Well, my plan to build a 2-level layout in the craft room this summer has been sidelined once again. 
This time it’s because I need to use the room as a bedroom one more time during the Christmas holidays this year. I stopped at Mr Muffin’s last month on our way to Green Bay after visiting our daughter near Savannah and picked up the Veteran’s SD70. Now I have 2 engines with no place to run them and I want to get something going.
This time it’s because I need to use the room as a bedroom one more time during the Christmas holidays this year. I stopped at Mr Muffin’s last month on our way to Green Bay after visiting our daughter near Savannah and picked up the Veteran’s SD70. Now I have 2 engines with no place to run them and I want to get something going.I could set my RealTrax O31 oval back up, but I’ve decided to go ahead and build an L-shaped 16'x16' loop2loop layout in the garage. It will be used strictly to run the trains and NOT to build a model railroad. That means there will be minimal desert landscaping (if any) and nothing for the trains to do except run. There will be no buildings, but I may add a backdrop of some sort. One leg of the L will run across my workbench in front of pegboard with hanging tools. The other leg will run across shelves in 3 shelving units along a perpendicular wall. The corner will be on an angle because it will run in front of a water heater. It will also be removable (nuts&bolts) for access to the heater when needed. The 1x frame and decking will rest directly on top of the workbench and shelves. The leg across the workbench will be anchored to the wall and that should be sufficient to keep things in place. There is a slight difference in height between the two, so I’m going to vary the height of the 1x framing to make things level. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll use 1x stock or rip plywood. I think ripping plywood would be the most cost-effective and I have a ShopSmith to do the ripping. I still have to figure out how to deal with some uprights in the shelving units and that could end up being a deal-breaker.
The layout has concentric O36/O45 loops as well as inside reversing loops. The reversing loops and crossovers are done with Ross #4 switches. I plan to use GarGraves flex track to form the loops and a mix of O54/O63/O72 sectional curves elsewhere, though I might just go ahead and use flex throughout to reduce the number of joints. I’ve already talked to GarGraves and they assure me I can bend their flex to those sizes. In fact, if I understood them correctly, they told me that all their sectional curves are hand-bent following the tips in their video. And before anyone asks, I haven’t ruled out using Atlas sectional pieces for the loops and the adapter they sell for connecting to GarGraves track. I’d consider all Atlas, but their O72 and #5 switches are too big and I simply don’t want to use the smaller O54 switches.
Anyway, with all that in mind, the loop ends of the decking have a 27.5” arc across the front to provide enough clearance for the loops. The straight sections coming from the ends are 30” deep and the corner piece is "24” wide. The framing has cross-members on 16” centers and the decking will just be 1/2” plywood. Everything is symmetrical and mirrored to make things easier to build and leave me enough space in the 2 stalls of a 3-car garage so I can still do other things.
I realize this is not ideal, but I want to run my trains and I don’t want to do it on O31 RealTrax. I’ve been working with Carl (moonman) to get this far and he’s been a real help, seeing several things I didn’t, especially a different way to do the reversing loops. The design started as a dual main with crossovers and has morphed into what you see now. FWIW, I have a similar design done using GG 032/O42 curvers with the #4 switches, but I really don't want O31 or O32 curves unless there is no other choice. As always, comments are welcome.
