well I guess it's time to come clean and admit that my name can now officially be added to the list of people on these forums building O scale "Hi-Rail" layouts. I haven't got a name for it yet so in honor of the late John Allen, I have adapted his famous model RR name as a temporary expedient until a real name comes along.
I am not a complete neophyte but my last layout was 35 years ago and it was HO. So I at least know what I don't want and the very first thing I didn't want was 1/87 scale. Too small. Period. But HO would have let me do more with my basement space which Will permit roughly 16x17 feet of ACTUAL LAYOUT with room to walk around the entire outside with one small exception for the furnace. Two house support posts come down in the middle of the layout space so I decided on a U-shaped layout with a 2 foot wide aisle in the middle that would include the 2 poles.
The next thing I knew I didn't want was any significant amount of time or money spent on bench work. I am not a carpenter. Heck, it's quite a stretch to call myself a modeler! So I began my philosophical quest...how can I build a layout without benchwork? Impossible you say? Tut tut. The answer was in my garage, staring right at me in the form of the old trade show display that was used for my business before I retired. This consisted of 4 7' by 2' steel mesh frames and 4 more of the same that were just 1' wide, plus all the various connectors to put these 8 sections together any way I wanted
so what I did was build 2 hollow boxes 7' wide by 14' long since I was short 2 metal mesh frames to complete my "boxes", I filled those ends in with 2x10x8' lumber. Ta-da! Instant mostly-steel benchwork. Just add 2x4 legs and a wooden frame section to connect my two hollow boxes at one end to form the base of the "U". I knocked the whole thing out in 2 weeks At the rate of about an hour per day. My total benchwork cost was right around $46.
rather than try to visualize this thing, please see the pix above. They show the steel mesh frames connected together and being used to support the train table--ya, no L-girders here. Just an old fashioned flat table. More on that shortly.
While I was making steel mesh boxes, I was trying to figure out what kind of railroad I wanted to run. Number 1 answer: A FUN railroad. Yeah, I like scale appearance as much as the next guy. But I also like coal loaders and culvert loaders and bascule bridges. So from the start I knew that this would be a mix and match effort. The second thing I knew I wanted was trestles, tunnels and bridges--as many as possible. Fun stuff! Visually interesting and fun to model. The third thing I had to have was and is engine terminal service facilities--roundhouse, turntable, water towers, sand, ash pits--all that stuff. I don't know exactly why but I love the industrial side of railroading--where the road infrastructure is one of the interesting industries that I get to model. Anyway, that is a requirement for me. Finally, I want some real, class 1, Pullman-style passenger operation.
Add those all up and you could fill a 40 foot by 90 foot space. So this is my challenge. How do I do this in 16x17 feet? The jury is still way out--I just got started. But I think I've come up with some good ideas that I want to run by you for you to shoot at and help me make my goals.
so check out the pix and I'll post again soon about life-after-steel-benchwork.
Don
