Garage layout - as yet untitled

[Pikey]

Hello  

 

A few of you may know me from building and operating a layout called 'A Remote Depot' at a few exhibitions recently, including Warley. Chopped picture for reference below:  

 

 

I built A Remote Depot because I was getting more and more into making the radio controlled vehicles, and I had nowhere to drive them. This will remain as an exhibition layout, and indeed I have several booked in for this year and next. But I have a number of trains that have just sat in their boxes for too long, and I'd like to have a much larger & permanent home layout on which to run them, and also a larger environment to drive my little vehicles around. Also, somewhere to store A Remote Depot that isnt in my front room would also be an advantage  

 

I do have a layout in my garage at the moment, but it was built many years ago on Sundeala board, using Setrack pieces - which as you can imagine is now showing its age..! One of the first jobs is to dismantle this, and salvage anything that can be salvaged from its construction. Over Christmas and New Year I have had a thorough clear out of my garage, and apart from the re-assembly of a broken tumble drier (dont ask!) the stage is set for the construction of my new layout!

 

The outer limits of the layout is fixed - 3.8m x 2.8m, as this is the biggest amount of space I can take up in my garage whilst still leaving enough room for my car on one side and my dirt bike at the back. So I'll start building the timber framework while I work on the exact details of the track plan. I dont want a lift-up or swing-out section, and I dont want to have to duck much to get to the inside of the layout - so the plan is to raise the layout to 1.5m, and construct a false floor at 0.5m. This will put the layout at 1m above the new floor which is about normal, and means I only have to duck a little bit to get in under it. It also means I can store A Remote Depot for exhibition use under the floor.

 

The trackplan will be basically a double track loop, with a through station on one side, and a small TMD on the other, and a virtual quarry on one of the short sides. I'll also have a road running around the whole layout, in which I'll set a wire for the Faller system so I can have a bus driving around by itself. I have lots of other ideas about what to fit in, but the layout is still in the planning stages while I build the timber framework. Here's the current version (very roughly spliced together from two different AnyRail models):

 

 

Its not that exciting, and its going to be a long term project/labour of love, but hopefully I can get some baseboards up and some trains running in the near future.

[bigwordsmith]

Look forward to progress updates! Have fun...