Model railroad layouts plans

Common model railroad mistakes – Michael seems to have made them all, just like the rest of us.

The difference is, he’s been kind enough to document them.

And he really has started from scratch again, as many of you do.

His last post, which is called ‘Two years of trail and error’, is here.

It’s worth revisiting it to get a feel of what Michael is doing.

He really is chopping out the bits that he didn’t like – common railroad mistakes we all make:

“Alastair –

I thought I would share a major course correction I am working for my railroad. I played with that configuration for quite a while. I learned a lot, including what I did not like.

I decided there were some significant weaknesses with the old design. That design was basically two large irregular ovals one above the other connected by an incline. The design lacked a coherent “operational story”, in other words, the railroad did not have a clearly defined job to perform.

Also the design was an island design in the middle of a large room otherwise used for storage. I decided the room itself was poorly utilized and there would be no way for me to achieve the “Wow! factor” I was really looking for.

So this past summer I tore it all down; removed all the ugly and junky storage; I had the walls and floors finished and greatly improved the lighting.

While the room was being reworked I designed a brand new around the walls and peninsula design for the railroad.

The pictures I am sharing today are of the as-built design on new benchwork before any paint, scenery or structures goes on the layout.

As a reminder, the sole purpose of this railroad is to run my fifty to sixty year old vintage Lionel O-gauge equipment. (HO is not an option!)

The new design preserves all of my original layout goals, but without the common model railroad mistakes.

There are several improvements with this layout:

Much larger footprint;
* old design was 11 x 27 feet, ~300 sq. ft.
* new design is 17.5 x 38.5 feet, ~670 sq. ft.
* Interestingly, the total amount of track is almost the same: just over three scale miles.

The uninterrupted main line is more than a half scale mile longer.

All reverse loops are removed; reverse loops on 3-rail O-gauge aren’t an electrical problem but they do take up a lot of space and can be hard to reach in some areas; they are not particularly prototypical.

Turning trains is accomplished by using a wye.

The incline is removed. This track didn’t get used much and became a source of irritation. The new design is flat all around. I will obtain the appearance of grades using scenery and forced perspective. Additionally, having a grade is not operationally important in this case.

Simplified wiring.

Larger more sweeping curves; longer straight sections.

Can reach all track easily.

Better designed aisles; The narrowest pinch point is 21 inches wide, and there are many areas where the aisle width is greater than 36 inches. So there is plenty of room to walk around. The interior main aisle is accessed using a very simple lift-out bridge.

Benchwork is about 7” higher than before.

The biggest improvement is in the operational story.

This railroad is very loosely based on the Colorado and Wyoming Southern Division.

The Southern Division carried coal from the mine at Primero, to the coke ovens at Segundo, and then onward to the Colorado Fuel and Iron steel mill at Trinidad. There were interchanges at Jansen and Trinidad with the Colorado & Southern, AT&SF, and Rio Grande railroads.

The new design includes areas on the track for Primero, Segundo, and Jansen and provides for interchange traffic using the two staging tracks labeled Trinidad. With this design the railroad has a clearly defined job moving coal, coke, steel and other products between the different locations.

I’ve worked out a good deal of operational detail (at least on paper).

The overall plan and room outline drawn in SCARM

View of Trinidad and lift-out bridge

View of Jansen

View of wye at Primero

View of train room from Janson

View of train room from Quarry spur

Enjoy!

Mike”

Now on to Lawrence:

“Al

My O scale train layout is still in progress.

Delay has been due to

1) covid problems

2) working on train puzzles and crosstitch

3) leather holster generation.

There is title pages, a number of pictures, and then video of trains moving.

Thanks for all that you have done for all of us that receive your daily emails. You are surely appreciated.

Thanks

Lawrence, Madison Virginia”

A big thanks to Mike and Lawrence.

I do enjoy seeing all your updates, corrections and ideas.

That’s all for today folks!

Please do keep ’em coming.

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here. Is today going to be the day you make your start?

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Will’s made his own benchwork for his folded dogbone layout:

“Alastair,

Just checking in with a few pictures of a different take on base construction.

I have been studying all of your contributors and collecting ideas. I don’t have a basement and so my space is limited to my room over the garage.

I ended up with a folded dog bone layuut base that 25 feet long with a 5 ft loop on one end and a six foot loop on the other end.

I had to build it modularly because I was limited to a 32″ wide entry door. I built sections 30″ and 24″ wide to .

I also needed space for storage so I opted to build it as cabinets instead of on a wooden frame.

The cabinets are 26″ tall so as to not interfere with the pool table or block the window on the far end.

Here are some pictures showing how I built it in cases others are interested in a folding dogbone layout.

First 3 shots show one of the seven cabinet bases.

Will”

A big thanks to Will, it reminded me of Rob’s: Folded dog bone layout.

“Hi Al,

Thought you might be interested in my modelling skills, I started on my latest layout after my Daughter left us to go and live in Australia.

I already had layout 6’x2’ in a small room upstairs so I moved into her room which was some 18’ longer and decided to add to it.

So I bought two 6’x3’ boards and started to build.

The layout of old was called Meadow Falls and is a small end of line station and surrounding countryside.

I decide to join it to the larger layout I was building so that it would run to a small station at the other end of the layout with a small station and turntable, the gauge for both being N Gauge.

Then I when on to my main board which I am still working on but have at present got Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my Right hand so it is making the job very difficult

The Mill is based on the one in Battlesbridge, Essex but the remainder of the layout is form my imagination and with the help of input from my Daughters, hence the riding stables.

I still have a lot of work to do as the far end at the left has scenery and a stone etc to build. But until I have had and operation on my wrist it will all have to wait a while.

I run mainly Graham Farish and Dapol on a DCC unit by GaugeMaster on the extension , but Meadow Falls is DC. The track and points are all Kato.

Hope you have enjoyed my pics if the want to see more please contact me.

Keep up the good work it really helps us to get so enthusiasm to continue with our work.

Yours Sincerely

Barry”

A big thanks to Will and Barry.

I know some of you will wonder why I post pics of benchwork. It’s because, if you get your bench / table / platform wrong, you’ll soon give up. Too high, too wobbly, too low, not level, too wide (access!), the list goes on and on… and they all drive you nuts.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here -is today going to be the day you make your start?

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Rob’s been busy on his N scale 10×4:

“Hi Al,

Here is a new video your readers might be interested in.

I am building an n scale 1:160 layout based on my home town Longmont, Colorado as you may recall.

I have built buildings and sidings for the now-closed Gibson Tractor factory and the Kuner Empson cannery.

This time I decided to try and create a nod toward a miller that used to be here.

The business was called the Golden West Milling Company and had a fairly long and interesting history.

There are a couple of buildings left on the site and they piqued my interest. I did not try to duplicate the exact set of buildings, rather I tried to give the flavor of the place since I did not have the room to create the entire complex.

Model train layouts usually can never duplicate to scale any large areas of geography due to space limitations. We all must use selective compaction to provide a meaningful reflection of reality.
My Colorado and North Western n scale layout is no exception.

It is 10 feet by 4 feet which is about 1,600 feet long. The real town is more than two miles north to south and much more east to west so as you can see it would be impossible to map it and build the whole thing.

People familiar with Longmont, Colorado have said they agree the layout does give the feel of the area.

Rob”

I was having one of my wobbles earlier in the week, but then I got this in from Dave and it cheered me right up:

“Hi Al,

I just wanted to write to you and tell you how much i appreciate these newsletters and updates.

Let me tell you how it touched my heart and inspired me. I started back in late 2018 and 2019 getting back into the hobby. Went to some train shows bought a lot of O gauge locomotives and track.

The benchwork really put me off because i’m just not a good artist or carpenter. So i got overwhelmed with everything i wanted i mean i really wanted it all. I wanted mountains, water features, tunnels etc.

I wanted some thing that would resemble remote locations that is spectacular in view and somewhere a locomotive is the only thing around and then maybe a small town with some crossings and just neat things. I also wanted to have a snowy side to it and christmas for that time of year but i wanted realistic and real track.

So what happened, well it all ended up in a crate in the house. Wife had a better plan for my train room and my dreams where shattered.

What happened next well i talked to her told her how i felt and she gave me my train room back. What nudged me to relight that fire well for one i also look over at my iphone and read all your emails and pictures of peoples builds and it started that fire kidnling of how much i wanted and loved this hobby so that fire turned into something bigger i talked to the wife and got the room back.

It’s about a 12×11 room but it is a start. I want to run O gauge but i know HO gauge can fit more and do more so i’m stuck in between but O gauge is more realistic with the rail cars and engines that’s what i appreciate about it.

But again thanks for all you do and i pray that this continues for the long term i seen a few almost shutdowns from you and my heart sunk but it seems to be going along still and i will love to see it prosper for a long time.

Dave”

And emails like that, my friends, keep me going.

It appears to be a happy arrangement too, because I know the blog helps a lot of you take that first step.

A big thanks to Rob for sharing (his last post is here).

And a big thanks to Dave too for putting a smile on my face.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming – just email me if you’d like to share anything.

And if today is the day you poke boredom in the eye, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS More N scale layouts here if that’s your thing.