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| This is the main layout. Which will be freelanced in California from post WWII to present era. |
Here is the latest track plan as of the fourth of April. Of course a great deal of thought has gone into designing this layout. First up was identifying the main purpose and prioritizing what I could and couldn't sacrifice. My main goal was to be able to run my passenger equipment (i.e. the BLI California Zephyr and Coast Daylight) continuously with minimal issues. That means a minimum radius of 28"(managed a min of 30") and as few switches as possible; which was a contradiction to the need for switching operations.
On the old layout I noticed a tendency to use the passing siding more as a storage track, parking passenger and intermodal trains. This time the design features a very long passing siding with two single crossovers to change tracks, one in each direction. This allows multiple trains at once, and/or run arounds for switching. Still, both "mainlines" have as few switches possible. The inner track will primarily be for passenger and the outer track primarily freight/switching, which works out very nicely as background buildings will be industry of choice.
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| Beneath the main deck will be a storage/switching layout |
The layout is in my parents family room: we all need space to move around and the: television, chairs, piano and other furniture items are not leaving (some not even moving). Really liking the looks and feel of the shelf layouts seen around the web, I figured that format would be best. Especially since the benchwork needed to use as little horizontal real-estate as possible.
Originally I attempted incorporating as many of the structures I already own as possible. Especially the 5ft factory you see posted on here I built this summer; that simply was not possible as I also wanted this layout to be more natural and realistic in appearance. Since selling/getting rid of those structures isn't an option (personal attachment) a second deck, entirely separate from the main deck, will be built.
For the second deck the priorities included incorporating all leftover structures and provide fast and easy storage of trains. Since I'm often to lazy to put everything back into their box I wanted a simple way to rotate out equipment from the main deck. For fun it is designed as a switching layout, it includes a nice sized yard with #5 and #6 Walthers and Peco switches. The leftover structures all happen to require a large/long footprint: the Walthers Railroad Shop, ADM Grain Elevator, and Ford Dealership, the Atlas Passenger Station, and the giant custom/scratch built factory. After moving things around the track plan fell into place - if it ends up operating great that will be a big bonus.
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| A zoomed in picture of the storage/switching deck. |
I did consider adding the second deck above the main layout, however that was too much work as 1) I really want the layout to be as self-contained as possible and 2) I don't want the room to feel even smaller then it already is. The the second deck will be under the main deck, at an ideal height for sitting on the floor to operate.
The benchwork is modular tabletop, the idea being that this time the layout can truly be moved around if necessary. Each section, or group of modules, use some variation in construction. The modules in the section pictured on the left will be made up an entirely self-contained boxes on wheels (a rolling workbench). Whereas the already built benchwork is more the tabletop with legs to the floor. I will create a dedicated blog post for bench work, but for now here is Layout Update #1 which covers some other details about the already built benchwork. https://youtu.be/UUCJYsyxryY
Thanks for reading and following, until next time. Cheers!
