I am brand-new to the world of model trains after a 35-year hiatus. My house is small and I am trying to design a shelf layout in my "man cave". The room is small (about 10' x 9'), is more or less square but it has multiple 45 degree angles yielding a total of ten faces ranging from 17" to 116" in length.
I picked up a good sized lot of EZ track on eBay which consists of 18" radius (I think) curves and 9" straight sections.
I am having trouble figuring out how to lay this out to maximize my layout size while, at the same time, keeping the track as close to the wall as possible.
Does anyone have experience with this that can help me to engineer this? I am thinking that I will need curves of multiple radii but I do not even know what radii are available.
Thanks in advance!
I would suggest using this software to at least give you an idea of the potential you have
http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm (http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm)
I am building an around-the-walls layout using commercially available modular shelving. You know...the stuff with the vertical stantions with multiple slots for mounting the brackets. The shelves would accomodate any straight length of wall and you could miter the boards to fit at the joints. You can get a lot of railroading in a 12" to 18" wide shelf. There are a couple of excellent books by a fellow named Iain Rice. The older one is called "Small, Smart and Practical Track Plans." The other is called "Shelf Layouts for Model Railroads." Both are published by Kalmbach and both make excellent resources. Hope this helps.
Rusty
rather than use prefab shelving to try to fit an irregularly shaped room, why not checque out the designs of freemo?
http://www.free-mo.org/
they have come up with an incredibly flexible modular system of railroading that i think you'll be able to apply to your situation. note that, unless you are going to take sections of your layout to shows and display them with other freemo modules, you don't have to follow their standards of track location. but the table designs i think will help you out.....
Dear Delirious,
Here is one of my previous threads on the subject:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,6808.0.html
If you would like a "ladder siding" on one of your shelves, (used to avoid the "S" curves of a conventional parallel siding),
see this thread:
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,7513.0.html
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik