Large Scale Central

LSC Project Railroad design

Track and Trestles
#41
Geoff George said:
any more ideals or input?
I really like the effort being made here and the general direction the plan has taken. It's really nice to see people contributing to a very positive venue for LS modeling.

I know I’m late to the party on this, but with the cost of track if your not filling the freight yard at 14’-15’, i.e. running trains of 5 to 6 cars, even the reduced staging are in HJ’s last drawing a bit of overkill.

I’d also reduce the number of sidings and interchange opportunities since you seem to be looking for display characteristics more than operating opportunity. (again cost of trackage issue) It just seems to me that the number of switches in the plan create a significant opportunity for accidents and derailments as your “visitors” check things out and your off busy visiting or collecting for your food bank.

If your looking for unattended operation while creating some multi train operations I’d also look at RailRoad Concepts at www.rr-concepts.com or DCC Bitswitch at www.dccbitswitch.com for some timed stop start and switching capability. Their products seem to be quality and somewhat reasonably priced, though I prefer the Railroad concepts with track power only.

In creating visual interest for the plan via landscaping I think that elevating portions of the railway are essential, but without including some particulars associated with your lighting display design or design goals you could have some conflicts.

A second string of thought is…“what are you going to do in the way of buildings? temporary? permanent?” Either way their placement needs to be considered in the design as well. (My thoughts are permanent close to the house, and temporary closer to the street.)

My preference would be to elevate the portions of the railway that are to the center and right directly in front of the house as HJ seems to show with the placement of trestles or tunnels. However, I think I would also push the central loop farther forward with a slightly longer tunnel allowing the staging area to be hidden view from part of the street (which might enhance the get out of the car factor). Then perhaps a second tunnel of significant length on the outside main (on the right side) to give a stronger perspective of trains moving out of sight and reappearing at different points on the railway (again enhancing the get out of the car factor).

No matter what you decide to build, it looks like a great project and a lot of fun to build and run.

Good luck with it
Mark

#42

Thanks Mark
I looked at the RR-concepts site. I like it and think I will have to use some of that stuff. I had been using the LGB stuff but its price has gone sky high and is hard to get all the things I need to make it work. There stuff looks much easyer to wire and to get. Thanks again.
Geoff

#43

Ok any more feed back and ideals? I plan on starting in May so get them in that way I can bug Hans for a finished draf.
One thing is a lot of the turn outs might not make it at first. Those things are costly. So if anyone has some your selling let me know maybe we can work a deal. Also I was planing on a mountain on the west side (area closest to the house). I belive I can at some point work in a river running down from it to a lake. Thats down the road a bit but Hans has put some of that in already.

So please get your feed back in soon. I will be sure to post pictures and progress as I go along with the build.
Thanks again everyone for your input and help.
Geoff

#44
Geoff George said:
One thing is a lot of the turn outs might not make it at first. Those things are costly. ......... Also I was planing on a mountain on the west side (area closest to the house). ........ Geoff
Geoff -- a couple of comments from a relative new comer here.

Divide the track plan into smaller sections or projects so you can get the foundation of your layout in place and run trains no matter what other distractions may come up. The plan is a large project for one guy!! And like you say you may need to go about this in a progressive fashion to be able to manage the financials.

Make sure you think though the deployment scheme and time line so you can feel like you’ve been successful, have a clean landscaped train garden and be ready for your switch to lighting work in September October. You don’t want to be trying to finish the landscape and be putting out your lights at the same time… or at least I don’t think so.

Second… have fun. If the build time line get extended due to unforseeable events don’t sweat it! Lay some track, get a loop in place and run the trains during the Holidays… for the people who have seen it before they’ll be interested in the changes and know its a work in progress, for the people seeing it for the first time they’ll know that it’s really nice and hopefully will want to drop back by next year for a great big suprise as you upgrade, revamp and add to the railway.

I’m retired, healthy, and it’s taken me over two years starting from scratch (still not done) to get 97% of the original trackplan in place and it’s only 450 feet with a minimal number of switches for some freight and passenger sidings. But I didn’t work it every day, and when I do, I now try to break the work down to something I can get done in one or two days… well 3 or 4 most of the time considering when I start (9 or 10), the effect of my adult ADD and CRS, my tendencies to break s*** causing a trip to town to replace it and when my loverly bride makes me quit (6ish or so).

Some of it’s been very enjoyable, some not so much… especially when I want/needed to get something done for a family visit or party or some other imagined or real conflict. If I had had this advice and understood it when I started planning my railway, I probably would have gotten through the build much faster and with a lot less worry and frustration.

Good luck

Mark

#45

As someone who has to carry everything from the house to the layout everytime I want to operate I can’t wait until I get my train shed built so I won’t have to do that. I highly recomend you look into some sort of outside storage system. Perhaps an outdoor storage shed buried in the side of a hill with access along one side.

#46
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Geoff,

I’ve been waiting, too. In the meantime I doodled a bit of scenery, more on that later.


Hi Hans.
Ok looks like I will be getting things going on the weekend of May 3rd and 4th.
If you could let me know what other stuff you came up with. also does your program do a track list or is this a do my best to follow the drawing?

I like the last drawing you did. I might have to hold off on some of the trun outs for now but thats ok.

Thanks a million Hans and everyone that has helped out with this.
Geoff

#47

Alright. Well was hard at work on the railroad this summer. I have put pictures up on my website of the work that was done this summer. thanks again to everyone that helped out. Can’t say it looks like the plan but its a heck of alot better then it was. I put a little of what everyone said into it I think and winged the rest of it. here is a look at it almost done.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/geogeorge/_forumfiles/airone.jpg)

#48

here are a few more pictures.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/geogeorge/_forumfiles/redo1.jpg)

progress is slow but there.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/geogeorge/_forumfiles/redo5.jpg)

almost looks real.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/geogeorge/_forumfiles/redo8.jpg)

#49

Geoff,
Great pictures!

#50

How did you get that overhead shot?

#51
Ray Dunakin said:
How did you get that overhead shot?
I set the timer on my camera and tossed it in the air. :)

A friend flew over and took the picture. I didn’t even know he was going to do it. kind of neat tho.

#52
Geoff George said:
A friend flew over and took the picture.
WOW, must be nice to have friends that have wings.... Are they feathered????

hehehe

#53
Andy Clarke said:
Geoff George said:
A friend flew over and took the picture.
WOW, must be nice to have friends that have wings.... Are they feathered????

hehehe


YOu know the saying “when pigs fly” Well I will send him over your way Andy. Keep a eye out and a hat handy.

:))

#54

:slight_smile: Geoff

And, yes, I do have that frieght car…

#55
Andy Clarke said:
:) Geoff

And, yes, I do have that frieght car…


Geoff,

He does have it. I’ve seen it.

#56

I’ve seen it to…but, it was out of reach… :wink:

#57

Anybody got the new logo on unread messages figured out? I got one on this posting that I can’t get rid of.

#58

Ric,

Seems the same as before, try opening the previous page of the thread, that usually resets things.

#59

Andy
you will have to show me that car sometime.

By the way I think the wings are aluminum.

#60

Ric,
I think the flame means that it is a hot topic. :smiley: