Ok wow.
I just want to have fun with this. This is just one of 4 hobbies I have. Not to mention I work for a living, and have a family, so I'm not taking it THAT serious. But something I'd like to get into more now that I have proper space. I could care less about passenger cars, or small town/city layouts. I want it to be more "rail-yard" looking. I'm not going to have little figurines of people frozen like their doing something. I'd like to collect some diesel engines, and have them parked, while being able to switch out cars, and run 2-3 locomotives at a time.
I only have 1 diesel loco right now, and about 6-7 cars. I'd like to concentrate, but not limit to diesels. Scenery is cool, but not the focus. I don't want to "recreate" some railroad somewhere. I don't want an "out and back" style railroad. I would like the trains to be able to RUN without stopping them every 2 minutes. I just want to have fun with it.
MURNANE: I couldn't agree more on the Scarm. Atlas O has a program too, and it's only on Windows. (lame). Especially in a day and age where 70% of the smartphones out there are iPhones. I totally agree on the table height. I have toddlers, but the train is for ME, not them.. so I plan to have it around 3.5' off the ground.. which for me will be stomach height.
JOHN C: Thanks for all that. You have an amazing, and impressive layout! I agree, that trains go from point to point. But they also take several hours, if not days to get there, while going 70+ mph. That's literally impossible to recreate that in the "out and back"plan, if Like I said, I want the trains to be able to RUN. I want to be able to walk away from it for a minute if I need and not have to stop everything so the trains don't run off the table. I agree the 72 curves are great, but not a necessity. Thanks for all the tips, but you're obviously a professional train modeler, that wants to run everything as accurate realistic as possible. Which is awesome for you.. But it's too much for me. I want to be able to decompress, and relax while doing this. And I don't want to limit myself to a certain style, because it's not accurate to period, or scale. If I see a cool steam engine I want to buy, I want to buy it and run it.. not say well, my layout is a current day layout with current day cars, so it wouldn't be correct to run a locomotive from the 40's. I don't want to have rules on what can go where. and I don't think it will look hodgepodge. Your layout is fantastic.
I could care less about "time period" or this train doesn't belong with this car, or whatever. I'm not, and don't care to be, a "historian" on trains, but would love to learn more about them. If I want to run a "post war" locomotive, and then tomorrow run a 2016 diesel engine, the that's what I want to do. I'm thinking that... well, thinking about it too much, takes away the fun of it. I'm not trying to win the blue ribbon at a science fair.
One of the great train modelers that really got me into this is Eric from ericstrains.com. He has every size, shape, period, locomotive and car there is. He's got an industrial look to his layout combined with a beautiful scenic route.
