Ocalicreek's Garage Layout Planning Thread

[doctorwayne]

Work has kept me busy, and I haven't been able to make a new dimensional drawing for the layout space. But surely somebody has been able to come up with something! Just draw an HO layout plan to fit a 6' x 19' space. Anything.

Honestly, Galen, a clearer sketch of the room, particularly along the north wall, would give us something more useful to work with. Saying that the north wall is unobstructed makes your existing sketch confusing. Also, you don't want a duck-under, yet your access from the house appears to be on this wall - a lift-out may be a possibility, though. Is that water heater gas or electric? An electric one could be moved fairly easily. The freezer - upright or chest-type? And what's that "H.P." in the north-east corner?
Also, how much length do you need for the car? Any layout sharing space with cars, work benches, toys and tools, and other day-to-day activities is going to be a bugger to keep clean, so my first consideration would be to separate the layout from the rest of the area. You could possibly do this on the north and west walls, if you're able to shorten the area required for the car. You could store "seasonal" or seldom-used stuff under the layout, but the rest should stay in the garage area. This would probably result in a folded dogbone style layout, with a lift-up or lift-out at the new doorway. This would allow continuous running, simplify your lighting requirements, and even give you the possibility of a two-level layout (the two levels wouldn't be connected, but it would allow you to create both a mainline area for your longer trains and a branchline area for switching and more laid-back operations.)
As for an actual trackplan, we need to first determine the space that is actually available.

Here's a rough sketch, based on how I understand the parameters of the allowable space. I'd forget about using the east wall altogether: use it for the workbench, storage, etc. The new walls are shown in red, which should have included the section along the south end, by the garage door.


The 6' width of the new "room" will allow a 32" radius for continuous running, and if you use the "dogbone" idea, you'll have ample aisle space along the new internal wall. If the bump-out from the north wall isn't practical at 6', I'd eliminate it completely, simply making the new north/south partition straight, with the new door the same distance from the north wall as shown in my sketch. This should give you about 50' of continuous running (almost a mile, in HO), with fairly broad curves for your passenger equipment. Because the bulk of the layout will be along the external west wall, layout lighting (strip fluorescents) will be cheap and easy. If you go to a two-level design, simply hang lighting for the lower level on the underside of the upper.

Only 75 views? I have willingly given hours of my time to contribute and share ideas on this forum and the previous incarnation...and this kind of lackluster response is the sort of thing that makes a person just drop off a forum and go even more lone wolf. Not like anybody would notice.

Maybe I'll just lurk like the rest

Let's hope not.

Not everybody is interested in making trackplans - we see lots of requests for folks who are stumped, though. Personally, other than a very rough sketch, I didn't have one for my layout, and it got tossed when part of the available space was lost to "family considerations". In my opinion, preparing the space for the layout is at least as important as the plan - after all, a great plan will quickly lose its attraction if you spend most of your time cleaning or repairing it, and aren't in a comfortable environment while you're working on, or operating, it.

Wayne