout.

Just like the F-35 program, I've had mission creep for my design.  I now want to make it transportable in a minivan with five usable passenger seats.  The layout will need to be easy and idiot proof to set up and take down, and work flawlessly wherever I show it.

I've given electrical a lot of thought.  Because I will run both the track and the accessories on DC voltage, Ross switches and Z-stuff motors are out.  There's no way around it.  For reliable operation and anti-derailment, I have to use Fastrack switches.

And here's how I'll cut the modular sections.

Section A will fit under Section F, and Section B, C, D, and E will go under Section A with 8" of space between each level.

Section C will be the bridge and Section D will have a cave-like diorama.

Slicing and dicing has begun.

Four out of six modules completed

Moonman posted:

I have always liked the "pretty blue light" of Cherenkov radiation. Perhaps you can put some blue leds in your waste building, as if the storage pool was getting a little hot. Fukushima is still making pretty blue lights, but we don't hear of it any longer.

Moonman, me too! I take it you've seen it in-person? It is one of the coolest things that I've seen. The Cherenkov radiation that I saw was more purple than blue. (Interestingly, it was in a reactor that was the same style as Fukushima's.)

The modules look very sturdy!  Your layout plan looks nice.  I am wondering why you made the skinny module E.  Would module F have been too wide to fit somewhere if it and E were combined?

Excellent question.  And you sure gueesed the answer.  I now want my layout semi mobile.  To fit the track with the switches, I need 51.”  Unfortunately, the workable width of a minivan is 48.”   So I made section F 45” and section E 8” for easy transportation.  I’ll have two shelves under Section F to stack all other sections.

Why mobile?  I’ve been to two Greenberg’s shows, one at Dulles Expo and another one in Richmond, and I want to be able to show off my layout too.

Matt_GNo27 posted:

Moonman posted:

I have always liked the "pretty blue light" of Cherenkov radiation. Perhaps you can put some blue leds in your waste building, as if the storage pool was getting a little hot. Fukushima is still making pretty blue lights, but we don't hear of it any longer.

Moonman, me too! I take it you've seen it in-person? It is one of the coolest things that I've seen. The Cherenkov radiation that I saw was more purple than blue. (Interestingly, it was in a reactor that was the same style as Fukushima's.)

I can neither confirm nor deny that I saw it person, as it was in an area that I was not authorized to be in. I have seen Penn State's reactor on YouTube, Fukushima storage pools and others, though. 

Mr. George posted:

Excellent question.  And you sure gueesed the answer.  I now want my layout semi mobile.  To fit the track with the switches, I need 51.”  Unfortunately, the workable width of a minivan is 48.”   So I made section F 45” and section E 8” for easy transportation.  I’ll have two shelves under Section F to stack all other sections.

Why mobile?  I’ve been to two Greenberg’s shows, one at Dulles Expo and another one in Richmond, and I want to be able to show off my layout too.

 

 That sounds like a great plan to take it to shows.  I lived near Fredericksburg long ago, and went to shows in Northern Virginia and Richmond.  Too bad I am not still in the area or I would go see it when you have it ready.  I will have to settle on watching what you post here on the Forum!  Keep up the good work!!