Train Room 04/18/2022 update

Good for you partner!

Congrats, can't wait to see more progress!

WTG Mike.  We'll literally get to see your layout from the ground up.  Looking forward to following your build.

Looks like you are off to a good start! Good luck with the weather.

Thanks all, I have a feeling this is going to take a while. But I will keep you up to date!

Mike- Gotta start somewhere right? Looking forward to the build. Been in construction for 30 years, cutting a door into a block wall is no small feat. That would be a project by itself for many people.

Bob

Go for it Mike!

Your right Bob, the concrete wall took most of the day, due to the fact I was using a 7" saw with a concrete blade along with a 4" grinder with concrete blade and a small jack hammer! Boy was it a good work out! Framing the door was easy! LOL

Hokie, all I had to do was wait for the wife to say go. and boy did I jump at it when she did!

Mike please post a pic or two of the concrete pour.  This should be a fun project to follow.

Will do Mary.

Mike,

   Congrats on a great start to the Train Room, Semper Fi! Buddy

PCRR/Dave

Mike : So HAPPY for you !! Keep us posted.. another Menardsville is coming..

Great start, Mike!! Keep us posted. 

John

Slow is good! Gives you a chance to think things over.

Mike, I'm glad to see you have started on your layout room build.  I know what it is like to wait a long time to get a room to build a new layout again!  I will be watching your progress and cheering you on for the new-to-me "Under 144 square feet" train room!!

Hi Mark, Thanks for the encouragement! 144 Square Feet is all I get. No more room for anything else! I have been fallowing your updates also Mark! I like to try and keep up with what everyone is doing, best way to learn!

Is not 12' X 24' = 288 square feet?

Just asking, my math skills are a little slow. Did not see OP state the layout would only be half that size!

Donald

Donald, you are correct! But good for you as you learned early with me, sometimes I am slow!

Before long, you'll be building that layout, I just know it!

"You've taken your first step into a larger world."

-Obi Wan Kenobi, in Star Wars- Episode 4

Thanks Lee, I am going to need all the support I can get. Its just me here, I don't know anyone else in the area that are into model trains. Just the one guy that sells trains as a retirement income.

It's great to have that much space.  It's okay that it will take some time.  That way you can plan exactly what you want to have.  A lot of folks were overly excited and eager and just started throwing things together.  Resist that...come up with a plan.  Like what your railroad is, where it is, what it's doing and the most important thing is that how will you and others interact with it.  Do you have a favorite railroad or place you want to model?

If you are doing a toy train layout or a display loop for your collection that's two types of layouts.  If you are going for the model of a railroad remember to consider the Who, Where, What, When and Why of your line....plausibility, purpose and most importantly participation for yourself and others!

You have a "blank slate."  You have the canvas.  Now, what will you do?  Take your time.  If you really want to get something going put up some temporary Fastrak while your are thinking.  :-) 

Hi John, thank you for all the wise words. I have been working with Carl and Dave from the forum for over the last year on my layout plan, and I am pretty sure we have it nailed down. I plan on running modern day Engines, I have some freight cars, I have a few tankers I need to get more of them, I have an Amtrak train with 6 cars, but still need to get a dome car and sleeper for it. 

I plan on running from Seattle to Chicago, running all the above, I have an oil field and station planned, some city stuff, mountains. I know there is a lot more to think about.

I plan on using MTH ScaleTrak for my layout. I know what others have said, but I love the look of the track and Like I said I am slow so I can wait on a few things if I have to.

You should have a well thought out plan by the time you get the room built!  I'm looking forward to seeing the plan.  Maybe you have a topic in the planning forum, and I can't recall it.

Hi Mark, here are a couple picture of the layout plan.

I like the way you have incorporated the reverse loops. Looks like a good idea.

Mark Boyce posted:

You should have a well thought out plan by the time you get the room built!  I'm looking forward to seeing the plan.  Maybe you have a topic in the planning forum, and I can't recall it.

Mark, here's a link to the planning thread.

Just to put this out there right away Carl AKA (MOONMAN) has everything to do with this plan and I cant thank him enough! He asked a lot of questions and I gave him my ideas, Its kinda like he climbs in your hear and sees what your thinking! Great GUY!

The only thing it's missing is the crossovers. Still haven't decided where to put them?

Dave, thanks I forgot about the crossovers. It a good thing I have a lot of time before I reach that stage!

mike g. posted:

Thanks Lee, I am going to need all the support I can get. Its just me here, I don't know anyone else in the area that are into model trains. Just the one guy that sells trains as a retirement income.

Mike, having people nearby who can help answer questions, give good advice, come out to help once you’re elbow-deep in the build and generally be there for you, is essential.

I couldn’t possibly have gotten as far as I did in the timeframe I did what I ref to as “The initial build” of the layout (as no layout is ever FINISHED, right), without several people. They gave me great advice, showed me their excellent layouts to get a good feel for operations, helped with the track plan, did grunt work on wiring and DCC and most of all provided a LOT of encouragement. Had it not been for all of them, my layout wouldn’t be what it is, and the upcoming 2017 On30 Annual article on my layout for sure wouldn’t soon be coming out.

I lucked up by becoming friends with someone who was well-connected to the local railfan and model RR community and therefore meeting others.

Had that not happened, I might have gotten more involved with NMRA events in the area, or hooking up with one of the groups I see at the model train meets.

I am an NMRA member, something you might want to look into. I joined to attend the Portland convention (but I couldn’t get the time off) and while I don’t have a flexible work schedule to go to much of their events, I was welcomed with open arms and get invites to events all the time. Most are up north in your area but there’s local stuff for me as well. You’d also be able to find out about the local informal groups that you might not know about. For example, there’s a very active Olympia group that many have no clue about.

An NMRA membership isn’t cheap, but if you could find the ‘live and in person’ versions of the really great people I see posting here, wouldn’t it be worth it? Let’s face it, you can have the most amazing layout in the world, but everyone wants to be able to get some kindred spirits around every now and then!

Yeah, I know, 3-rail isn’t their thing. Yeah, most of them are HO or N guys, but there ARE 3-railiers among them, I know a few down in this area.

Just give it a thought. I couldn’t imagine my layout without the people I’ve directly dealt with! 

FYI, do you plan on going to Monroe on Saturday?

Mike, I'm glad I mentioned it then. It never occurred to me that you might have forgotten about it.

Hi Lee, Thanks for all the information I have been looking around our area for people and found one in Shelton, but everything else is an hour drive for me. I will look in to the NMRA membership and see what it entails. No I wont be going to Monroe on Saturday as it is if I drive around its a 21/2 hour drive if not 3 hours.

Dave, I just thought I would takle that when the time came, but then I know that's not a good idea! LOL

Mike, nothing wrong with waiting. My only concern is/was the track spacing.

DoubleDAZ posted:

Mark Boyce posted:

You should have a well thought out plan by the time you get the room built!  I'm looking forward to seeing the plan.  Maybe you have a topic in the planning forum, and I can't recall it.

Mark, here's a link to the planning thread.

Thank you Dave!  Yes, now I see which plan it is.  I even commented to Mike how much I liked his swing up bridge!  Super!!

Thanks Mark, I learned everything about that bridge from here on the Forum. Then RTR, GunRunnerJohn, Big-Boy_4005 hooked me up with the needed limit switches. As far as I am concerned this the best place for information and friendship!

"As far as I am concerned this the best place for information and friendship!"

I agree wholeheartedly!!!

mike g. posted:

Hi John, thank you for all the wise words. I have been working with Carl and Dave from the forum for over the last year on my layout plan, and I am pretty sure we have it nailed down. I plan on running modern day Engines, I have some freight cars, I have a few tankers I need to get more of them, I have an Amtrak train with 6 cars, but still need to get a dome car and sleeper for it. 

I plan on running from Seattle to Chicago, running all the above, I have an oil field and station planned, some city stuff, mountains. I know there is a lot more to think about.

I plan on using MTH ScaleTrak for my layout. I know what others have said, but I love the look of the track and Like I said I am slow so I can wait on a few things if I have to.

You are running my line!  :-)  I do Marias Pass which is the southern border of Glacier National Park in Montana.  

Your plan sounds very ambitious.  You may want to consider focusing on one area because it will be a great challenge to have some continuity/logic in your scenery attempting to depict that long of a run.  You can use your mountains to "divide" one scene from the other to improve your visual display/scene integrity.  If you are going mountains, you should consider focusing on either Washington state in the Cascades or the Rockies in Montana.  Your "end points" don't have to be visibly modeled...

Modeling smaller areas is a logical approach to consider especially considering all of our space constraints and scale.  Even in my basement, I'm depicting about 180 some odd miles of track with two miles of scale line and that is pressing it.

Food for thought.  :-)

If it were me!  Russ

mike g. posted:

 As far as I am concerned this the best place for information and friendship!

I also agree 100% with this. I’m on a couple of other model RR forums, one is more devoted to fine craftsmanship and has a really good small core of people into On30. Lots of very impressive model work can be seen there, in various scales (including some European guys and their travelling layouts). And while I do enjoy the model work and many of the people there, I mostly enjoy this forum for just the simple big smile, “Wow, cool!” reaction I just need to have every now and then. Many of you know I’m not into 3-rail, but it is the same scale I model and there’s a lot of very impressive (what I think is called, “Fine scale” 3-rail? I can’t recall the labels for the various applications of 3-rail) work being shown here.

There’s a couple of people here I don’t think as much of as some others (which is unavoidable on any forum, I’m sure there are more than a few that don’t think much of some of my opinions), but the positive people list, to me, FAR outnumbers the not-so-positive-for-me list. Guys like you Mike, Suzukovich and several others I wish I could recall their login names to give proper credit to. You guys have given massive encouragement and kind words since I've been here. Many times, you guys bring a smile to my face when I really need it (my life is hardly a tale of woe but we all need a smile every now and then, right!)

I don't know how many people frequent this forum are subscribers to the magazine, but I will confess to buying issues when they have something I find interesting. Again, I'm not a 3-railer so such content is largely lost on me. But I have seen several issues that had some good 2-rail or On30 stuff. I just bought the newest issue over at Wal-Mart (where I was surprised to see it) the other day and loved it.

That's all from this forum.

It's a special place and I appreciate the people here.

Well said Lee, and you don't even know it, but I just learned something from your post! Now I need to start looking for the ORG magazine at Wal-Mart next time I go. I didn't even know they carried it!