I’m not the most focused model railroader left on this planet. After building most of the basic benchwork for the main layout, I realized that I needed to ewxplore a few more things in electronics befor continuing to avoid ripping off track, that’s just been laid. Track occupancy sensors, reportes and signal wiring all require some consideration, before bringing out the ballasting crew.
Now, I am aware, that there are several approach to get where I want to arrive some day, one very feasible being: Get your trains running quickly. So building most of the trackwork first and worrying about drilling holes later. That’s a great approach. I might reconsider mine.
So none the less, I am currently building a shower stall in the attic, which proes to be time consuming, considering, I’m still working full-time and trying to squeeze in some modeling in the rare hour between these tasks. So to see at least some progress somewhere, I have strated to build the stow-away Test-Layout mentioned a few time earlier on this site. Manily to test my skills, but also to enjoy the building and modeling and landscaping part of the hobby along the way.
Operations wise it is a dull layout. One mainline and one single trailing industry spur. It’s not bad for an office shelf though. Short 15 minute sessions can be very appealing in this context. A small three car local going in engine first, picking up one or two cars from the spur and setting out as many cars afterwards. Then re assembling the train and off it goes either backwards to where it came from or forward to whatever imaginary location would be next on the line. With brake tests and other simulated workj, it could easily fill a 15-20 minute operating session.
So what’s the plan?
I plan to add a runaround track, a second trailing industry spur and a facing three track – very overgrown – switching yard to the front of the layout. To allow for reasonable switching a short lead track will be added. Se the image below.
This layout measures 270 x 60 cm, adding 30 cm to the front of the existing layout, by extending the benchwork accordingly.
I started reworking the bench work, by simply screwing additional pieces of lumber to the existing frame. That however wasn’t a clever idea at all. The rigidity was terrible and I elongated the layout by just 5.6 cm and exceeded the height of the ceiling with that, shattering my plan to store it vertically next to the chimney, when not in use. So essentially I will have to make a new frame, but risk destroying already shaped up scenery. On the other hand, keeping the current frame will introduce unnecessary weight, which will make handling the thing much more difficult.
Split Frame / Modular Layout
Now I’m thinking of literally cutting it in the middle, which conveniently wouldn’t have a too complex track arrangement to make that work, and gain transportability with that, by creating two 60x135cm modules.