new house new layout build - slow slow progress

That furnace looks as bad as one we removed from a house we bought back in '87.  It was a boiler, not as big as the original from my boyhood home.  Both were right next to doors to walk them right out.  Dad had to get the new boiler (then 43 years old) replaced the year before he and Mom moved to the personal care home.  The new one is a little unit that hangs on the wall and will replace your water heater as well.  Wow what a change in 60+ years.

On to the rest of the prep for the layout.  The floor is looking good.  I'm thinking of getting those carpet squares for my layout room too.  We had them at work, and they were great.

@Trainwreck nate posted:

Well been toying around with another layout idea. I lose out on a couple of industries compared to the other layout. Will have more  elevation changes, mountains and tunnels. My max grade is 1.7%, all yellow track is a elevation change. No change is more then 3 inches total at once. That way I was able to cut down on the distance needed. This also helps with my plan to model PRR/ New England. Another thing I do gain from this is I added a small inter change on my branch line. This way I get some more operations when running. Mainly being coal mine will be located too left of the main line. Power plant is bottom left on the branch line. With mainly running PRR, B&A and B&M I think this will work well.
Tracks are as follows.

Red - main line                                                      
Blue - yard/ service                                              
Gray - branch line/ inter change                        
Green - 3inch elevation track                              
Yellow - elevation change

Nate the Trainwreck.  This looks like an unfinished draft.  When completed you definitely want to have some dogbones.  Runing the trains round and round gets boring fast.  I liked your first track layout much better even though the open space was limited.  "It's a train Layout" said the track junkie.

Don't worry about the switches, my layout has forty-three.  Having a train run counterclockwise and then reversing can be remarkably interesting and it requires a lot of control from you, the engineer.

You're making progress quickly and I like the space you have to work in.

wish you luck with the reno. With removing asbestos unless it is a huge amount, you can do it yourself (this more as a general discussion). Asbestos fibers are a health hazard, but the people who have problems were exposed to it over many years, it isn't like you happen to breathe in some fibers and you get sick. If you are taking up asbestos tile,have a good quality 3m mask (the fibers are relatively big), and take them up. If you have asbestos adhesive, take it up and don't do what one idiot friend of mine did, don't use a belt sander to grind it down (the non asbestos portion is likely not good for you either....). In most places with a home job you can dispose of it bagged in normal garbage, asbestos fibers airborn are a problem, it isn't a toxic substance otherwise. Commercial contractors are often forced to bring in an asbestos firm, but homeowners don't have to for most typical things.

The house I lived in before my current one had a boiler that was a converted coal firer (it used oil), filled up a small room in the house. The new one was about the size of a 3 drawer desk cabinet (natural gas).

Only other piece of advice, don't be a dummy like me and don't put the wall studs on the wall, you learn how non straight basement walls are.

@Wood this may help a little bit better. Still learning the software but the 3D view shows it better. I'm happy with this one, and so is the wife. She wanted more hills, mountains and a good main street area.

black is bench work and gray is the access areas.

@Trainwreck nate

Nate The Trainwreck,

You have accomplished much more than I with the program.  It looks nice.  I was thinking about train operations and that's why I was encouraging you to find a way to reverse the direction of your consists. I cannot make a map for you to consider. I've never made a layout plan.  My work was all done in my head.  Over time I added more space and modified the layout.

I know the rendering shows the layout in green.  My wife told me to use green felt for the surface and that was one of the best decisions made.

You like it and your beautiful bride likes it.  So, just go for it.

@Wood if only I had a little bit more room. Pulling off the reversing loop and keeping it at 072 is tough. Nothing is set in stone yet, this is already my 4th plan I believe. Still trying to figure you a staging yard under the table.

In the drawing above you show Black lines are Benchwork.  I attached a file I marked up.  Is the area I put arrows in nonuseable?  will that be a walkin area?

@Wood yes the black will be the edge of the bench work. Give or take some spots once I get a feel for it. 23x11 is what I have to work with, so around the room makes the most sense. The tightest spot will be two feet wide, give or take once I get a feel for it. Trying to cut down on that area to get a little bit more of an opening.

@Trainwreck nate posted:

@Wood yes the black will be the edge of the bench work. Give or take some spots once I get a feel for it. 23x11 is what I have to work with, so around the room makes the most sense. The tightest spot will be two feet wide, give or take once I get a feel for it. Trying to cut down on that area to get a little bit more of an opening.

Got it Sarg.

I reviewed the posts and saw that.  You are 100% right. At O72 you don't have the space.  Sorry to burden you with my thoughts.

Semper fi

CPL U.S.M.C 1966- 1969

@Wood not a burden at all, isn’t this why we post.  To get opinion’s and new ideas or just different ways to do things. Besides all that we are brothers so no worries at all.

Well I might have solved my under table staging yard. Doing another look over of my track plan again. I noticed coming off my yard lead i had two switches going up. Both tracks leading to the same point, my mid level transition area (green). With switching the tracks elevation im able to gain my staging yard.

the purple track in the top right is the track being talked about.

@Trainwreck nate

Nate , you're turning into a track junkie.  Love it!  More operations. Looks good.

Looks great, Nate!  

Nate, it looks like you can't get directly from the staging yard to the mains.  You'd need to bring a train out of the pink yard, all the way into the blue yard, and then back out again to actually run it.

You might be ok with that constraint, but it might be worth extending one of the blue yard's tracks to continue under the mains across the opening and then join the yellow main somewhere.

@PSM one of the plans I did add in a second bridge. Which at one point there was two bridges on the cape cod canal. That plan had it issues. The original canal bridge was a bascule, which wouldn’t have worked. Due to the three foot opening on top of clearance once the bridge was up. With the height I’ll be building the bench work at helps the lift bridge. You may still need to duck a little but not sure yet.

My plan with it coming off of the yard lead isn’t ideal. The way I’m looking at it is as follows. Pull one to two yard tracks, pull to the top of the lead and cut off. Come down the turntable lead, back to the yard. (Might add in a extra switch to avoid using the turntable.) Make the hitch back on the train then pull back to the yard, clear the switch and shove down to the staging. That way I don’t get the engine trapped down there. Yes it’s work and time just to switch out a train. But I’m looking for more operations anyways.

If you've got a plan and like the way it works out, great!  If you did want to change it to get direct access from the mains, another option might be to flip the whole pink section and come off of the yellow main on the left side.

Well the floor is completely covered and ready to continue work. Sadly I haven’t had the time this week. The next thing on the list is a quick demo job on a shelf unit. Then onto the more “fun” wall issue spots. Was able to break down the old furnace some more and bring that to scrap. Scrap is really low sadly only got 58 for all it. Didn’t bring the copper or brass wasn’t enough so I’ll hold on to it. But that’s a extra 58 for York. Don’t think much will happen till after York at this point.

That’s a bummer scrap is so low!  Hopefully you will find something at York that will help you forget the price!  I had some scrap that I just gave to a guy to get rid of for me since I learned it was low.  Hopefully, the price will go up before it’s time to scrap my 19-year old Hyundai.  😄

We’ll work has been crazy and other house projects have been getting done. Sadly no new work to get the train room ready. Doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on stuff. So I picked up a airbrush finally. Practiced on two cars then tried my first engine.

The weathering look fantastic, particularly on the locomotive.

They look great, Nate!

Well pretty much no progress has been made on the basement. Other things needed more attention, doesn’t mean I got nothing train related done. Once again I have re done my track plan. Still need to tweak it a bit, once they redo my key code.
yellow will be the lead to the staging. Sadly still can’t get a good way to get a reversing loop.

Lately I have been working on weathering my engines and rolling stock.
I saved the best for last. I did post this on one of the weekend fun photos. The wife and I had our daughter two weeks ago now. One day while I was at work hilary did a little photo shoot.

Nate, congratulations on your new daughter!

Your weathering looks great!!  What are the dimensions of your layout space!

@Mark Boyce the room I have to work with it’s 11x 23. I’m limited by one doorway, that’s on the left hand side of the layout. Some of my early designs show the placement of said door. The entrance to the layout is still the same. Will be making a lift bridge.

Nate, your room sounds like mine.  Mine is only 11x11 and I have two lift up bridges.  They work well to get me into the middle.  Yes, I gave up on the idea of turn-back loops.  Still, there is lots you can do in a room only 11 feet wide! 👍🏻

Still no real progress on the basement. Material has been acquired due to my father on a construction auction. He got a cube of 2x4 for 1.75 each which is a huge help. Been toying around with another idea for a track plan. Finally fiugred out how to show the table edge which should help understanding it. This is the longest ive been with out changing anything major. Only thing ive changed was adding in the orange track on the top left. Lost another yard track but gained another lead with a place to build my trains.