01-29-2009, 01:21 PM
Well, here I go again. Something fresh for the new site.
History -
Several years ago, I got fed up with the club and decided it was time to build a layout at home. My wife and I decided at that time that the best place to build a layout would be in the room that we used the least - our Dining room. There, I built an N scale, L shaped layout.
Half our family room was occupied by our office. My wife promised that when she moved the office out of home into a real "office", I could have the old space for a new layout. Thus, I designed a huge layout to fit the space. The design was so neat that I fine tuned it and submitted it to MR's layout planning contest (winners to be revealed in May). Some of you may remember that I posted pics of the design on this site ever so briefly before other members suggested I remove it to better my meager chances at winning.
In the last couple of weeks, my wife followed through on her promise and we moved the office out of home. As I began looking at the empty space, visualizing the new layout, I came to realize that it was just too big for our house. My wife was in full support of building it but I could not. Plus, our Dining room is now being used more and more frequently and it sure would be nice to have that little bit of extra space. That layouts gotta go.
As we sat down to discuss options, several ideas surfaced but I have to admit that the best one came from her. "Build a smaller one in the other corner of the family room and poke it through the wall into the Living room. And, since you need someplace to run your narrow gauge engine," she said, "why don't you build a shelf layout on the other side?" AMAZING IDEA! So, here we have the other corner of the family room.
And, the small area in the Living room where it will pop out.
Following is a rough, VERY ROUGH, plan of the new layout...
It's designed to be a double mainline all the way around with a large yard and two towns with several industries. I hope to model the transition era as closely as possible. Size and design dictates that the minimum radius be 12". On the right hand side, I am toying with the idea of making the bridge either a duckunder or a liftout. I just have to find a bridge large enough to span a 2'8" gap. I've been looking for an HO bridge in the hopes that I would have a better chance of finding one. I saw one similar to this a while back, but can't seem to find it again.
Any help in this area would be most appreciated. It needs to span the entire gap .
I have also enlarged the yard area so you don't have to squint so hard...
I tried my best to follow the guidelines for designing a proper yard. The structure up behind the roundhouse will be either a car repair facility or a diesel facility. Down towards the right, where the three stubs come out, is a fantastic place for a rather large industry. I'm thinking a gas refinery or something.
It's a work in progress and comments are definitely welcomed.
History -
Several years ago, I got fed up with the club and decided it was time to build a layout at home. My wife and I decided at that time that the best place to build a layout would be in the room that we used the least - our Dining room. There, I built an N scale, L shaped layout.
Half our family room was occupied by our office. My wife promised that when she moved the office out of home into a real "office", I could have the old space for a new layout. Thus, I designed a huge layout to fit the space. The design was so neat that I fine tuned it and submitted it to MR's layout planning contest (winners to be revealed in May). Some of you may remember that I posted pics of the design on this site ever so briefly before other members suggested I remove it to better my meager chances at winning.
In the last couple of weeks, my wife followed through on her promise and we moved the office out of home. As I began looking at the empty space, visualizing the new layout, I came to realize that it was just too big for our house. My wife was in full support of building it but I could not. Plus, our Dining room is now being used more and more frequently and it sure would be nice to have that little bit of extra space. That layouts gotta go.
As we sat down to discuss options, several ideas surfaced but I have to admit that the best one came from her. "Build a smaller one in the other corner of the family room and poke it through the wall into the Living room. And, since you need someplace to run your narrow gauge engine," she said, "why don't you build a shelf layout on the other side?" AMAZING IDEA! So, here we have the other corner of the family room.
And, the small area in the Living room where it will pop out.
Following is a rough, VERY ROUGH, plan of the new layout...
It's designed to be a double mainline all the way around with a large yard and two towns with several industries. I hope to model the transition era as closely as possible. Size and design dictates that the minimum radius be 12". On the right hand side, I am toying with the idea of making the bridge either a duckunder or a liftout. I just have to find a bridge large enough to span a 2'8" gap. I've been looking for an HO bridge in the hopes that I would have a better chance of finding one. I saw one similar to this a while back, but can't seem to find it again.
Any help in this area would be most appreciated. It needs to span the entire gap .
I have also enlarged the yard area so you don't have to squint so hard...
I tried my best to follow the guidelines for designing a proper yard. The structure up behind the roundhouse will be either a car repair facility or a diesel facility. Down towards the right, where the three stubs come out, is a fantastic place for a rather large industry. I'm thinking a gas refinery or something.
It's a work in progress and comments are definitely welcomed.