Upheaval

Coincidentally, it became obvious that we had to move.  We were completely out of room.  So we began house-hunting.

So we started packing.  Those 2'x3' cut sections (still bare, no track, no support framework) wound up in our storage facility, waiting. For a couple of months, we slowly started packing our books and knick-knacks.

We applied for a mortgage pre-approval, and with pleasantly little difficulty we were approved.  At about the same time, we found a nice colonial about two miles away.  With a full semi-finished basement.  We put in a bid, and got accepted.

Now the packing frenzy began.  But very early on, Mary asks me "Where are you going to put your layout?"  I replied "How about the east wall of the basement?"  And she agreed.  I measured it later - it's 30 feet.   Bonus.

So whenever I could steal a half hour from packing, I started to adapt the TOMA sections to the new dimensions.  It wouldn't actually be removable, but  I'd build it sectionally.  I also added in the loops on the end, to allow continuous running for when we had company over.  The left (west) end will also have staging inside the loop.

In the diagram you can see where the sections go - with one exception.  I decided to turn the mine into a branch line, running up the entire back of the layout with the mine on top of the east loop (which is in a tunnel).

Overhead

Left half

Right half

Rapid Evolution

Is anyone ever happy with their layout design?

As of yet, the layout is in the planning stage.  Nothing is carved in stone - not even sandstone.  And I kept doing research (that is, I bought magazines and books), some of which led me to make minor and subtle changes to the design. 


Then - I came up with the idea of using a mountain (it would have to be pretty steep on both sides) as a divider between the back and the front, serving much the same function as a backdrop down the middle of a layout, which is to provide separation between the two sides.   Some more rearrangement, and I wound up with this:

Overhead

Front view

Back view

After listening to discussion about TOMA (The One Module Approach) on the Modeler's Life Podcast, I decided on a change in direction.  Why limit myself to one door?  I could go bigger and smaller at the same time.  So I looked for plastic storage containers that I could use to put sections in, and I found some reasonably priced flats that with internal dimensions to hold 36" long x 24" wide x 12" high.  I could do a point-to-point railway with those dimensions - and have reasonably tall mountains (oh, let's face it - truncated hills) also.

So I started modularizing:

• Coal mine
• Rail yard
• Industrial area
• Town
• Power plant

I settled on treating it as a shelf layout, and put the mountains against the top (north).  I decided against using any standards like N-Trak or Freemo as I wanted the double main line (yep, back to that, since I would have the space) to be relatively close to the front of the module, not centered as in Freemo or three lines as in N-Trak. (Plus, I didn't want to deal with legs - I planned on using folding tables for support).

So I essentially unfolded what had been wrapped around the east (right) side of the layout, and rearranged a little.

Each section would be 36" wide and 18" deep, for a total length of 15 feet.

Going from left (west) to right (east), I wound up with:

Coal Mine

Yard

Yep - the turntable is back.

Industry

Town

Including an interchange with the Baltimore & Ohio.

Power Plant

I'd use the sections of mainline on either end to do a little bit of staging.  I could even add another section on each end to provide actual staging and a loop for continuous operation like this:

West loop (right loop identical but mirrored)

I also decided to use the same "footprint" for the mountain cross-section on either end of each module, allowing me to rearrange the sections any way I would like to, or even to add additional modules in between.

And all five of the basic sections (excluding the optional end loops) could be cut from one piece of light plywood.

I went to Lowes and had the sections cut.  Finally and officially, construction had begun.