Interested in Layout Design?

Working from a prototype location or trying to fit a specific space? Everyone loves a good trackplan...
calaf01
Posts: 90
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 7:05 pm
Location: Croydon, UK

Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by calaf01 »

My layout design is a classification yard and two staging yards, all in 9 feet by 1 foot (N scale). But then switching a classification yard is my primary objective. And I have a two track depot, loco depot with turntable and three industries.
Alan C.
mec_alf
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Location: Cheshire

Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by mec_alf »

Mulling has ceased. I now have the base-boards for an N-scale layout with an 8' by 3' footprint. I just have to decide on the optimum height above groundlevel for it and justify a Kodachrome SD45 and GP9 on a Northern New England-inspired layout :?
From Rigby Yard to the Hill - MEC and SP live on.
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torikoos
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Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by torikoos »

Just pretend the SP leased those two to whatever RR you're modeling ;-)


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Koos Fockens -Devon UK. North American Model Railroading
Age is just a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter.
santafe1958
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Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by santafe1958 »

maineu18b wrote:I just have to decide on the optimum height above groundlevel for it:?
You'll get so many different opinions on this.....
Depends on what you want to do with regards to the layout, and therefore what you feel most comfortable with.
My own layout is on legs of 48", so the track is about 52" above ground level.
Brian K.Woolven
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Deadwood City Railroad.
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torikoos
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Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by torikoos »

I've read that most people would be most comfortable putting their layout roughly at their own chest level.
This will ensure that you can still reach in , provided you don't build the scene deeper than your own reach, don't have to bend down deep to view things at eye level, and also don't have lie on the floor trying to wire a tortoise motor or similar.

The down side of this approach is if guest operators are a lot taller / shorter than yourself, causing 'problems' one way or another, in which case an average layout height of 40 to 45" probably works best (our modules have been designed to the 45" standard).

It also depends on where you build your layout. Mine is build in my loft, which has all those annoying support struts every 2 feet or so, and my layout is build there where I have the widest space between a support and the sloping roof, but it also works out at roughly 45" in my case.
The good part is, these same struts mean all I had to install was cross girders , and I put the foam insulation panels, on which my home layout is based, directly on top. quick and light.

Koos
Koos Fockens -Devon UK. North American Model Railroading
Age is just a case of mind over matter. If you don't mind, then it doesn't matter.
Mike_R
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Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by Mike_R »

My home layout base is at 60", it then climbs another 6" to the summit. For working on the layout and if operators want more height I have a couple of 1' high wood steps.
Mike Ruby
tunnelmotor
Posts: 110
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Re: Interested in Layout Design?

Post by tunnelmotor »

On those Kodachrome locos, it is quite feasible that they might have remained in that colour all their life on SP - I certainly saw some SD45s in the late 1990s like that. If so they will probably have gone the way of a leasing company. The Utah Railway and the Montana Rail Link both had ex-SP SD45s in SP bloody nose for a while before repainting. The only proviso is that the locos in kodachrome now in a leasing company would be pretty cruddy! Get weathering.....
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