A hole in the wall X4 - something new!

[TrainNut]

Several years ago, I got fed up with the club and decided it was time to build a layout at home. My wife and I decided at that time that the best place to build a layout would be in the room that we used the least - our Dining room. There, I built an N scale, L shaped layout.



At that time, half our family room was occupied by our office. My wife promised that when she moved her business and our office out of home and into a real "office", I could have the old space for a new layout. Thus, I designed a huge layout to fit every inch of the space. The design was so neat that I fine tuned it and submitted it to MR's layout planning contest (winners to be revealed in May). Some of you may remember that I posted pics of the design on this site ever so briefly before other members suggested I remove it to better my meager chances at winning.

In the last several months, my wife followed through on her promise and we moved the office out of home. As I began looking at the empty space, visualizing the new layout, I came to realize that it was just too big for our house. My wife was in full support of building it but I could not. Plus, our Dining room is now being used more and more frequently and it sure would be nice to have that little bit of extra space. That layouts gotta go... in fact, it's gone.

As we sat down to discuss options, several ideas surfaced but I have to admit that the best one came from her. "Build a smaller one in the other corner of the family room and poke it through the wall into the Living room." AMAZING IDEA! So, here we have the other corner of the family room.



And, the small area in the Living room where it will pop out.



Following is a rough, VERY ROUGH, overall plan of the new layout...



It's designed to be a double mainline all the way around with a large yard and two towns with several industries. I hope to model the transition era as closely as possible. Size and design dictates that the minimum radius be 12". On the right hand side, I am toying with the idea of making the bridge either a duckunder or a liftout. I just have to find a bridge large enough to span a 2'8" gap. I've been looking for an HO bridge in the hopes that I would have a better chance of finding one long enough. I saw one similar to this a while back, but can't seem to find it again.



Any help in this area would be most appreciated. It needs to span the entire gap. I'm also thinking that I will probably have to build such a thing from scratch and if so, I think I will base it off of the Sydney Harbor Bridge...



I have also enlarged the yard area so you don't have to squint so hard...



I tried my best to follow the guidelines for designing a proper yard. The structure up behind the roundhouse will be either a car repair facility or a diesel facility. Down towards the right, where the three stubs come out, is a fantastic place for a rather large industry. I'm thinking a gas refinery or something.

Here's a closeup of the S curve mining area that kind of sits off by itself... I've actually started on this piece already...



And finally, a closeup view of what I think will pretty closely resemble the final track plan of the south side...



Just a couple of things I thought of to tag on the end... max grade will be 2% and I will probably put the layout as low as 36" above floor as there stands a very good chance that there will be a narrow gauge layout stacked on top of this at eye level.

It's a work in progress and comments are definitely welcomed.

[sdkid]

Very cool. Glad to see you found a different direction that will please all of you.

[hoscalemodeler1967]

can't wait to follow this one,,,now get on it will ya ,,were all waiting,,,,

----------------
Now playing: Toby Keith - Beer For My Horses
via FoxyTunes

[Wrath_of_Wotan]

Hey TrainNut - I miss the Deep Creek already, but life goes on... Why not copy the prototypes and model river banks on each side of a lift-out and cross it with girders on each end and multiple Warren trusses spanning the river? The Pennsy did this in Logansport crossing the Wabash river with 4 Warrens - it looks pretty impressive. Best wishes on the new layout!

[TallDude]

I'll miss the old layout, but the pictures of it are here forever.. Can't wait to see the new one come to life!

[ak-milw]

Hey TN,
Glad to see getting rid of the other layout isn't getting you down and your up and running on a new project. I will be watching!!!

Hows the outside layout coming???

[TrainNut]

Originally Posted by Wrath_of_Wotan

Why not copy the prototypes and model river banks on each side of a lift-out and cross it with girders on each end and multiple Warren trusses spanning the river? The Pennsy did this in Logansport crossing the Wabash river with 4 Warrens - it looks pretty impressive.

Well, I went and found an aerial of the crossing you are referring to and I do have to admit that it looks pretty cool. My initial thought is that I wanted something that would cross the span in a single gap so there were no piers coming down in the middle giving me as much vertical clearance as possible as a duckunder. As a liftout, we're talking a different story that I haven't given a whole lot of thought to. Interesting possibilities! I'll look into that some more as I already have one double mainline girder from Kato that is 9" long. At that length, I would only need 3 more for a total of 4 giving me a bridge length of 3'. Hmmmmmm...

Originally Posted by ak-milw

Glad to see getting rid of the other layout isn't getting you down and your up and running on a new project. ...Hows the outside layout coming???

It was kind of the other way around. I've had a serious case of "lack of motivation" lately and I think that's what finally brought about the destruction of the Deep Creek. Also because of my lack of motivation lately, Scorpion Bend has also suffered. I've placed a few more rocks but that's about it. I better get my butt in gear here pretty soon 'cause it's going to be 100 & teens down here before very much longer and then it'll be time to hibernate under the A/C all summer.

[Trainman1965]

Oh boy we have someone busting holes in the walls now other then Andy. You go trainnut cant wait to see how it gets started.

[TallDude]

See Trainman1965, I told you that was the "in" thing ot do nowdays... now bust a hole through to that empty bedroom and get started!

[Daryl]

hey TN ,I hate to be the stick in the mud but are you going to be able to easily clear derailments in the two tunnels. other wise looks like a great plan . go for it