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A Blank Canvas....


F-UnitMad

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When I'd not been in the Hobby very long, I thought a BIG layout was the key to happiness, and eventually got my parents to agree to a big layout board 9ft x 6ft with a 7ft x 2ft hole in the middle in my room, which became much as P.D. Hancock once described his own room; as not so much a bedroom with a model railway in it, more a model railway room which just happened to have a bed in it....

Except of course that my board remained a very blank canvas, as I only just had enough track to just about make one loop around it, and the sheer cost of all the track I'd need for my grandiose plans became apparent - more than Paper-round Pocket Money was going to cover, anyway!!

Then in 1980 I discovered Model Trains Magazine, and saw the light... and have never had so much space available for a layout anyway, since that massive board, which got cut up and used in much smaller layouts over time!!

 

I have never had so much space since then (c.1979)....

 

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until now.........

 

 

A NEW Blank Canvas.....

 

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Having built mostly small Shunty-Planks, I think I've lulled SWMBO into a false sense of security, and model trains are being allowed back in the house (albeit my nice new attic, above) for the first time in years....

 

With some 17ft x 8ft to play with, this is going to take some planning and some time, so don't expect any updates to this anytime soon... :unsure:

 

I just had to post about it, though.... :D :D :D :D :D

 

As I've posted this in 'Overseas', that's a clue to what it'll be, eventually... ;)

A return to US HO scale (with running rights to my lad's OO), at least one oval, and spreading out some simple Mindheim-esque ideas - just a few, loooooooooooooong spurs; to be able to switch more than just one or two boxcars at a time... Oh and most likely set in Minnesota, home to these guys:- Progressive Rail Inc.... :) :) B)

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I hadn't; thanks for the link - very interesting!!

 

HO is already downsizing for me - not sure I could cope with N scale again after some years in O... :blink: :lol: besides I was the very lucky recipient of a large ammount of surplus HO stuff from a local friend & modeller... "Beggars can't be choosers" etc....

 

I won't be copying any exact location of Progressive Rail's, just freelancing a location and doing some of their locos (as I like the livery), and even then I'm winging it a bit using bodged SD45s for their SD38 and SD39. Yeah, I know; Purists look away now :rolleyes: but to be honest, having done a lot of rivet-counting for my O scale Soo Line locos, I want to just have some fun in HO, and run trains... :D B)

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Jordan - just an idea - but how about 2 L-shaped layouts? - your current O gauge, but with a corner board making it into an L, along two walls - and the new HO along the other two, also with a cornerboard ( it could even become a U shape with the fiddle sidings under/over the end board of the O gauge), and following the Lance Mindheim/Jack Hill principles.

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An interesting idea, Jack.

However I've been having a good think about what I really want out of this space, tempered by what I have time for... My most enjoyable layouts have had a roundy-roundy in them (or very nearly, when I did Soo in N Scale); it's nice to just sit back & watch a train go by sometimes, or run a train whilst working on something else at the same time. I don't have lots of free time to spend switching a large Industrial Layout - just a few spurs will do, but make 'em long, as I said earlier. ;)

Plus, my lad has a Hornby Virgin Pendolino, and it'll be nice to really let it rip on a large roundy-roundy - it can't be set to full speed on the supplied 3rd-Radius curves as it still takes off despite tilting... :blink: :rolleyes: :lol:

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I was going to suggest something similar to Jack - you can have your HO and O Scales with a reasonable space for each. Even with what you've said above, the HO/Hornby Virgin Pendolino could still have a full roundy roundy with one side of fiddle yard running under the O Scale. That way the HO/Hornby Virgin Pendolino would be at a lower level suitable for your son and those luverly SOO loco's of yours, with a 17ft x 2ft area to stretch their legs, would be at a more appropriate eye level for you ;)

 

However I agree with CraigZ - having spent years and years working out plans for small (i.e <10ft long) O scale layouts it'd take me a long time to get my head round filling a much larger space. Nice problem to have though. Hopefully a problem I will have one of these years!!

 

Cheers,

Longers

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Hi,

 

If I had the space available I'd go for one of the L or U shaped plans in Lance M's '8 Realistic Track Plans for Small Switching Layouts'.

 

As I work with only 9ft the plans seem positively large to me.

 

I could use my garage, but I don't think either the trains or me would survive another winter like the last one ;)

 

In any event, the neighbours already think I'm eccentric as I actually park the car in the garage.B)

 

If I started building a layout in the garage, who knows what they'd think dry.gif

 

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

 

cheers,

 

Mal

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