Mundane L-shaped Loop2Loop

I like it.  Plenty of room for you locos to stretch their legs with 2 main lines, doublr cross overs and reversing loops at each end.

Awesome layout for running. I wish I had done a giant dog bone style just for ease of reach and less scenery.

I like the track plan, it is not unlike my own layout. It gives plenty of room for running trains and the reverse loop options will make for interesting operating sessions. I did not immediately see the scenery possibilities on mine but having it for a while the vision did come to me. Of course after having done the scenery although not complete it does come to mind changing to make for a better appearance, modifying components. 

Ray

I like it.  Great layout for running, and maybe it will morph into something more later on. 

Bob

Thanks for the positive comments, I was kind of expecting a different response, but there's still some weekend left.

Nick,  I'm so happy Carl convinced me to add the reversing loops and to turn them so the trains for immediately use the crossovers to go to the outer rails if desired. I initially had no reversing loops and the crossovers were in the opposite directions.

Dave, I'm a fan of dog bones and reversing loops, mostly because I don't have to space for an around the room design with large curves. Even there though I'd still want reversing loops so trains can travel in any direction on all the tracks.

Ray, you have a fine layout and I can see the similarities in the design, though you have so much more space that I do. I love the multiple levels and how trains cross over each other. I also like the permanent winter scene, not many do that. My eventual craft room layout will be a 2-level permanent winter scene with a town (Bedford Falls) on the upper level and a desert scene on the lower level. Unfortunately, it will also be small, a 4x8x12 L designed mostly so my wife can finally display her Bedfords Falls collection. Thanks for sharing your video.

Bob, you never know, the space is actually 18'x19'. Given the layout will effectively be done in 3 sections, the section along the workbench could easily be moved away from the wall and over to allow for the addition of buildings, etc., along the back. Similarly, the section all the utility wall could also be moved away and out and all I'd have to do is reconfigure the angled section that connects the two. I have some scrap rigid foam pieces, so my goal this week is to cut a piece the size of the bottom loop to see how it's going to fit and how it's going to affect my use of the space for woodworking projects, etc.

DOUBLEDAZ, I actually do have Bailey Bros. Building and Loan in my winter scene.

Ray

Very nice, Ray. I believe my wife has the complete set, or at least most of it, that Target sold years ago.

Dave, I would love to see the set, I did not know that a set was made. If you could at some time please post a picture of the set. I may start a hunt for such a set and reconfigure my winter seen with it.

Ray

Ray, our set is currently buried in a closet behind a ton of other holiday decorations, but here's a link that shows all the buildings and accessories. The set was sold back in 1997 and I do not remember what the scale is. And here are 2 shots of my first Christmas layout:

Wow! What a great collection, don't have the room for all that in my winter area, but I will see if I can get some of those buildings, love Bedford Falls and the old values that it represents. I did not expect such a quick response, great Christmas layout.

Thank you Dave

Ray

You're welcome, Ray. Hope you find some pieces you like.

Cut part of a sample loop out of rigid foam and put it in place on the farthest end of the workbench. I must say it looks better than I expected there, so I'm thinking of extending that leg by about 19" or so. I have enough scrap foam to finish a full loop past the reversing loop switch location and that will give me a better view. The biggest surprise is that it doesn't appear to interfere with our use of the doorway coming out of the house into the garage. It looks so nice, that I'm also thinking of extending the other leg all the way out to the garage door. That was my original plan, but it will require relocating some hanging tools and other items. I'll play with that after I remove everything from the workbench and shelving so I can see where I'm at.

I also laid 2 full sheets of the foam on a long table and set up my RealTrax O31 oval. Tomorrow I'll clean it, connect power, unpack my new engine and give it a test run. I might take time to figure out how to update my TIU since it hasn't been updated since I bought it back in 2012. I just watched Marc's O-Scale Trains video and see I need to order a USB-to-RS232 cable and a phone cord (thought I was done with those long ago ), so that will have to wait. FWIW, I'll be taking it slow because it's pretty hot in the garage these days. We hit 113° again today and have 112°/115°/110° coming before it cools down to 105° on Sunday. So, I'll do what I can after my morning walk and exercise.

Here's some pics of my test setup to see how things will fit and my wife approved.

Obviously some house cleaning is in order, so that's next on the agenda.

And here's a shot of the new SD70, doesn't it look good? It's much heavier and larger than my 4-6-0 steamer and runs like a champ, though there is a lot of overhang on those RealTrax O31 curves you see above. Having it running, even on a simple oval, gives me the push I need to get going, though the heat is oppressive right now and things will still go slow.

I little more progress. Once I got the workbench top cleared, I saw how I could rearrange things so I can get to the cabinets and drawers. I'll simply move them all together and place them 6' from the left end. That way they'll be under the 30" deep section. I'll add some support legs on the left side of the framing to hold that section. It's 114° out there now, so tomorrow I'll clear off the shelves and figure out how I'm going to rearrange those. There are 3 units, but I think 1 is going to get moved. To the left of the first photo is the door and next to that is a 6' wall that is begging for some shelves.

4 1/2 hours in the heat to get to this. I did find I can discard the 1" workbench tops and the cabinets come to within 1/2" of the shelves. I should be able to get away with a very slight grade on the removable cross-section. Lotta stuff to find a home for or more likely pass to Goodwill.

Dave,

I just saw this topic now!  I'm glad you are getting started on the garage layout you had mentioned before.  I think that it is a great idea to let you run trains until you get to build the layout in the other room!  Wow!  I wish I had that space; we wouldn't be going through all the gyrations that we are on my layout plan!  I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses and a video of the 4-6-0 and Veterans SD70 running on this racetrack you are building!  

Rayin"S" posted:

DOUBLEDAZ, I actually do have Bailey Bros. Building and Loan in my winter scene.

Ray

Ray, I like the winter scene!  Dave knows I have a lot of winter buildings and am considering having my higher level town set in the winter.  We have way more buildings now than will fit on the 4x8 Christmas layout!  

Mark, it does have a racetrack look to it, doesn't it? However, I'm way beyond that stage and prefer to run 25-30 mph or so these days. I was thinking of making it a single loop-to-loop in order to add landscaping and some spurs, but I don't want to deal with the upkeep that will be required with a garage layout. It's going to get dusty enough the way it is, but I'm tired of my little RealTrax oval on the floor in the craft room. I will say that the weight of this engine makes it run much better than my 4-6-0 steamer on the O31 curves, not that the 4-6-0 runs bad.

As far as the space goes, I'm giving up a lot to get the space for the "L". I still intend to do some woodworking with the Shopsmith and bandsaw, so the only space I have is along the edges and I still need to figure out how to deal with the shelving unit uprights. They are like 1.5x1.5 angle iron, so I need to position the shelving units where the front tracks will clear the front uprights. I took some measurements and I think things will clear if I place the units about 10" from the wall. That wil basically put them under the tracks along the front edge. An added benefit of doing that is I can add a 28" piece of plywood to the top shelf for more storage.

Here's a new color-coded view of the bench work. Each section of 4 yellow rectangles and 1 dark green rectangle measures 30"x78" making the two sides 156" long. The yellows represent 16" centers and greens are 14". Each end section will have the 2 dark green rectangles added to make an 18"x36" extension to support the loops. 

Dave, 

Yes I only run about 25 smph myself.  I want to see the details of the nice trains I bought.  I had an HO set I bought when I was about 12 and I never ran trains fast.  Yes I like the weight of these engines now too.  I tried N Scale for a while years ago, and the roadbed and track had to be perfect to keep them on the rails.

The plan looks well thought out for support as well as track plan.  I agree about nothing too fancy in the garage, it would always get dirty.