Door Layout where to start?

[bc6]

Well I haven't built a layout in 20 years or so but Im sure I want to start with a door layout. I'll be using Kato Unitrack and your run of the mill rolling stock. My railroad is based  on a Leasing company that leases locos, Roadrailers, passenger cars and other revenue generating equipment. As you see Im into Intermodal stuff with the Roadrailers and Maxi Stacks so Im not sure if a Intermodal terminal is in the cards or not. Id like a few industries to serve maybe an an auto plant since I have a few auto parts cars. Im not really sure where to start with this and would like some help to get me started, thanks.

[DKS]

If you and others can come up with a list of "specs," I could tinker together some plans.

[bc6]

Thanks David for your help, well Id like an engine yard and a long mountain running the back edge of the door. I suppose youve got to have a town right lol so that would be cool. As far as industries I mentioned an auto parts distributor plant would be really sweet

[avel]

What width of door will you be using?  Also I really like your railroad idea. I'm heading in that direction also, somewhat. I think of my model railroad as a shortline that interchanges with two or more major layouts. Well more like a 2nd class railroad then. Gives me an excuse to run different equipment from different railroads.  Also have you seen this months Trains magazine, it's all about shortlines and their operations.

About the layout. Will you have access from all sides? or just one long side and both of the short sides?  What radius curves do you have?, or whats your preferred minimum?

Also want to say just start!, best way to get motivated to do more work, is having some trains out, and not on shelves.

[bc6]

What width of door will you be using?  Also I really like your railroad idea. I'm heading in that direction also, somewhat. I think of my model railroad as a shortline that interchanges with two or more major layouts. Well more like a 2nd class railroad then. Gives me an excuse to run different equipment from different railroads.  Also have you seen this months Trains magazine, it's all about shortlines and their operations.

About the layout. Will you have access from all sides? or just one long side and both of the short sides?  What radius curves do you have?, or whats your preferred minimum?

Also want to say just start!, best way to get motivated to do more work, is having some trains out, and not on shelves.

This is exactly why Im here I dont know what kind of door to get, I just know where my local home depot is. I think it'll be against the wall long side with access to to the other 3 sides. Ive seen dividers down the middle but Im not too sure about that since the layout will be against the wall. The door will be your standard bedroom door size nothing more or less. I like lots of differnent equipment so the Leasing company give me creative license in this area. I have your normal 50'- 89' boxcars, Roadrailers, Double Stacks, Passenger cars, and several steam engines not to mention a 2-6-6-2 H4 Mallet. So if youre interested in more check out my blog on my fictional leasing company at http://prlxleasing.blogspot.com/

After some more research I think I'll be starting with a 36x80 HCD just found out what HCD stands for lol. Dave Vollmer's website helped out tons with the base and support of the HCD, I bite at building supports lol. Im still looking for a plan I guess now that the basic stuff is pretty much self explanatory.

[Philip H]

With a 36x80 set against a wall, you'll encounter two issues:  First, there is no way to do a scenic divider and make it work, unless the backside is staging or you have the thing on a frame with wheels.  Second, reach across the layout to work on the rear will be an issue, particularly if you want to have it at anything approaching eye level.

[davefoxx]

You will do much better if you can put one end of the door up against the wall, leaving both long sides and the other end free for access.  That's how I designed my HCD layout.  It also helped with keeping the table more steady since the banquet table legs that I used are a little shaky.  Sturdy, but they allow a little sway end-to-end.

I recommend a copy of the MR book by Marty McGuirk on N Scale Railroading.  If you can find the first edition of the book, it includes the MR project layout that Marty built, The Carolina Central.  If you can't find the book, the articles about the construction of the Carolina Central were originally published in MR and should be available from Kalmbach.  These articles were invaluable to me when I built my HCD layout.  They showed how to even build the table and the legs (banquet table legs and electrical conduit!), in addition to how to lay out a track plan on the door.

By all means, use a 36" HCD.  The Carolina Central was actually built on a 30" door, because Marty reported he got it cheap, since it was damaged.  The width of the table will determine your minimum radius curves.  I think on mine, I averaged 13-14" minimum radius.  Oh, and if you need a deal on a HCD, contact Lee at the ReStore.   

Hope this helps,
DFF

[Specter3]

Hello and welcome to TRW.

If you place one of the long sides against the wall that takes away a lot of the scenery potential of an HCD. Do you have room for an offshoot of this HCD for a yard like Volmer's? I love what HCD's have done for the hobby but there are limitations to what you can do on one. Can you make it so the layout can be pulled away from the wall for operating and pushed back for storage? You say want an engine yard. Is what you are thinking about a division point type of facility such as this NS facility?







Or a smaller fuel and sand stand in front of a one or two stall enginehouse such as this pikestuff model?

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Pikestuff-N-Small-Enginehouse-Kit-p/pks-541-8002.htm

The other thing that jumps out at me is having the 80 ft plus cars and wanting to run them. Those cars are not too happy going around the tighter curves commonly found on HCD layouts. Plus three or four of them are longer than most spurs on HCD layouts. If you have any of the newer cars that have body mounted couplers they will be very unhappy on the narrow curves. I have some as well and some BLMA FJ89s on order and these will be solely run when the Ntrak club I am a part of has a set up.

Look at the thread about the seaboard central. That will be some of the most operating you could do without becoming a spaghetti plan. Of course if you are into city scenes that is a whole nother ball of track.

If you have the space to have a removable "staging yard" type of section it would make a vast difference in what you could do with a HCD. If you had the space to do a 16 inch by 6 or 8 ft(the longer the better)  removable section that would be a great addition to an HCD layout. You can fit 4 to 6 tracks of storage and a couple/three AD tracks as well. You can give it basic ground scenery and it wont be a plywood plains eyesore off your nicely sceniced layout. Look at what MC Fujiwara did with the staging yard for his freemoN club. A couple removable legs and it would fit nicely on a shelf above or below the main layout. If you do this it takes a large, space hogging element off the HCD and allows for more operations potential in the sceniced portion of the layout without looking crammed in there.

Here is a blog with a very well planned HCD layout that is under ongoing construction. He has a very detailed build thread on another website. This represents what I would consider the most you can put on an HCD and still have it work.

http://chfrrailroad.wordpress.com/

Now I am hoping this does not come across as negative but there is only so much space on an HCD and you have to have 180 degree turns on either end. There are lots of well done layouts out there and from reading about them over the years the most regrets are from folks who tried to jam too much on them.

Give us a little more on your givens and druthers and what you want to do with it and we will have a better idea what to help guide you to. DO you like to watch trains run or do you want to do some switching. That is the first question we need answered.

HTH

Ryan

[avel]

Specter3, thanks for that link. Would of never found that site otherwise.

[Specter3]

No problem.

Ryan