Well, I realized I got myself in way over my head with the initial track plan for my basement layout and decided to blow it up and start over. The biggest issue was working out how to deal with the open center section and instead of having that I've opted to go with something a bit simpler to start.
The new plan is basically a large rectangle with one main line loop. It is divided into two halves, one for the yard and the other for the town/industrial areas. I think this will be much more manageable as a starter layout. Now there is no lift out or duck under to deal with and it cuts down on the overall costs of the project.
Here is the revised plan:
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| Mockup of the revised track plan in SCARM |
The major element that I removed from the old design is the wye for turning trains around. That was just going to take up too much space, so I decided to go with a turntable instead. I'll have to deal with the complexities of wiring one up, but it will work much better in the space I have.
I really like this plan and I hope the center divider idea will work as planned. It will help give the illusion that the trains go somewhere when leaving the town area. The overall table size is 66" x 144" so being able to reach the center shouldn't be a problem. Now I just need to stick with this and start working up how to build the benchwork.
I've started slowly buying packs of sectional track from the local hobby shop and even bought some lumber from Home Depot to get the benchwork going. I just need to find some time to get started, otherwise this will just turn into another project I never actually work on. I really want to be able to run some trains, so hopefully I can get to this sooner than later. I'd like to get some trains in motion before the end of 2015, but we'll see what happens.
