Building a $500 Layout

[Justinmiller171]

I am almost done building my ho-scale shelf layout, but lately I have been wanting to have a small portable layout, that is easy and cheap to build, I am also wanting continuous running ability, and realistic switching.

I was strongly influenced by Mike Kieran's Port Able Railway, and I used many of his ideas for my track-plan below:



I designed the layout to be operated in two different era's, the Erie RR in 1949, and a shortline in 1979. When operating as a shortline the upper right part of the curve will be used as an interchange track, when ran as the Erie RR it will be used as the entrance to the branchline.

I designed this layout to be cheap and easy to build. I am unemployed and I will be starting college soon, so I have a goal to build this layout for under $500. According to my calculations, track and buildings will be about $300 and benchwork will be around $50, this leaves about $150 for scenery, which should be enough. Track will be Atlas code 83 snap-track, and there will only be 3 turnouts, that should make this layout easy to build and maintain.

I should be able to start building the benchwork soon, I will be using plywood under a sheet of extruded foam. I plan on getting benchwork, track, and wiring done by the end of summer.