Danknight

I keep looking at railway plans but I’m struggling to see what I can do to make it more realistic in the space I have. Anything really obvious where I’ve gone wrong?

Thanks for the knowledge people. Any thoughts of the new layout idea? hoping it’s heading in the right direction

Okay, I'm still fiddling with this one but I'm hoping that I am on the right track now :) I've gone from diesel sheds to engine sheds so I can run steam or diesel or a mixture. This enters with the correct flow on to the inside track. It also has a return that I have linked with a head shunt from the goods yard. I have a shunter here and thought it would make for some shunting fun between the goods shed and siding below and parallel to the engine shed. Ive also linked the good shed back to inside track to allow engines leaving with freight to join the tracks in the correct direction. On the left the third inside track will be storage for carriages. I've tried to make it so they can be dropped off and a engine can then join either direction of track and they can also be picked up from either line. Admittedly I'm not a fan of this section yet so I'm still working on it. I prepare to hear about everything I've done wrong haha but hopefully not. Thanks,

Okay im currently playing around trying to put everything so it works correctly but I have another question... If locos on the outer line run clockwise and anti clockwise on the inner line, why would the lines be connected? as when a train changes lane it will be going the wrong direction.

I’ll check that out. I’ve purchased some of the peco track plan books so will sit down and find it later.

Plenty to think about, thanks everyone @Chimer I’m hopeful for being able to lift it with another however I have still pre purchased a car cover for a worst case scenario until I can sort a better method of lifting. one thing I’m not sure on is how trains leave a siding once they’ve arrived in them? Would there usually be a return for the train to follow once it had dropped freight off?

@Dungrange thank you for that information. I’m slowly learning the ins and out of how railways work and there’s a chunk of info there I didn’t know! @RobinofLoxley My original criteria was two loops and trains running in opposite directions, but i realised fast that this was quite boring long term. So I’ve been trying to come up with something where I can have that and have some fun things to do like picking carriages up and taking them places. It just seems very tricky to get it all in place and workable. i feel like it’s moving in a positive way though which is good

So I've taken on board the advice given and had a quick attempt. I looked into the peco set track book and used the following layout as a guide but made it slightly bigger and with a second loop. Is this kind of going along the right path? Let me know your thoughts. I also decreased the length of the the board a tad to make it fit better

That looks really good. Ill reply better tomorrow as its been manic. Attached is a slight tweak of what i did with some labels to show what stuff is as might make it a bit less confusing. Thanks

The garage is part of the house so it’s pretty well insulated, it gets nippy in the winter but never freezing or anywhere close. Being a plumber by trade I have toyed with fitting a radiator and running it off the main house heating circuit when I had cars stored in there but never did due to it not really needing it. Ill have a look at the Peco set track options, I more then agree with it being too complicated. I feel I kinda got carried away with if there is space fill it with track. I shall make amendments tonight and see how I get on.

The frame work is 50x100 cls, braced accordingly and topped with good grade 9mm plywood. Cross mounted on 2x4 timber which mount to brackets mounted on the wall. It’s solid enough for me to sit on and I can easily lift one side of it with one arm. Unless track and scenery add more weight then I’ve planned for I’m hoping it will be fine.

Thanks for the replies everyone, I did think myself it was getting a bit full on and was struggling to think of reasons for sidings to be where they are. access to the far right is easy as I have access to both sides of the board there. It basically takes up half the garage and I’ve built hangers for it to sit on so i can lift it up out the way when needed. Im not massively concerned with it looking prototypical but if this can be achieved it would be a bonus. I wanted to try and incorporate a fiddle yard into the layout scenery so I could take locomotives from their storage yards to areas where carriages and freight were stored and take them on a jolly around the board haha. Ill try and get back on and simplify the layout design a chunk after work and report back. Dan

Hi, I'm relatively new to designing and building layouts. I played with Hornby as a kid and recently got back into it as an adult. I built a very basic layout in garage and fell out with it as it was too big and I couldn't reach everything. So decided to take the plunge and actually attempt building something long term I can enjoy with the kids. I've finished building a base that utilizes the space I have available. it couldn't be massive as I need to be able to lift it to higher bracketry with another to allow the car to reside over the winter. So it sits at 6' x just shy of 10' with an off centre operating well. I've attached a picture of what I've come up with so far but before I start laying would like some feedback and advice on where I've gone wrong. Id ideally like to use setback for two reasons, I have amassed quite a bit so will keep costs down and its easier for the kids when they want to get involved. Although I have had to use flexi in a few places. What I want is the ability to run two trains at the same time and maybe a 3rd shunting. on DC. Era wise, if that matters, early diesel. I like the idea of steam and diesels on the same layout. Let me know your thoughts and if you feel I am going drastically wrong please let me know. Thanks, Dan