M-J RailConnect Layout Progress Thread

[RRManiac]

Hey guys. This is the progress thread for my future layout, M-J Rail Connect.

I still have to get the first bunch of N scale track.

I am probably going to use Kato Unitrack.

II'll get all the stuff that I'll need to build the layout together now, that way when the time comes, I can just build the whole layout, put everything together permanently, and use it.

Tonight, Whilst down at the local train club, I was in the Large Scale layout room running trains and remembered that there is a nice little switching layout that they have added on to the main O scale layout. It also sits right over top of the G scale layout that we have on a lower level.

It would make an excellent industrial park that I can use. I am going to follow Tony Koester's advice in his book he wrote on Operations and build "Layout Design Elements" or LDEs. Eventually, when I have the room, I can put them all together into a big permanent layout.

I don't know where I will add this industrial park section at, what industries will go there, or what town it might be in, but it would make an excellent start on a layout. I can operate it as a switching layout with "cassettes" to use as an interchange to bring in new cars, and take out the old ones.

Eventually, it would link together with the permanent layout there, but it'll make a nice first start.

I'm also considering the possibility of using something more like Atlas sectional track without the attached ballast, so that I can use Linn Westcott's ballasting technique of gluing the track to the base with the ballast, and then being able to scrape it up, ballast and all, if you need to rework a track layout.

I will go with the one of the better quality between the two. I can't wait to see this whole thing come together.


Attached is the roughed out track plan based off of the one down at the train club in the Large Scale room.

I may also use the leftover section of wood from my layout at Dad's after I rebuild it. I plan to chop most of it off, so I can use what's leftover afterwords. That's why I considered the Atlas track, because then I can just scrape it up off and put it onto a HCD when I get everything together to make the layout.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

To be honest, the more i look at it, the more cluttered this layout looks. I know industrial parks can get packed, but i think you should figure out what buildings and things you want to use on your layout, and then plan the track plan around those, making sure not the crowd them so close that it couldn't operate realistically (such as truck docks that are too cramped for a truck to fit in).

Many of your spurs curve around and move in unusual ways, and some look like there are no rooms for structures or other equipment. I would loose more of those spurs, and create more room for your train's environment.


as far as track goes, Atlas track will always be more flexible and easy to modify than any other track. Kato uni-track is great, but you're stuck with rigid dimensions that don't always work out conveniently or efficiently.

[RRManiac]

To be honest, the more i look at it, the more cluttered this layout looks. I know industrial parks can get packed, but i think you should figure out what buildings and things you want to use on your layout, and then plan the track plan around those, making sure not the crowd them so close that it couldn't operate realistically (such as truck docks that are too cramped for a truck to fit in).

I suppose that is a problem with converting it from O scale down to N scale. Not everything fit exactly the way it was supposed to. I suppose what I was doing there was actually trying to fit it into a 3x5' segment, seeings how that is the size of the wood that I will have left after I remove it from my layout at Dad's. I may be able to add another foot, but I'm not sure.

Many of your spurs curve around and move in unusual ways, and some look like there are no rooms for structures or other equipment. I would loose more of those spurs, and create more room for your train's environment.

I copied the layout exactly from the way it was designed at the train club with our 3-rail O-gauge track.

as far as track goes, Atlas track will always be more flexible and easy to modify than any other track. Kato uni-track is great, but you're stuck with rigid dimensions that don't always work out conveniently or efficiently.

I probably will go with the Atlas track here. I was only going to use the Kato track on the mainline, because they have track that is already set up for super-elevated curves.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I suppose that is a problem with converting it from O scale down to N scale. Not everything fit exactly the way it was supposed to. I suppose what I was doing there was actually trying to fit it into a 3x5' segment, seeings how that is the size of the wood that I will have left after I remove it from my layout at Dad's. I may be able to add another foot, but I'm not sure.

I copied the layout exactly from the way it was designed at the train club with our 3-rail O-gauge track.

Yeah, but 3-rail O-gauge is going to have different geometry from N-scale track. I would figure out how long any of your locomotives and things will be, and see what you can realistically fit on a spur line, and see if it makes sense that way.

I would never assume it still works just because you "scaled it down". O can handle tighter curves for it's scale than the smaller scales.

[RRManiac]

That is true.

I know I am using the same engine, but different cars.

I think that the best thing to do is to get the piece of wood I'll work on, get a bunch of flextrak and the approximate number of turnouts that I need, and then just lay it out physically on the board.

I'll be working on it as a table that can be picked up from the floor. When I want to operate it, put it on my bed. When I want to work on it, set it on the floor. When I want to put it up for a while, prop it up against the wall.

It'll all work out eventualy.