The Podunk and Urbanopolis in HO/HOn3 & N

[TrainNut]

I have been slowly designing a new layout. My wife works from home but real soon, she will be moving her home office out into real office space. Yep, you guessed it – I get her old office space for my new layout.

The new layout will have two gauges and two scales – HO, Hon3 and N. I have two young boys, ages 6 and 3 and I wanted to make this new layout somewhat interactive for them. I am going to accomplish this in two ways.
- The first way will be constructing the HO track (DC) down at their height. This way, I can get each of them an HO train that they can operate themselves.
- The second way will be by making the underneath of the layout kid friendly - sort of. “What does that mean?”, you ask. Let me explain… Every layout we have ever visited, the kids seem to be especially interested in seeing the trains go through the tunnels and underneath the scenery. I figure, why not incorporate that. The plan (at least in theory) will be to make it so that they will have a couple pathways (kid tunnels if you will) underneath the benchwork so they can follow the train around the layout not only above ground, but below as well. This will make more sense if and when you study my graphics.

Why the other gauge (HOn3, DCC) and the other scale (N, also DCC)? Because I have one HOn3 engine that I would like to run with the majority of my collection in N scale.

Let's see your plan you say? Okay, but first let me set up a mental image... All three sizes (HO, HOn3 & N) will be seperated at different heights with HO on the bottom, HOn3 in the middle and N scale on the top. Keep in mind that the scenery will flow seemlessly between the three and I am also going to try and use forced perspective to help tie them together. It will kind of look like this...


My two engineers have carefully calculated the HO level to be 34" above the floor (AtF). The HOn3 will be another 4" above that at 38"AtF. The two N scale levels will be another 4 inches and 7 inches above that respectively at 42" and 45". Finally, I will also have a helix climbing up to a shelf 10" above the main yard for a grand total of 50"AtF.

You want to see the plan? Have I got a plan for you! From the bottom up, Green is HO, Purple is HOn3, and red is N scale mainline with the other colors also being associated with N scale (yard, engine maint. facility, side tracks etc.).



Grades are limited to 2% except in the helix which will be 3%. The layout sits in a corner next to some double French doors and will be viewable from the top and the left sides. I probably should mention that grey is future structure sites. Along the bottom wall of Urbanopolis, I plan on having a big city scene backdrop that wraps all the way around to the quarry or so and then I will have some built out buildings in front of that that will help hide some passenger train parking tracks and the helix. If you follow the layout around from right to left, it will proceed from city (Urbanopolis) to country (the farm) through some mountains (top right) to a valley town (Podunk) around the corner to some more mountains (Helix mountain). Stretching from the outskirts of Podunk to the top of Helix mountain, I am hoping to put an aerial tramway similar to the cable car set by BRAWA. Inside Helix mountain will be a... helix leading up to that shelf I was talking about over the Urbanopolis shown here...



On this shelf will be the simple little town of Highyup serving some industries and terminating at a small engine maint. facility.

Just how big is this sucker you ask? Not that big. I'm actually a little fearful that I'm trying to pack too much into too small of a space but... what the heck... I'm going for it!



Well, you say, that's real neat and all but boy is that first plan confusing! Let me simplify it for you! Let's start with the HO line. All it is, is a simple loop with one siding.


And, 4" above that is the HOn3. Another simple loop with one siding and a spur.



Finally, if you take away the HO and the HOn3 leaving only the main level of N, it would look like this...



For the longest time, I was not completely happy with this layout because I could only ignore one N scale train at a time. I then came up with a couple ideas that would allow me to brainlessly ignore two N scale trains at a time. In this graphic, you can see how by adding two bypasses, I conveniently came up with two seperate mainlines shown in red.



Well, that was sure a mouthful and I hope you stuck with me all the way through. Surely there was a lot of stuff I failed to explain so let's open this up to questions and comments time! Yes, you over there sitting at the keyboard?

[Daryl]

Looks like you and the kids are going to have FUN

[TrainNut]

Thank you Daryl for my one and only comment.

Allright people, one full week and one comment. You really know where to hit a guy where it hurts. I have put countless hours into this design and graphics and I was really looking forward to some quality feedback. I don't want to bend your arm backwards or anything but surely there was something in my post that sparked a thought or comment. Won't you please take a couple seconds to share? Thanks.

[CPrail]

Hey TN

Man must be some lag on the site, I have been on steady almost all week and this is the 1st I have seen this post,anyhow, great job looks like you have done a lot of thinking on the track plan and it looks great, I love how it looks would love to get something done like that for my Web page, How many hours did that take? And whats the ETA of the start up? You and the boys look like you are going to have a blast going from Design to finished product.
Keep us informed on how it's going.

Mike G

[TrainNut]

CP,
PM'd you RE your web page.
How many hours... I dunno, I've been working on it for months. ETA will hopefully be end of summer. That's okay though as I'm currently working on the framing plan and having fits with all the different levels. It's coming together slowly though. Thanks for your thoughts.

[Crystal River RR]

I like TrainNut's 2 Guage and 2 Scale appraoch. Very creative. Forced perspective, as you say, may actually blend all this together for a great illusion of size and distance.

David on the CRRR

[TallDude]

Sorry I haven't commented on this earlier, I've been up to my eyeballs with work stuff lately.

I love everything about this project from the name to the use of forced perspective with HO in front and N scale further back. It should make the railroad look much bigger due to that. Even a tramway!! Sounds like everything has been well thought out. I'll definitely be along for the ride on this one checking the thread frequently for updates!

[lyates]

//well train nut I have been eyeballing your plans for awhile truing to nitpick them to death but I couldn't find anything fo fuss about so I am now giving you the big for such a fine idea. By the way forced perspective really ties a pike togather very nicely and with the way your plan shapes up I think you have a winner.

[TrainNut]

Wow, thanks guys. I'm currently working on the framing plan and will post something once I get it figured out. I still want to build it in sections in case I ever need to disassemble it for relocation. The different levels with the canyons and terrain relief cutting across some of the pieces is providing me with quite the challenge.
Lyates - I'm still nitpicking it and I think I've pretty much worked out all of the things that bug me except a couple. On either end of the big yard, reaching back into the corners might prove to be a bit of a stretch. I've tried to limit putting anything way back in the corners to help resolve that except up on the second level. Time will tell I guess.

[Wysph]

I just found this!
Quite impressive….

I am kinda wondering how much stretch will be required to reach upper shelf level in corner by repair facility?

How will you access helix mountain insides or helix if you have a derailment?

Did you allow enough radius in your complete circuits to run passenger length with out problems, on the ones you will run or possible run passenger trains?

I would also like to see a detailed wiring diagram on all that…it appears to be confusing even in the simplest form for me from what I have been reading so far..

Yes, I know that these are beginner questions …but if I don’t ask…

I will be following your progress…
I see several great ideas I may incorporate into my layout when I build it!

if i may...

Thank you for sharing
Go well and in peace