Design influences: first layout

A little while ago I discussed the external influences that helped shape my plan for this N scale layout -- mostly from age 7-10. Extending on that theme, this is the first of a series of posts to talk about past layouts I've built, and the lessons learned from each.

I received my first train set as my 8th or 9th birthday present from my dad. It was a cheap Tyco starter set with just an oval, one engine, and 5 cars ... and I LOVED IT!!! Over the next few years I acquired some extra cars and track, but didn't think about a layout until I visited a friend of my dad's, who'd built a basic layout for his son. We were inspired, so my dad went to a train shop to do some research, and picked up this booklet:


This must have been the standard booklet for train shop newbies of the 60s and 70s. We knew nothing about layout design, so not surprisingly we settled on the sample plan in the book:


I was so excited. My dad would visit on weeknights (this was after the divorce) and we built a 4x8 table, put down plywood, and tacked down the track. No roadbed -- the book didn't include roadbed in the detailed instructions. Then we added ballast using the method in the book, which didn't turn out that well. I had to work for days to get the stray ballast off the rails. But still -- I had a layout!!! I bought a few cars, built a few structures, and a ran a lot of trains. While it never looked like anything that you'd see in a magazine I was happy with it and kept using it ... until we moved and the layout had to be disassembled.

So what did I learn here?

1. On paper there are 4 separate towns mentioned, but in the flesh the distance between them is tiny. Treating each siding as a separate town just did not look at all realistic. I didn't know it then, but Linn Westcott, the author of the book, was a prolific layout designer who had certain strong preferences that didn't fit my own, and in fact were counter to the general direction layout design has been going for the past 40-50 years. He did believe strongly in track plans with realistic schematics, which is a pretty universal preference now, but beyond that he didn't place much value on scenery or realistic setups. He was happy to have track going several times through the same scene, or have two towns on top of each other, or creating a "bowl of spaghetti" type of track plan.
   
   So, my first big lesson was that I wanted a layout to be somewhat realistic. The setting should be possible at least, if not entirely plausible.



2. In my post about external influences I mentioned love of passenger trains. So naturally, as this layout was being assembled I used my allowance to pick up a few passenger cars. I found that passenger cars look pretty ridiculous going around the tight curves (18" and 15" HO) on this layout. And further, that if you want any realism with passenger trains they have to go somewhere. With freight you can focus on the local switching, but passenger requires some distance. So, how can you get distance in a mere 32 square foot layout, realistically? As it turned out, I solved this with my third layout 15 years after this one was built.



3. This layout was in the basement of our small apartment building. No one bothered it, but it was a pain having to move all the rolling stock and buildings to and from our storage locker between sessions. Dust was also a major menace, even though we had a sheet that covered the layout when not in used. I'm sure both those factors reduced the time I spent with the layout.
   
   In subsequent layouts I've sometimes been forced into similar compromises, but when possible I avoid such situations.

After this layout was torn down I wouldn't start another one for almost 5 years, which will be covered in a future post.