Train room and layout shenanigans!!

Adriatic posted:

Don't knock on it til you try it

You lost a reverse loop on the left; if it concerns you

It looks like it could be connected via far lower left spur to the low left bone's spur   on a whim though.... Interesting 🤔

 

I figure one reversing loop per side is good enough. Eventually, I'll run that very bottom left line out the wall to a reversing loop a fair distance away. 

Hey Fellas;

Going to necro my own post here. It's been probably 6 or 8 months since I've even been here and lots of things in my world have changed.

From going to get my pilot's license to the whole RONA2020 thing, to losing my job and starting a contract oilfield company things have been generally pretty... different I guess.

SO this is what I've come up with finally, after dozens of crumpled up and binned e-plans from scarm. I've figured out that I'm more into running tin and the semi-scale stuff than actual operations and I figure I can do this justice this winter with the appropriate scenery. 

I'm going to put my clockwork layout (separate thread here: CLICK) on the opposite wall I'll be shoving this against (spur in the top left to eventually go through that wall and down a long branchline) and an N scale creation of my own in maybe 2x4 called Iron Creek that I've been planning for some time under the window.

Anyways, here it is in it's SCARM and picture form. Toss some comments my way! I'll try to build one for the Iron Creek RR too and stuff it in this thread as well. 

Wow, you have had a lot of changes!  Plenty of other folks have this year as well.

It looks like a plan with lots of routes for running semi scale and tinplate trains that should make for lots of action.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Wow, you have had a lot of changes!  Plenty of other folks have this year as well.

It looks like a plan with lots of routes for running semi scale and tinplate trains that should make for lots of action.

Yeah Mark, I can imagine (and have seen) some of the array of crazy things that have happened here and elsewhere over the last few months during my radio silence. That bridge though... nuts. All I can say is that I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

I also wanted though to be able to run more than a single train, possibly in other directions. I can separately power the two loops and then selectively switch power to the sidings also. Lots of opportunities. 

So I stuck all the track together to make the layout happen last night. Plugged it in, run a little older CW-80 to it and yay! It works... oh... well, it kinda works. 

Too Many Switches. WAY too many.

So I poked it again. Here's the thoughts: Eliminated inner circuit passing loop, eliminated crossover, made just a reversing line with industry on each side. Gonna try it tonight and see if it's better, worse or the same. My little Lionel 0-6-0 kept stalling out going over the switches at slow speed.

Update / Re-fix if you want! 

OK! 

Thanks to Arnold's "do it again" thread , I've been re-evaluating where I am and all that. The 4x8 has to go. Yes, it's a waste of lumber but after living with, planning for, being frustrated by and gnawing on it for the last year, it's too much of a constraint. The trains need a place to go, there needs to be space for scenery and it's just a PITA trying to keep it simple while packing all that into 32 square feet. The one door is already taken off the hinges, the other one won't take much.

I revisited my older designs and came up with this. It's got the point to point, reversing loops, roundy-rounds, passing sidings, storage, all of the above. plus space for a huge bridge wherever I want to put it, probably in the corner. Maybe a tunnel (probably not) or a rock cut. Ambitious! I already spoke with some well learned tinscale bretheren and have revised my revision to include a wye. Awesome - thanks James!

Thoughts?

It's been over a year and I've been constantly thinking (on and off) about what the heck to do still. In the mean time, I've been building a plane, the room had been a catch-all for tents and other camping gear and a cool, relaxing and quiet place to sleep in the summer. I've revisited all the layouts, scratched them all and rebuilt something I think I'll finally be happy with.

This Includes my clockwork layout above, that'll go underneath the center passing siding or one of the side units. In this layout, I can see running 2 or 3 trains, some switching and yard sorting duties, at least three places to stop, the opportunity for lots of industry and an interchange track on the bottom left that I have no problem knocking a hole in the drywall for. I've removed both the french doors to the room so the tables shouldn't really be a problem if they stick out (and they do). The top two curves on either side of the passing siding are O27 42" radius, just because it'll make for better running, but the rest of the curves are 27". I think this'll be something that I can be happy with. It should be fairly simple to wire, running a feeder right underneath the main with automated signals and the like. I'd still like to do that majestic trestle or bridge in the corner too.

I've also attached the ceiling layout - was just thinking simple would be best for this one. A loop of O27 with 42" curves. I'd like to pick up the 6 long sections I need and start on this one first just so I'm not knocking dust on everything below. The thoughts for suspension are 1" floor (ceiling?) flanges screwed to the joists with 150ANSI light duty pipe nipples and an elbow, with the same wooden bridge decking I was thinking from before. Just a nicer place to run longer locomotives and trains like the baby madison's, and my Marx 21's, using the spare CW80 I have.

As always, open to thoughts and comments! Thanks for looking, stay safe.

Tom, I'm sorry to take so long getting back to you.  I knew it would take me a while to find some photographs of my ceiling level layout.  I have one brick wall that I suspended the shelf from the joists with all-thread coupled to anchors.  The other three walls are wall board, and I used inexpensive metal shelf brackets.  Here are some photographs.

These are what I hung from the joists.  You can see the couplings are almost at ceiling height.  I drilled holes, then put a coupler on an an anchor until it bottomed out.  Then I used a wrench to drive the anchor in the whole way.  You can see I left some extra all thread so I could level the shelves.  I never cut off the excess all thread.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Tom, I'm sorry to take so long getting back to you.  I knew it would take me a while to find some photographs of my ceiling level layout.  I have one brick wall that I suspended the shelf from the joists with all-thread coupled to anchors.  The other three walls are wall board, and I used inexpensive metal shelf brackets.  Here are some photographs.

These are what I hung from the joists.  You can see the couplings are almost at ceiling height.  I drilled holes, then put a coupler on an an anchor until it bottomed out.  Then I used a wrench to drive the anchor in the whole way.  You can see I left some extra all thread so I could level the shelves.  I never cut off the excess all thread.

Mark, don't be sorry for taking your time, you've done an excellent job with the allthread and shelving to create a ceiling layout! Looks great.

Tom, Thank you very much!  I didn't look far enough back to show two all threads that are not quite perpendicular to the ceiling.  Lining up the holes in the shelves to be right underneath was hard for me.  I elongated a couple of holes, but on hindsight, it wasn't quite enough.  I got tired of fooling with them, to be quite honest. 

@SteamWolf posted:

It's been over a year and I've been constantly thinking (on and off) about what the heck to do still. In the mean time, I've been building a plane, the room had been a catch-all for tents and other camping gear and a cool, relaxing and quiet place to sleep in the summer. I've revisited all the layouts, scratched them all and rebuilt something I think I'll finally be happy with.

In this configuration, a train travelling clockwise around the room is going to get "stuck" in the oval on the right, unless it is in "push/pull" service. Normally, I am not a fan of the "you need a reversing loop" posts, but in this case, you might want to think about some sort of reversing mechanism. I am not sure if there is enough room to fit one, but perhaps a "wye" in the upper right of the loop.