Which way to jump?

[Ray H]

I'm keen to do something to dip my toe in the railway modelling water once again.

 

I've (almost) made one decision; any new venture will be in OO scale and another decision is also almost certain. It'll be a DCC based layout to save all the faff with sections.

 

I've identified some space for the layout and can possibly kidnap some more (but don't tell the catering department). My original thoughts were for an L shaped layout, approx. 9' x 11' with a branch terminus at one end leading to a slightly lower branch terminus at the other end. That second (and lower) terminus would link to a lower still fiddle yard under the higher terminus. Casting a wistful eye over the additional space that I might be able to purloin, I could envisage the layout design changing to an oval shape with a through station and yard linked at each end to the fiddle yard on the opposite wall.

 

Then I paid a visit to a local club where, besides an enormous 7mm layout that they're working on there were two compact OO layouts. One had a visible operating area of about 4' in length with a fifdle yard at each end. The other had a fiddle yard behind the the visible terminal station, the link between the two being by a sector plate under some scenery.

 

Next I scoured the old RMweb and studied all the layout plans and managed to find a couple that could be adapted to provide a terminus to fiddle yard arrangement, retaining the compactness that I'd seen in the club layouts and going some way towards limiting a concern that my original plans might be too ambitious for a first attempt and let me start with something a bit easier. I never thought that I could have started on the lower of the two origonal termini. My thoughts kept thinking of starting in the higher one and how I could design the baseboard for it so that it could stand alone and also end up over the fiddle yard.

 

Thoughts now turned to baseboards. Should I try to limit each to around 4' in length to facilitate easy movement if necessary - would the layout ever be good enough to warrant it being taken out of the house? But all the compact plans I could see had pointwork in the wrong place - i.e. over a baseboard join. In addition, when I started playing around with track templates I ended up with all but two of the layout's eleven points compressed into an area not much more than 2' 6" long and 1' wide. It looked all wrong even if the layout's operating potential appeared amazing.

 

Disregarding the compactness, thoughts moved to an exposed 8' section with a more spread out layout and (possibly) with the fiddle yard at right angles. The small through station idea, with fiddle yards at each end hadn't gone away either but I didn't want to be accused of copying the track plan seen at the club. At the moment that's as far as I've gone, except . . .

 

Could I make a start on the baseboards - even if only finalising the construction detail? Again, I'm at a loss as to whcih way to go. I've seen several different ideas with varying sizes of softwood framing, different thicknesses and materials used for the upper surface and, an idea which I quite like (again in case I need to move the layout), of using plywood strips that are screwed and glued to form the frame.

 

Any previous modelling that I did - between 40 & 50 years ago - got as far as track being laid - 2x1 frame under chipboard or (occasionally) Sundeala, the odd platform built, a bit of ballast thrown down and wiring/control panels sorted. Scenery was otherwise not my scene - no pun untended - and my efforts at (rolling stock) kit building weren't something that I wanted anyone else to witness.

 

So there I am, time on my hands, keen to do something and yet not knowing which way to go. I'm sure that this is a situation many have found themselves in before. How did they move forward? I want to do something this week (if not sooner)!

[Kenton]

Not quite sure what you are asking for ... but jump on in the water's a lot more habitable than 50 year ago.

In any gauge and any scale. The RTR locos and stock are much better than they used to be and kits have come on in being kits and not boxes of scrap metal as well.

 

Unless you make a start you will never know which part of the hobby you excel in.

Just slap some track down, get some trains running and get a feel for what you want from a layout.

[HLT 0109]

Ray,

 

Only you know what you want and you appear already to have done quite a bit of research. In my case, I started two years ago, after retirement, without ever having made a layout before and have stuck with my original plan (albeit extended on a lower level). Unless you want to keep on lifting and relaying trackwork - or you want to keep starting new layouts - I would suggest you decide on either end-to-end or a tail-chaser and draw some rough sketches to see if they would give the operational interest you seek. You would then need possibly to use some proprietary software to see if your chosen sketch fits the space - if not it would help you adjust the plan. Then - just go for it. I would however caution that you use the biggest radius curves you can accommodate. If I were to redo my layout (which I shan't) I would avoid s-curves using set-track points (and probably Hornby curved ones!). Even 2nd radius curves cause problems with some of my rollong stock and locos. You mention a concentration of pointwork - I have that in my shed area and it does cause minor problems but I think that is because I have used set-track points and curves. The trouble is that anything else takes up more space. However, the crucial matter is that your baseboards need to be absolutely level and any transitions to inclines very carefully graduated. I have avoided the problem of pointwork clashing with baseboard framework by using miniature, surface mounted point motors. I'm not keen on the appearance but they work well and are easier to fit I think. You could use them only where they would clash with the framework

 

I hope this helps,

 

Harold.

[Donw]

Don't worry about cribbing a track plan there is only a limited number of basic plans so you will always find someone has used something similar before ( Usually one of the railways!). Divide your space up into a sensible number of baseboards. 4ft is a good length. pairs of boards the same size can be bolted togehter face to face if you ever need to move. 9ft by 11ft suggests 4 boards each 4ft 6ins x 2ft. Always start with the bottom layer its much easier. I build lightweight baseboards using 34mmx18mm framing and select the straightest bits for the sides. Then top this with 6mm ply . two braces underneath in an x shape ( halved joint in the middle) stop the boards from twisting. (Cut notches in the braces for wiring ) before fixing. Either use Pattern Dowels or split hinges for alignment.

Once th boards are done you can layout the track do move the bits about to get a pleasing result and use stock to check lengths of headshunts and fouling points.

 

Yes you will probably make some mistakes and perhaps wish you had done some things differently. The guy who hasn't has probably never built a layout and if you did do them differently you probably feel just the same. The only way to learn is to build a layout you can only learn so much for reading mags or blogs. Once you get started you will get questions. Then when you come onto RMweb someone will help.

Just go for it

DonW

[Dave777]

I'm not 100% clear on what the actual question is as such, but I think I'd broadly echo what others have said - just make a start and see where it takes you.

 

Just a couple of points - regarding 'would the layout ever be good enough to warrant it being taken out of the house', I assume you mean exhibiting it...? If you are concerned about portability then I wouldn't go much beyond any single baseboard being bigger than 4' x 2'. You can manhandle bigger, but that's a 'comfortable' size to aim for - easy for one person to move by themselves, and easy to get through doorways, into car boots, etc. Just something to think about however – is your first layout back after 40 years away likely to be of a good enough quality to warrant exhibiting? I’m not saying one way or the other, but perhaps that’s a question you need to ask yourself (particularly bearing in mind your comment ‘Scenery was otherwise not my scene - no pun untended - and my efforts at (rolling stock) kit building weren't something that I wanted anyone else to witness’).

 

Also, I would aim for something fairly simple as your first foray back into the hobby as it’s probably best to be able to see and feel that you’re making progress. Use it as a test bed to rediscover your skills and to try out some of the techniques that exist in the hobby these days (static grass for example). Don’t get too concerned about filling all the space you have or aiming for something that will offer up lots of operating potential. Toe in the water might be a better approach – there’s nothing to stop you building something more complicated after that.

 

 

[Oldddudders]

At the risk of stating the bloomin' obvious, there will, in the next few days, be a large number of layouts presented by proud - and not so proud! - owners on RMWeb in the 2010 Challenge, where 2010 is the max square inches of baseboard. Expect to see a goodly number of innovative track designs in a small area, although there may only be so many permutations, with an equal mix of scales and gauges. Many will display top-notch scenery and structures, showing just how much realism can be squeezed into a not-very-big area.

 

As has already been said in this thread, getting started somewhere will give you confidence to carry on. Look at the 2010 entries, and see if something doesn't appeal. It's a £ to a pinch of salt the owner won't mind his/her ideas being ripped off - in this hobby imitation really is quite flattering to many people, otherwise they wouldn't demo their work in the first place!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

For speed, there is little to beat flat topped baseboards. That allows you to fling down some Peco streamline or equivalent, and have the trains running. You can fool around with the track plan easily and see what works for you operationally, experiment with a bit of scenic treatment and whatever else takes your fancy. Then you can read up and go see more advanced constructional techniques, spend happy hours designing, and then plan and execute the build of a better replacement using a more sophisticated technique. An open frame method is the way to go: but it does require well thought through design in advance.

 

In the meantime you may enjoy operating the latest RTR, which is to a standard that only the best scratchbuilders could exceed forty years ago. Hope your credit cards are fire resistant...

[edcayton]

What they said! Start small and simple, but above all else make sure the baseboard(s) are good, otherwise you'll have badly laid track and poor running which will kill your enthusiasm.

As Kenton said, get something running and that will be a huge motivator! Best of luck

 

Ed