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One part of the hobby that I REALLY enjoy is planning my new design each year.  I spend 3 or 4 months just coming up with designs until I "hit" on something that I consider a must do.

I prefer paper and pencil when designing and planning my layout each year.  For some reason, even when I worked in IT, I seemed to think better with pencil in hand.

This is the lower level track plan.  the red is my PW 2343 while the inner black is my Blue Comet:

step 1a - Track design - lower

The upper 2 plateaus: the bigger one is 4'x10' and the smaller front one is 4'x5'

step 1b - Track design - upper

Planning the lower lever scenery.  This also helps me determine wiring schemes.  The 2 big "blank" areas are where the 2 plateaus are so there's no scenery under them of course.

step 1c - Scenery - lower

Upper level (plateaus) scenery. 

step 1d - Scenery - upper

Determining lockon placements along with isolating blocks for the preferred method of wiring DCS.

The different colored sections are each individual block.  the 'X' designates center-rail dummy pin placements.

step 1e - Electrical - lower

Upper level planning.

step 1f - Electrical - upper

- walt

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Images (6)
  • step 1a - Track design - lower
  • step 1b - Track design - upper
  • step 1c - Scenery - lower
  • step 1d - Scenery - upper
  • step 1e - Electrical - lower
  • step 1f - Electrical - upper
Last edited by walt rapp
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Very nice, Walt!  Great preparation will surely lead to a wonderful layout and experience for everyone enjoying it. 

Have you saved your plans of prior year layouts?  Care to share them as well? 

Where do you display the layout in the house? 

Do you reuse your platforms each year?  Where do you store it in the offseason?  Just curious as I'm in the process of building a layout that will certainly see more use during the Christmas season, but would like the option of storing it, but also getting it out on a whim in July as well.  

Thanks for sharing!

JD

JD2035RR posted:

Very nice, Walt!  Great preparation will surely lead to a wonderful layout and experience for everyone enjoying it. 

Have you saved your plans of prior year layouts?  Care to share them as well? 

Where do you display the layout in the house? 

Do you reuse your platforms each year?  Where do you store it in the offseason?  Just curious as I'm in the process of building a layout that will certainly see more use during the Christmas season, but would like the option of storing it, but also getting it out on a whim in July as well.  

Thanks for sharing!

JD

answers:

1. yes, I save my plans every year.  I'll see if I have digital images to share.

2. the layout (11'x14') occupies my entire living room.  Furniture is removed and there's only a 2 1/2' walkway to get from one part of the house to the other parts.

3. My layout is a floor layout.  It's on blue board with Homasote on top of that, so i only have the blue board and Homasote to store.  I keep it against the wall in my garage.

ALL: thanks for showing interest!  It's encouraging in times when I don't feel like working on it.

- walt

Walt, I'm sure you realize there are people - myself included - who do not have a year 'round layout as big as your seasonal Christmas layout. I'm kind of reminded of Tim Allen's TV show, "Tool Time" where he had a constant dream of 'more power.'

Whereas probably many people have an oval going around the Christmas tree, your layout design definitely brings back that phrase 'more power.' Or the Crocodile Dundee character when he says, "Oh mate, that's not a knife. THIS is a knife!"

I think the same could be said for your layout design here. Have fun and good luck with it!

Here are my sophisticated "tools"

The grid is 1" by 1" blocks, representing 2'x2' actual.

This first one is for when I have 2 levels.  it represents the top plateau and the various shaped ramps going up to it.  I don't use these any longer since they use 27" curves which my tin-plate trains can't handle.

grid_and_hill_shapes

these shapes help my determine angles coming out of curves. 

grid_and_pieces_1

I use washers in the correct diameters to represent the 27", 31" (O), 42", and more recently but not shown, 54" and 72" curves.

The white cardboard piece is lined off where each segment is one O27 regular track.  The string is marked in 1" (2' actual) lengths to help me determine lengths of sidings and such.  the blue rectangle represents a 4'x8' piece that I use when determining placement of the plateau.  Since I now have bigger plateaus, I use more up-to-date pieces now.  I guess I should have included a picture of a ruler too since it's my main tool now.

grid_and_tools_1

The grid matches the size of my living room with air vents, outlets, doors, windows, etc noted.

grid_edited

Pretty advanced stuff, huh?

I should really take new pictures to show my current set of 'tools'.  Those above are for when I still did 27" curves which I can no longer do with my tin-plate.  But I guess the idea gets across

- walt

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Images (4)
  • grid_and_hill_shapes
  • grid_and_pieces_1
  • grid_and_tools_1
  • grid_edited

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