Help with a WNYP track plan

[RCpullerdude]

Is there anyone here that could help me out with a trackplan for free? My HO scale 421 is begging me to give her a place to run, and I cannot get a trackplan I like at all. Thanks.

[Luther Brefo]

Moderator's Note:

Moved to Scale Model Railroading.

[Jfrmr1]

i am a former dispatcher and have ridden the line from cuba to meadville, and know most all of it, not to mention track charts and timetable, and the b&h and la&l

[Fred Olka]

Well what are you looking for? Where are you going to build? What size? Any limitations? Time period? Location? I always up for a challange. Ok fellas lets see if we can help him out

[Otto Vondrak]

Number one question- have you ever built a model railroad before?

If you have never built a layout before, and you're simply looking for a place to run your engines, I wouldn't get all wound up whether or not your track plan replicates a section of the WNYP perfectly... just have fun building a layout, and worry about the details later.

I'm sure folks here can give you great advice and suggestions on how to make a track plan that suggests the look and feel of the WNYP and western New York...

-otto-

[RCpullerdude]

No, this will be my first, but I don't want to have a generic layout. I want something that screams western PA/NY area.

Givens:
4X8, room for removable staging off the end
Area between Meadville and Union City, most notably Cambridge Springs-Seagertown area
HO scale
Modern day
WNYP

Druthers:
Easily expanded in the future
As accurate as possible
3-4 car trains, plus locomotive
Realistic scenery
Some switching ability

I did have a good trackplan that quite accuratly modeled from the French Creek, just North of Cambridge Springs, to the South side of the town. Only problem was that it was 4X16. Twice as long as I can have. My room is only 8X12. I'm going to be getting a new bed soon, and that's going to free up my layout options.

Thanks. I really appericiate it.

[Fred Olka]

Nuts to the bed sleep on the floor! Go around the walls,or better yet If you can build the bench work high enough you could still have the bed and the layout would be almost eye level. Think shelf style.

[Jfrmr1]

email me and i can send you a basic track plan for the wnyp, anything specifically requested?

[RCpullerdude]

I was thinking of putting the layout on legs that would support it above the bed, like a bunkbed, only with a train layout for a top bunk. Around the walls is out of the question. I've considered it, but I have an entry door, a closet door, a TV on a dresser, a Computer on a computerstand, and a freezer. There are just too many obsticals for around the walls.

If it would help, my eye level is 65" and my shoulder level is 59-60 inches. I am open to around the walls if anyone can figure out a set-up that'd work. If you need the room layout, I could draw it up on paint, and put it here.

[CNJ999]

RC - Some words of saged advice. First off, scale back those ideas of building something that "screams western PA/NY", is highly accurate and a realistic replication of your area. When building a first layout, it is always best to utilize some basic, tried and true, trackplan that's appeared in some publication like MR or RMC. Someone's already executed them and found any potential mistakes. First layouts are largely technique-learning tools. Most beginner's layout designs are over the top and impractical.

You are building a 4x8, which is pretty much going to limit you, in HO, to a single loop of track, probably a passing siding and a few short industry sidings. Placing the layout on tall legs to fit over a bed sounds to me like a very unstable, shaky, arrangement. Most tall layouts have ample leg bracing, which would largely block access to the bed.

Further, unless the bed is sticking out from the middle of one of the room's walls, rather set longside and against a room wall or in the corner, you'll have great difficulty reaching equipment at the layout's rear. Being freestanding, with access to all four sides, would at least give you better operating access, and even permit a scenic divider down the layout's center to give you two independent scenes.

CNJ999

[RCpullerdude]

Thanks for the advise. As for the arrangement, the bed will not be along a wall, but comming out from a wall, with the head against the wall. I have plans for tons of bracing, and still being able to crawl under the layout, which should be a fair distance above the bed. I figure 6 legs, three to a side. Each with a load of bracing to stabilize them. As far as the local, I just want to use local buisnesses and stuff to make it obvious where the layout is set. Like Turner's Mill (now Western Reserve), is a feed mill located along the WNYP in Cambridge Springs. Adding that to the layout would help set the location.

[RCpullerdude]

Okay, I'm going to go see if there's a trackplan I like in that MR special thing from a couple years back that had the DVD in it.

[Jers2709]

Model Railroader magazine now has downloadable trackplans, you enter how many square feet you have, scale, and type of layout disired then out pops the trackplans.

Jay

P.S. You have to be a subscriber to use it.

[Otto Vondrak]

I hate to break it to you, but you cannot build a layout that screams WNYP in 4x8... unless it's you who is doing the screaming at the layout when it doesn't match what you have in mind...

Keep it simple, and build up to larger layouts in the future. Don't get tricked by what you see in the magazines- those layouts were built over many years by folks with a lot of experience (and a lot of help). You'll get there someday... just not on your first try.

Build yourself a layout with reliable trackage and wiring, and you'll have a lot more fun running your WNYP equipment on it than if you tried to cram the ex-Erie mainline into 4x8.

[umtrr-author]

All good advice thus far...

My only incremental thought is that, as has been done with some project railroads, you could build a 4x8 with a central view block of some sort and then build two good small scenes which scream WNY&P. The fact that the view block could and should be hilly terrain a la the Southern Tier will help you.

But there is a major obstacle I see, namely, how do you reach the scene in the back of the layout, that would be against the wall? Even if you were to skew the view block somehow so that the majority of the space were taken by the front scene, I'm not sure you'd be able to reach over it. That might mean having to make it removable, which, while not insurmountable, would lead to different headaches... possibly literally so.

I would also be careful about using the traditional approach and long legs. Have you thought about building something lightweight and then suspending it from the ceiling? (Or have I had too much caffeine today...)