Getting started...a lot to think about and learn!

In getting started with planning our layout I was a little overwhelmed with the variety of topics that I needed to know more about. I enjoyed doing scenery construction with my kids 25 years ago and the basic approach for that hasn't really changed much over the years but the whole electronics area is completely different. The whole change from DC (Direct Current) to DCC (Digital Command Control) is mind-boggling! In addition to scenery and electronics there is locomotives, mobile and stationary decoders, coupler types, layout operations and design, etc, etc, etc, etc!!

In my former life, before retirement, I was a research scientist for the federal government. I decided that the best way to approach my current situation was to collect some information and begin to research each of these topical areas. My next few blog entries will be about how I approached some of these areas, starting with putting together a design for our layout.

Some of Norm's and my earlier posts mentioned the criteria for our layout. I knew in the back of my mind that I wanted a woodworking theme which meant logging area, sawmill, lumber storage and I needed to combine this with making it fun for the grandchildren to run the trains. This meant a track where they could just continuously run a train without stopping plus areas where they could move a train and hook-up and/or decouple cars. I also wanted a lot of interesting scenery that they could help build.

I visited a couple of hobby stores and looked at the track layout books but I just didn't want to copy a track plan out of a book. I also wasn't really interested in any one particular real-life (prototype) railroad to emulate. Therefore, I started to browse the internet looking at layouts that other people had done with an eye towards specific components – logging, sawmills, ponds/rivers, continuous loops, reverse loops, mountains, sidings and yards for switching. I ended up printing over 20 layouts that I used as a guide for sketching out an initial design.

I knew that the space in my workshop was going to be in a corner so looking for L-shaped designs helped to reduce and focus my research. There are many online resources which include the Model Railroader Magazine website track layout database, Google search images, Pinterest, Model Railroad Academy among others. By moving cabinets and clamp storage racks around in my woodworking shop my plan was to make the L-shape with one leg about 8 feet and the other leg about 10 feet long. Given these constraints I came up with a 'first draft' drawing.

My next post will address starting with this drawing and converting it into something tangible using a software program called AnyRail.