Planning my layout thoughts please!

[ranger10178]

Just now, Tonytramman said:

nice layout, is that a Network South East bin under your layout?! 

Certainly is! Saved from the skip at work last year! (With manager's permission)

 

I know the location of a larger round one that's been 'dumped' out of the way, but it'd be too big to make use in my room!

[ranger10178]

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Nice ranger! We use 5mm ply all the time and as long as you have a good support grid it works fine. Usually try to keep any open area under 25cm x 35cm.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

I suspect there's some areas a bit bigger than that which are unsupported. I think I should be okay though, especially with the size of the legs, but if not, I'll just call it a learning curve!

[cteno4]

If you see an issue you can probably just cut a few more pieces to add to your support grid and glue and screw in place. Doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional as it’s under the layout!

 

yep it’s a learning curve. My first layout as a kid started out with a decent frame and such and then over a couple of years I ended up grafting like 6 additions onto it to max out the space in my bedroom where it was. It was a Frankenstein of support structure when you looked under the layout due to all the grafts and how it would then need to rest on the bookshelves I had supporting it!

 

jeff

[AhmadKane]

On 5/4/2020 at 8:23 AM, ranger10178 said:

I've built my baseboard! All in all it's 2050mm x 1220mm. I've used some pretty thin plywood, but it seems to do the trick pretty well, as I've added a fairly substantial frame to keep it from warping. 

 

For the moment I've decided that the baseboard is going to be more of a place to have temporary layouts, as opposed to anything set in stone as this will allow me to use the baseboard for wargaming (ie setting up my armies and admiring them 😂) as well as model railways!

 

In the second photo you can quite clearly see the Ikea drawers that I'm using as 'legs'. These seem to do a good enough job of supporting the baseboard.

That looks absolutely amazing. It's quite a good start and definitely expandable. But yeah if ya wanna use the board for something else, then having a temporary layout is the good way to go. Ttrack may be suitable, plus, you can definitely put your t track modules under your table since there's a lot of space there. 

 

May I suggest you use cardboard? I know that wood boards are a good base and normally using foam is the way to go. But I find cardboard, if you pile them up and glue them, is rather light and manageable. Granted, you can't dig down like foam but at least it'll be friendly to paint and turfing than something like MDF. Also, a word of warning, I recommend setting your inner circle first. I didn't and paid the price on having little to no space for my town.

[ranger10178]

1 minute ago, AhmadKane said:

That looks absolutely amazing. It's quite a good start and definitely expandable. But yeah if ya wanna use the board for something else, then having a temporary layout is the good way to go. Ttrack may be suitable, plus, you can definitely put your t track modules under your table since there's a lot of space there. 

 

May I suggest you use cardboard? I know that wood boards are a good base and normally using foam is the way to go. But I find cardboard, if you pile them up and glue them, is rather light and manageable. Granted, you can't dig down like foam but at least it'll be friendly to paint and turfing than something like MDF. Also, a word of warning, I recommend setting your inner circle first. I didn't and paid the price on having little to no space for my town.

Just so you know, I've taken off this temporary setup and put as much of the planned layout on there - the Anyrail diagram that's in this post!

[Cat]

As we're planning our modular layout, an important feature here is to make sure that there are enough open spaces of wide (for Japan) roads, parking lots, and flat roofs for mecha and kaiju to maneuver for wargaming!  Girls und Panzer tank battles will be easy to handle.
: 3

[AhmadKane]

5 minutes ago, ranger10178 said:

Just so you know, I've taken off this temporary setup and put as much of the planned layout on there - the Anyrail diagram that's in this post!

Oh! I thought you take the planning from anyrail to the temporary setup. Hahaha, sorry bout that m8. I also forgot to mention about your anyrail diagram. 

 

I find it worrisome that for a train to exit the freight yard, you'd have to loop until the headshunt. Because 3 248 straights could accommodate such a long train, and while dynamic, may be cumbersome for you to get the train unto the main loop. Moreover, while you're planning a container terminal, may I suggest a harbor? A harbour has great play value to a layout, it could be for freight and passenger. I reckon that if you place a docks between the container terminal and the station area, you would have such a great area and layout for the size.

[ranger10178]

1 minute ago, Cat said:

As we're planning our modular layout, an important feature here is to make sure that there are enough open spaces of wide (for Japan) roads, parking lots, and flat roofs for mecha and kaiju to maneuver for wargaming!  Girls und Panzer tank battles will be easy to handle.
: 3

That's gonna look awesome! I really like watching the progress of your project! As an aside, I've found my Kashima Rinkai trains! - I have 5 coaches! One of which is in the GuP livery, and one each in the "old" and "new" livery.

[ranger10178]

11 minutes ago, AhmadKane said:

Oh! I thought you take the planning from anyrail to the temporary setup. Hahaha, sorry bout that m8. I also forgot to mention about your anyrail diagram. 

 

I find it worrisome that for a train to exit the freight yard, you'd have to loop until the headshunt. Because 3 248 straights could accommodate such a long train, and while dynamic, may be cumbersome for you to get the train unto the main loop. Moreover, while you're planning a container terminal, may I suggest a harbor? A harbour has great play value to a layout, it could be for freight and passenger. I reckon that if you place a docks between the container terminal and the station area, you would have such a great area and layout for the size.

My headshunt actually has capacity for 13 KoKi wagons, basically the Headshunt actually starts immediately after the crossover into the yard. The two 'straight' roads in the container terminal can hold 5 Koki wagons, and the other one 4-5 as well!

 

The area between my station and the container yard is planned to have a small town scene. The layout is going to be operated by the short side next to the container terminal due to location of power sockets and where the door into my room is.

 

At the momento I'm not going to be putting any cardboard down or anything, I'll just be placing track straight on top of the ply board. I'll send a photo of where I'm at now with progress at some point.

[ranger10178]

I've been playing around a little, got the two running lines working fine, as well as the middle yard. I've not connected the station points up yet, because I'm lazy 😂

 

The train in the loop platform is unmotorised, and is part of a job lot of 82 series (?) Coaches I bought on eBay a couple of years ago. All in all I got 3 cab coaches, 4 standard class and 6 green cars I think.

 

The EF64 is hauling my now 14 wagon container set (which doesn't quite fit in the headshunt, though the addition of one of the S33/S29's should allow it to.) The EF65 is hauling 8 WAMU 80000 box vans - which came out of service around 2012 - they were being used to carry paper I believe.

 

Oh and the Panzer's weren't painted by me, I bought them pretty cheap off the net, but I do have around 30 x 15mm German tanks I have painted! (As well as a large infantry company to go with them and all the artillery etc).