Layout Planning

When it comes to layout design, I work on the principle that plans are meant to flexible and changing, I don't like to be tied to them too much and after awhile I get bored senseless with the process anyway. As far as a layout plan giving me a sense of scope, and more importantly, an end goal, they are invaluable.

Knowing what I wanted and where I wanted it to go meant I would have to deviate from the layouts I had made in the past; no more square layouts, no more trains running in circles. I decided that a shelf layout would be perfect; it would minimize the amount of room I consumed and make portability less of an issue. Having said that I still needed it to be freestanding, and easily dismantled when the inevitable time comes for us to move house.

With my requirements in mind, I sat down with Atlas's model railroad planning software, Right Track and started playing with different layout configurations. I rapidly came to the conclusion that my shelf layout was not going to satisfy my sense of empire, sure there would be a nice main line run, and some switching action, but no real sense of trains traveling anywhere, and not much chance for long trains to run. I also wanted a number of different scenes:

1. A city or town scene
2. An industrial scene
3. A harbor scene
4. A yard scene
5. A viaduct scene.

All that over 2 walls of a spare bedroom, not much more than 12 inches wide...I don't think so!  I was going to need a least twice the space, at least.

The words "multi", "level", "shelf" sprang to mind, as did "terrified" and so I that was where my planning ended up, a two level layout, connected with a helix of some kind. The plan below is a pretty rough early draft of what I wanted to achieve. It's safe to say, since that draft the plan has changed a bit, and I will endeavor to get a shot of the newer plan up in my next post. I haven't done any planning of substance for the second level, since I figure that's quite awhile away, all I have is a rough idea.

What this does give me is plenty of main line running for nice long trains, some interesting switching and yard action, a turntable (which I've always wanted), a small branch line and scope for some scenic areas such as a viaduct i'm planning on building on the left hand side. With the second deck added i'll get some nice distance for my trains to run!

... so that's pretty much it as far as planning goes. In my next post i'll catch up to where I currently am, which is building the first modules (the yard area in the top right) bench work.