HO or N?

[Railery]

Shamus i totally agree with u. On the old layout i had a duck under and i had to crawl under the 4x8 to get over to the other side. i got real tired of doing that. The new layout has no duck unders and the wiring is all bus line for switches, lights, animation, sound, and power. This way i don't have to follow yards of wire if there is a problem and access to the bus line is 1' in from the facia. i will still use lift out scenery which makes it easy to change. i've learned from past experiences and that includes radi, slopes, benchwork, and scenery. Don't take shortcuts and keep it simple or as simple as u can

 

[shamus]

Hi Railery, yes, I have quite alot of lift out scenery, where my Badger Creek sawmill is, the water lifts out, the scenery to the left of it lifts out and the rear mountain lifts out. Apart from anything else, I can get the camera in that area on a tripod for photo's, then replace everything. Visiters often ask-"How did you get that photo of the large trestle, or how do you get to the rear to do the scenery".

Good sense to have scenery lift out

 

[Virginian]

HEY GEORGE,
no need to 'shout', good buddy; I'm 'blind', not deaf!

Sorry, but we have very few basements out here; I,ve lived in only one home in my entire 30 years in California that had one, and it was 'ground floor', actually. (It did flood in Feb. '86, but I'd move back in a flash if I could.
Any way, I will require a barn or at least a three car garage for our next place, you betcha.

As for your 'trap door' problem:
I'm new to this, but have been doing a lot of study re: layout/track planning...Would it be possible for you to re-design your pike a bit to allow for a "gorge", a..ah.. 'Grand Canyon' effect that could 'fade' into a narrow gap in the layout/scenery (where you left the gap in your bench work for the 'gate section') that you could kinda side step through to get into your central control space? Having no pics of your layout to reference, I have no idea if that could work.
By the way, I'm now working on the design phase of the first leg of the "J.W. Kesling Memorial RR", on the drawing board. I'm going to use one of our two bedrooms for the layout; my shop is in the garage, and trying to figure out how to fit both in that limited space has been a real hinderence. It's just me, my Wife and our Malamute, so I think it'll work, with some major re-arrangments; the room is kinda an extra large walk-in closet at present!
Well, that's enough for now. Good luck, hope you get some ideas that will help.
VGN

(ah, the sunshine, the warm breezes!...

)

 

[Railery]

Hi George, maybe a lift bridge. i never thought of it before. i have a lift bridge for the new layout and there doesn't seem to be any problems with that. U would have to design and build your own for the space u need to cross. Or enlarge a designed one. It can even be motorized like mine. Push a button and up it comes. Well its an idea, hope not too off the wall

 

[George]

You've all got nifty ideas, but alas reality prevails. Shamus's observation is correct regarding problems with cyclical temperature fluctuations, not to mention effects of humidity. Railery, you and Virginian are both right in aiming for a walk-in arrangement, which was my first consideration, but due to the width of the room and my desire for a broad run with as few curves as possible, I went the way i did.

The swing gate is nixed and I'm going to put up with a duckunder. Then I will be able to say I did it, and authoratatively tear the concept apart in the future! Fortunately I saw this coming and made one section only two feet wide, so until the next disc goes, it should not be too bad.

This should make spanning a gorge with four tracks easier, as now I can put two on a bridge and either hide two in a mountian or do some dramatic cliff work. Terminal Hobby Shop has the Walther's two track bridge in "HO" on sale this month for US$17. A less expensive option is the Life Like arch bridge kit which if I remember has an option for putting two side by side for two tracks. Have any of you built this kit in this manner?

George.

 

[Virginian]

Hey George,
I just had a thought...are you set up in the basement?? Or in a room above the basement? You could do a little trap door with attic access type steps if the 2nd is true, and do a little excavation work in the first case..

Seriously, sounds like you'll just have to "limbo"..hey, what about a grade up to that point? ...it would raise your 'back' clearance a little. Good luck.
VGN

p.s.: thanks for the Passenger info.

 

[Virginian]

Another thought about the N vs HO debate: I just joined our local Model railroad club...the layout is HO...I'm doing N...I joined so I could use the Proto 2K 2-8-8-2 Mallet I'm buying...I'll continue to work on an N scale layout at home, but I could see having a club to participate in as a factor in ones decision re: what scale? If you just wanted to run trains and work on layout without having the space of one's own to do HO, that would be a good option.
VGN

 

[George]

Hello Virginian!

The room I'm in is on the ground level. the house is on a slab with a massive french drainage system around the foundation to prevent flooding. Happy to say it works so far.

Thus, excavation is out. I actually considered putting the bench surface five feet up, then building a raised floor around the edge of the layout to stand on, but I was worried about getting airsick!

As for your split between gauges, have you considered combining both on a forced perspective? Even on a layout with a depth of four feet, you could create some interesting scenes with "HO" in front, and "N" in the background going along a hill.

Just use lots of vegetation to split the scene into something convincing?

George.