The Barn - A 30 x 50 layout begins

George,

That would be January 2014.  Run 268. 

Thanks George..  Dan

Rail Dawg posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

I certainly understand it takes a while to get the space ready, both in time and cash!  Looking forward to seeing you start when the time comes!!

Thanks Mark.

This looks to be a $100k kind of project.

That's a lot of money. But it's trains...

 

If you have it, why not spend it?

BXCXDan posted:

Dear Sir,

Having built a few layouts.. to the one I now have in my own barn.. I would consider these valuable lessons.

-No duck unders..  Having those suck. Especially for those with back, leg, hip issues.. if you feel you need a duck under.. then built the walkway area with a lift out bridge or something similar. because ducking under sucks! 

-reach.. only make the benchwork as far as you can reach.. if it's outta reach, that is where your issues will be. If you can get to the tables from both sides, then your reach to center from each side is your width.

-height.. I would have made mine Chest height.. It isn't.. and I contemplate raising the layout every day.

-electrical... do that before scenery.. at least the bus wires.. get them run under the layout. 

-height of scenery works better to the eye then depth of scenery.. 

-make all benchwork modular. So if you don't like something or want a change, taking out the old and inserting a new piece is easier...  Plus you can work on the new piece while the old one is still in place and you can still run trains. 

-For O-Scale, use 3/4" plywood sub road bed.. For the areas where sometimes where risers get a little wide, the plywood being a little thicker, won't sag. because 1/2" will. Don't use flake board.. that stuff sucks for model RR. If you get flake board and use water against it for scenery, the flake board seems to expand and never contract. 

-Wide isles.. A must, you can do it with the room you have.. 30x50.. Trust me, it is worth the effort to have these.. I have two spots where the isles gets close, but they ope right up to wide ares.. I also didn't make those areas points of interests.. make your points of interests where the isles are wide. so people can gather easier without hitting benchwork.. 

 

-If your thinking of having a turn table.. One where the tracks are coming out all around it, that becomes an area of interest and people gather around it.. I did mine where the mainline went behind the house and people can see into the roundhouse.. and also get right up to the table to see the loco's turn.. This turntable idea came to me this past spring and I changed the whole yard and turn table area into another part of the layout in another area of the room to accommodate this. It works out great now.. 

-Also, with your yard, well, before i forget, have a staging yard.. one hidden under mountains or there of.. then your yard itself won't be cramped with cars as mine was till I did this.. (I am also ridding cars of later dates because my model RR is set around 1977. So this purge is setting up nicely as I now have room for the cars that fit the timeline.) Also, keep switches within easy arm length.. repair is easer etc..  I did redesign the yard as stated above, and am going to again because of the railcar purge etc.. Plus, the yard is smaller and more manageable. well, the whole layout is..

Also, keep this in mind when you design.. 1) model the places as scenes you love as a kid, adult.. just don't put track down for the sake of putting track down.. you will get bored with it. I learned this on the first layout here in the barn.. I thought I had all the room and when the layout was up.. it sucked.. so a friend came over and told me it sucked and gave me this advice.. number 1 again, model scene you love, figure out the top five scenes you love and design them into the layout, then the next five and so one. you find that the layout fills out nicely and you will want to work on it all the time.. Mine is (3) years old now and it is awesome to me! I;m not biased or anything! HA! But I can't wait to work on it when i have the time.. Or add to it or whatever.. I am always designing for the better.. I love running it, showing it, etc.. with these changes too, I have to write into this mag to show my updates as the model RR was published in O-Gauge at about two year ago.. 

Anyhow, designing and building is fun! Good luck!   I hope this points help?

Dan

dan@m4cg.com  if you need or have any other questions.. 

Thanks for this BXCXDan - this is really useful and practical advice - I will build this into my roadmap!

Brit Railer, You are welcome.. Glad I can help.  Dan

Rail Dawg posted:

 

 

Here is an outside view of The Barn:

 

WOW

Rail Dawg posted:

I'm still around getting together the initial 5k needed to get the second floor installed in the barn.

This will all be done with cash... no credit.

Am accumulating Atlas Flex track and turnouts along with various electrical components.

Long-term project of course. Will be exciting to get floor in so there is a "canvas" to work on.

Chuck

 

 

2 Thoughts:

Cash is the smart way to go.

Don't get in a hurry, take you time and enjoy. Building the thing is the best part!

Simon

One other thing: Less is More.

I really like your major project and your progress reports.  Most importantly I like the looks of the 'barn'!    See my 'barn'.  Russ

Like the barn