Intro to the iNdoor layout

This post gives some high level design information about the N scale layout. There isn't much detail here - just enough so that I can start posting about my current work on the staging portion of the layout. In later posts I'll cover topics such as the concept, design and construction of the main layout.

I started design work on this layout when we moved to our current house in December, 2005. After years of not having space for a layout I'm very fortunate to have not only a great 4-car garage with a large workshop area, but also a finished loft above the garage with a ¾ bath (i.e. shower, sink, toilet) . The garage loft has been perfect for my office (I work from home) as well as my dream layout.

A sketch of the garage loft is shown below. North is the top of the drawing.


The largest room is on the North side of the loft -- its about 19' 2" x 19' 8". The main layout is in this room. It's a conventional double deck, around-the-walls set up. The layout shelves are generally 2' wide, and aisleways are 3' 9" wide or greater.

The one peninsula on the layout is about 7' wide with a narrow 3'-wide hidden area in the middle for access. This area is nicknamed "The Box" because it is built out of four 5'6"-high walls made of 2x4 studs, including bottom and top plates, with the whole Box firmly anchored to the floor. It was built this way to allow the upper deck to extend over the peninsula. Access to "The Box" is via a 32" crawl-under -- not something I intend to do go into very often. (The kids love going in there, though.)

There are small window alcoves on the center of the West and East sides -- on the East this is part of the bathroom (with shower).

The South side room is smaller than the North because the South side includes a closet, part of the bathroom and a hall way along the staircase.

For the first few months after we moved in I worked on the layout design. I knew pretty quickly that the West window alcove would be used for the helix connecting the levels, but I was trying to find a way to add staging without using the South room, which I'd set up as my office.

In April, 2006, I began room modifications, including moving a built-in desk out of the North room, removing extensive wiring the previous owner had installed, and painting the room a sky blue. By July layout benchwork began. By December the lower deck benchwork was in place, including "The Box", and about 55% of the lower deck track was down and wired. By then I realized that effective staging was going to require tunneling through the (non-supporting) wall to the South room and changing the direction of the door to South room.

And there I got stuck, and let the layout gather dust while working on non-railroad projects. Eventually, in mid-2007 I figured out the necessary measurements I'd need, got out the hand saw to cut drywall, and built a finished open "window" in the wall, including window frames. Then I repainted the South room a similar blue color and started on benchwork for staging. By December 2007 I'd finished two of the 3 staging tiers (more on that later) and had the trains running in a nice loop.

Then, as I started thinking about the 3rd staging tier I encountered a tough design problem. Once again, my progress on the layout stalled for several months while I found other projects.

Finally, in September 2008 I decided to stop letting these kind of challenges get the best of me. An honest look at the layout made me realize that the staging area, as built, suffered from severe design and implementation flaws. The only solution I would be happy with was to tear it down and start over. I spent September-November drawing up plans for the new staging, while working in parallel to reorganize the garage loft, including building more storage and getting rid of clutter.

On December 14 the old staging came down. As I write this I've been spending much of the last two months rebuilding staging. My next post will include some pictures and describe the staging design.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Model Railroader blog. This is intended to be a log of activities regarding the creation of my two model railroads. In part I'm doing this to create a journal that I can look back on later. And in part this blog is meant to help motivate me to do a little bit every day on the model railroads. I tend to stick to a daily building regime for months at a time but, once I skip a day or two, I can go months without making any progress.

The title "Average Model Railroader" is in deference to the National Model Railroad Association's (NMRA) Master Model Railroader (MMR). An MMR is difficult to obtain -- there have been less than 500 in the 25 or so years the program has been in existence, which is a tiny percentage of the 19,000 NMRA members and the 100s of thousands of model railroaders world wide. No, I'm not doing great stuff, yet. But am trying to build the skills needed to do great modeling. In the process I involve our 4 kids (ages 8-15) as much as possible.

There are 4 layouts (or potential layouts) in and around our house at different stages of construction:

1. The most active layout resides in the loft above our garage. I will describe this in detail in my next post. It's a double-deck N scale layout occupying roughly 500 square feet of floor space (counting aisles). At 1:160 scale N is a little more than half the size of the most common scale, HO (1:87), and about 2/7th the size of the O-scale (1:48) Lionel trains of yore.
2. My other active layout is the opposite of the N scale layout in most respects. It’s outdoor and in F scale (1:20.3, which is a little larger than the more widely known 1:22.5 “G” scale). Living in Colorado, this layout is in hibernation during the winter. In a few months I’ll write a post describing this layout, but for now I’ll just note that it is intended to be a prototype (i.e. based on a real railroad) model of the Denver & Rio Grande circa 1884-5 between Salida and Leadville, Colorado.
3. Nearly 20 years ago, while living in Europe, I built a 1x3 meter Märklin HO scale layout that survived a move to U.S., but not a subsequent move to Colorado. I still have the equipment, and have some vague plans to revive some of it for a winter layout "someday".
4. My son has acquired a good amount of HO equipment over the years, and I’d like to get a basic layout running for him. Just kicking around some ideas now, but hope to return to this later this year.

My next post will provide an overview of the iNdoor layout.