Garage Layout - Trying to Make in SCARM

Its going to be a nice space.  I just played around a little with it and it looks good from all points of view.  What kinds of help do you need with the track?  Start SCARM and then under Help click on documentation, 5th header down is about adjusting elevations.  Russ

That looks great the problem I was having was with the radius it appears the outer branch is 0-72 or larger working backwards from there.  Also wasn't sure if the red line is the third level above it or which lines are at which elevation.  Love the concept, very familiar with change elevation and staying below the 4% on the rise and decline but following the original intent I was unsure of.  I assume the two inner loops cross over at a higher elevation and work there way down from there.  Also it seems I could run 4 lines at once which is perfect.  Any chance you can send SCARM file of your pictures above?

 

Thanks for the help.

Here's my stab at it.  I think this would work.  Might be a challenge to scenic though.  Russ 

 

Merlin1280,

 

What you've latched-on to looks good.  Just for comparison and another set of ideas, I've attached some SCARM and picture files of Al's Pretzel layout which was discussed on this forum back in August of 2014, I believe.  Last version Al posted (the picture file) includes a small yard and connected turntable area.  It also includes a 90 degree crossing and at least one reversing loop, but, personally, I would have some concerns.

 

First, the 90 degree crossing and the switches leading to it are all openly elevated, so if there is an accident / derailment, your equipment is going to fall at least 5 or 6 inches to table top below.  Second, I would prefer that the engine track to the turntable not be one of the longer yard tracks.  Why not just put another switch in at the east end of the yard creating a longer separate turntable lead with the engine service features placed there.

 

I know Al's plans don't provide as many loops as you prefer, but those can be easily added if you like the concept.

 

Chuck

 

Wow great layouts keep the different variations of this coming.  Thanks again for all the help.  Is there a SCARM library to look through on the site or just threads you can search?

 

Love to have one great spot where all these great designs can go for people to review and maybe build.

Is there a SCARM library to look through on the site or just threads you can search? This is all I've found so far.  I to would love to have a general place to bounce ideas off of other Scarmers and to post files to.  I post here but it's always in somebody elses thread.  Here's some more ON30 stuff!  Russ

 

http://www.scarm.info/layouts/track_plans.php?scale=O

 

 

Russ and Merlin1280,

 

Searching for SCARM on this forum site may not produce much because most times, the only clue is the attached file.  I know that several layout builders have included several iterations of their proposals for comment or critique, but they appear as file attachments and I'm not sure a search finds those.  I also don't know how long the forum holds on to those old threads.

 

I know you can find some O gauge examples on the SCARM website, and I make it a habit of "grabbing" a copy of every SCARM file I can, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with this and everything else I try to grab off the web.  I just recently found a Youtube video downloader which allows me to keep a copy of train videos (model or real) that can be found there.

 

Further, from this site, I grab track plan picture files (jpg etc), track plan pdf files and any other track plan file (rrt, any, etc) generated by planning software, even if I don't have that software yet, because you never know when those files might become useful.  As a result, I have a small array of other members' plans, but most are only identified by the forum member's name and the description they used.  I do all of this because things disappear from the web all the time, but only disappear from my storage if I choose to make it so, or if I choose not to back up that storage.

 

Hopefully, Merlin1280's effort to create a thread that just holds SCARM drawing files will work and people will post their efforts.  I, for one look forward to seeing plans that I might have missed before.

 

Chuck

Haha, that looks familiar, that's my basement!  Another fellow put this together for me on my thread, a really nice design that I've been tinkering on.  The Red Line is a level line for my Trolley.  The raised cross-over portions are the two tracks cutting diagonally across the curves.  I believe the widest curve is 080 or close to it, middle is 072, and inside I think 064.  Red Line is 031 I think.

 

The trouble with recreating this in SCARM is that the curved sections are not the same.  The designer stated he did this in RRTrax with AtlasO, as you can see it takes 4 pieces to make a 90degree turn.  In SCARM for some reason, either with Atlas or Gargraves it takes like 3 curves to make a 90!  So when I rebuilt this in SCARM it didn't quite come out the same, also I found that the grades were a tad too steep for my taste.

 

The short answer of course is to use Gargraves flex track, which I have tons of from ebay, so exact curve diameters and lengths aren't such a limiter in practice, only during the design process.

 

Now this design was created to fit into a very specific space for me, being about 18' across the top and like 19' down on the right, with utility doors on the bottom wall blocking expansion that way.  How much room do you have?

Russ this is nice, but a couple comments since this is a design that was made for me:

The outermost line in the back corner should also be raised to go over top of the red Trolley line. 

Your heights, if I'm reading it correctly, are low.  I'm guessing that the blue boxes are the track height, so if the max height is only 4.5" that's not enough clearance for O.  The minimum should be 6.5" to take account for roadbed, rail height, and tall cars.  If you raise the height by those two inches I think the grade % gets to something closer to 3.5%, but I don't remember the math. 

Personally I have a non-scale GG1 and those pantographs are TALL!  It's boggling my mind with the clearance issues, I think if I run it with one of them up I'll have to restrict it to a particular line and maybe construct ramps to push the pantograph down when it goes under something.  I'm WAY TOO LAZY to construct a full overhead wire setup, even if completely non functioning.

Merlin1280,

Al's pretzel had 084\072 radius curves in FasTrack. The clearances were adjusted to 7". The crossing area was to be on a plateau and not on trestles or piers with the track open. I expressed concern to him about that area. It was funky to get the 90 cross as level as possible.

 

I don't know what his final build looked like. Attached are snips of the last version. I did get the elevated crossover to work.

 

The big inner loop on the left had a 3.3% grade and the inner loop of 072 around the TT was 3.6% grade to 7" at the overpass. The outer loops are a little less.

Thanks Carl can you attach SCARM file as well.  So I can tinker

I have a blank canvas to use table wise shown below In SCARM.  I have atlas turntable and roundhouse I am trying to incorporate.  Want to be able to run 3+ lines at once and have so elevation changes for the kids and maybe a yard.

 

L shaped layout

How about this one?

 

• Fits on the bench provided.
• All Atlas-O 3-rail track 
• 3 Main lines 
• Turntable with Round-House with two entrances/exits 
• Rail Yard for sorting rolling stock.
• Some Elevated portions (max grade < 4.3%)
• 3 tunnels
• Turnouts to allow switching between main lines.
• Minimum curve diameter O-54

 

Paul

 

Some Elevated portions (max grade < 4.3%)

Trust me when I say that you don't want any grade near 4%.  I bucked convention and put 4% grade on my current layout and it sucks.  The only result was a repro GG1 flying off an 072 curve and onto the ground, it's just way too steep to control downhill and makes getting uphill with a decent consist pretty tough.

 

Since your raised portion isn't crossing anything, may was well lower the height and get a shallower grade, like 2%.

 

Easy enough in SCARM to change that.

 

On my compact O-27 layout, max grade was 5% just because there is no room. The other thing is the consist will never be more than 6 cars as I can't afford them LOL.

 

To be blunt, what do you need scarm for?  You have a track plan with all the sections laid out.  Why not just use that?   Buy the curves and fill in the straights.   I hate scarm.  I believe 95% of scarm users have never driven a screw into an inch of bench work.  As far as elevations to get over another track with six inches of clearance, figure fourteen feet minimum of track running length to get any kind of acceptable grade, less than four.  Good luck.  Get off scarm and build it!

"I believe 95% of scarm users have never driven a screw" we have all shown our layouts, let's see yours.  35 years building commercial layouts, working on number 98 at the moment.  Scarm allows the newbies a method of communicating with others over the wire.  Tell me how to make a rise without a track plan or a picture, only use words.  Good luck my friend.  BTW if you see Scarm in the thread header do us all a favor and don't open it.  I happen to really like what Mixy has done and he does it for free, what do you charge for your expertise?  Russ

You are the exception.  When I see this layout get built, I will be a believer.

I am a CAD programmer and do fiber optic and CATV designs that cover entire states. Without a plan, the Cable companies could not build it and have the system work.

 

Same goes for model RR layouts especially when starting from scratch.  I want a blueprint, some guidelines and a tool to help me visualize what I'm building.  

 

SCARM also gives me a nice inventory list of what track I will have to order and how it will fit in the limited space I have to work with. It's a tool, just like a ruler, pencil and paper, just a lot faster and can prevent costly mistakes. Best of all, as ChiloquinRuss pointed out, it's free!

 

As for not having built a layout before? Guilty. But that is changing as the bench work is setup and 90% of the track has been acquired. Sub-terrain material has also been acquired.  Just trying to bring it all together and I will be posting pictures as things move forward. 

 

Paul

 

 Stage 1. The bench work you can see how tiny the room is. We make do with what we have.

Why would you make statements like that without facts to back it up. You erroneously congratulated Lancer for building his layout from paper. He is a first time builder. I turned that plan into a SCARM plan. That provided him with the exact track list to purchase, the exact size of custom cut pieces and where, guaranteed fitment and clearances. It also provided for a wiring diagram as he never wired a layout for DCS before.

 

The result is a nice layout using a plan from a Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller and a bit of skill by a first time builder.

 

There are many that have been built from SCARM plans. Not everyone shares their build. There are some that need the plan and then the time to accumulate the necessary material. This would not be possible with a plan.

 

Yes, you can work with paper and pencil, but it is much faster and more accurate with the software. The 3D gingerbread helps those that can't visualize the result.

 

I respect your opinions, but you really don't need to criticize how someone approaches the hobby. We don't need that negativity on the forum. There's enough to go around elsewhere.

???????? Any software gurus want to...?????????????

Here's another SCARM layout, designed and built, well. still building scenery.

New layout

Given I was the one who originally posted I guess I should respond.  Not that it matters but I did get my hands dirty and build a lighting fast layout for my kids last winter for Christmas.  In 3 months I went from 4x8 to 5x15 and we were hooked.  Not even knowing what O gauge was in early December it was quite a steep learning curve.

 

Although I am a big fan of just diving in, the complexity and design of a train table is critical to the enjoyment of what I and my kids were looking for.  SCARM is a amazing free tool for anyone who wants to use it for whatever reason.  Me personally it is trying to maximize the amount of action we can have in the footprint. 

 

Here are some pic's of my layout for reference and my SCARM of what will "actually" get built this summer. 

Picture of SCARM for new Layout, Good modeling tip old generator Oil Filters make

That looked like a fun Christmas layout for sure.  One question, are you sure you had enough transformers?    I bet the kids loved it! 

 

Here's a couple of other layouts I've done or been a principal on.  Sorry no 3 rail here, lot's of HO though and a little 2 rail O scale.  For these we did a lot of pencil and paper drawings.  For the large HO club layout (35x50) we built a one inch to the foot model of it before the first benchwork was started.  Kinda like using Scarm first!    Russ

 

 

 

Wow those look great love to learn how you made the water like that.  All in good time, the transformers were from lack of knowledge.  Had one feeding each of the 3 lines that could line independent and then had a couple dedicated to the accessories and lights. 

Same here on the water!  I have a small river (large stream?) and a water fall running through my planned layout. 

 

Paul

 

Merlin1280 & Paul,

 

Browse the Scenery & Structures sub-forum.  Here's a link to the first item I found about "water."

 

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...-just-simple-to-make

 

Chuck

Thanks Chuck! I saw that earlier and it is under very heavy consideration at this time.  I think that the look of that river in the above pics is more of what I'm trying to get.

 

Still looking how to  do a waterfall.  I will search some more (here and the web) and see what comes up.