Another CR layout design study

[Dave V]

Why do they call them permanent change of station orders if you can keep getting them every 18-36 months?

Is Ed's employment situation sufficiently stable that it's unlikely he will never need to move?
Is is possible that he could receive a job offer that might make him want to relocate?

'Cause you're supposed to permanently leave one duty station and never come back.  But then again, lots of guys do two, even three tours at the same base.  Especially if you're special ops or otherwise highly specialized.  When I was at Hurlburt Field (HQ AFSOC and 1st SOW) most of my colleagues kept bouncing back and forth between Hurlburt and Holloman.  As a weather guy I knew people who were on their third Offutt tour also.

As for Ed's situation, I have the (dubious?) honor of knowing him outside of the Railwire and knowing what he's told me about his job, he's pretty safe where he is.

[squirrelhunter]

Getting back to Ed's layout plan, it sounds like he plans for 2 jobs, but that basically one will be working the yard while the other is out on the branch.

My first thought is there enough work in the yard for the job that works the breakers? The other local can pre block outbound cars while the coal job is out on the branch. But wouldn't empty coal hoppers just be distributed at each mine as the local came to it? Or is there other aspect to modern anthracite branch operations I'm missing?

[wm3798]

Now that I'm finally building a proper HCD layout, I can see the benefits of Ed's proposal.  I've always thought that they can make useful building blocks for a more permanent layout, as well as being handy, portable stand-alones.

One of the theories behind this style of layout for Ed is that the around the walls area may be reserved from some other application, perhaps a long run of TTrak units on a shelf, and of course, he still has that big, beautiful yard.

I do think that for the amount of space being committed, you might be stuffing 10 lbs. of railroad into a 5 lb. bag, (ironic hearing that from Retro Train Garden Boy, isn't it?)  but the judicious use of scene dividers can add a lot of mileage where the 2-D drawing doesn't really look that big.

Keep sketching those concepts, though.  It's a fun process to see what's possible.

Lee

[EmdFan]

No, I don't really miss it at all.  As for what I would do if I had to be mobile, it depends on how mobile.  Vollmer Life Chapter 3 suggests that there's a nonzero chance that we'd move to the north side of Denver.  I work with UCAR https://www.ucar.edu/ part time from home, part time in Boulder, but there are many more opportunities for me if I lived close to Boulder.  My wife wants to go back for her PhD too, and she's interested in the satellite meteorology program at Colorado State in Ft Collins.  Nothing's happening in the next four years though since my youngest just started high school here in Colorado Springs.  But the RGS is built on relatively modular benchwork.  I'm used to a completely seamless removal and relocation of the old layout, so moving the RGS will be ugly...but possible.  Much depends on the space at the other end.

Were I still military I would have probably stayed reluctantly in N scale and maybe done another door layout...who knows.  Because I could never tell if I were going to be ordered to a land without basements, I always had to be prepared to take the smallest spare bedroom in a new house.

Fortunately Colorado is a land of wonderful basements so I don't have to worry.  If we do move and the new space allows I may fill in the gaps on the First District (Dallas Divide, Vance Junction, Telluride) or go balls deep for Dolores and Durango.  Or...say screw it and go protolance.  There was a lot of narrow gauge hawtness in Colorado that wasn't RGS, or even Rio Grande in general.

Now back to Ed's thread.

Thanks for your thoughts Dave. My life went the opposite direction...lived in the same house for 20+ years, and for a number of reasons had to get out. Now in a condo and will be moving again within a year or so. Will look forward to landing somewhere "permanent" afterwards.

Sorry for the thread drift, I can share my island layout experience. Like Ed I had a decent sized room with a number of obstacles along the wall as well as two door openings, the main one being 6 foot wide. I debated lots of options involving sheet rock, etc. But I decided to build an island type layout not unlike Ed's current design. It wasn't a 90 degree L, more like a 60 degree L to avoid some obstacles.

I was pretty happy with it despite conventional wisdom saying otherwise. I did not have a hard scenic divider, just some hills and trees. I did like the way I was able to find new vantage points for getting down to track level and eyeballing the trains rolling by. It allowed for different vantage points that you do not get with an along the walls layout. Yes, the blobs needed to be dealt with, but it can be pulled off, especially by someone as talented as Ed.

Having said that if I land in a place with a spare room with minimal obstacles I would consider going with an around the walls linear design. I don't like the thought of a liftout or duckunder, but if it's just one doorway I think I would be okay. If not then another island layout would be designed with little hesitation.

Steve W

[DKS]

Golly, Ed, you have a highly enviable space for a layout. You don't even need "blobs" in the classic sense--you've got the space for layout shapes that would permit yuuuge return curves, if they were built with backdrop-hidden areas having generous access openings, something like this:



Blue lines are backdrops; pink lines are access openings. Most corners would ideally be rounded (I was just lazy).

 

[CRL]

One of the techniques I’ve used is a decreasing radius turn with the tighter radius being hidden. That lets you have visibly broad turns in a smaller loop space. Careful use of easements is also critical.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Golly, Ed, you have a highly enviable space for a layout. You don't even need "blobs" in the classic sense--you've got the space for layout shapes that would permit yuuuge return curves, if they were built with backdrop-hidden areas having generous access openings, something like this:

Yes, I KNOW I could have more layout in the same space if I did an around the walls plan. That is not what this conversation is about though.

I'm also exploring those types of options, like this one:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[DKS]

Yes, I KNOW I could have more layout in the same space if I did an around the walls plan. That is not what this conversation is about though.

Won't be much of a conversation, then, judging by the responses so far. Just sayin'...

But in all seriousness, I get what you're trying to do. I'm still just a bit fuzzy on why.

 

[mmagliaro]

At the risk of throwing yet another "bomb" into this discussion...

There's something to be said for the luxury and comfort of being able to view and access a layout from all sides with nothing backed up against a wall.  If you use scenery or backdrops well, you can walk around the entire thing and get a variety of scenic views that you would miss out on if the layout were built against the walls.  I know from my own layout experience (which is built around the walls), that sometimes I place a camera back into the scenery, looking out, to take a photo, and then I wish I were able to stand where the wall is to view the layout from that angle because it is an interesting vantage point.

Around the walls is handy, but you do lose 50% of the cool places you could stand, run, and enjoy your layout.

[DKS]

Around the walls is handy, but you do lose 50% of the cool places you could stand, run, and enjoy your layout.

But you gain more than 50% in overall layout area. Thus a net gain.

[Chris333]

Yes, I KNOW I could have more layout in the same space if I did an around the walls plan. That is not what this conversation is about though.

I'm also exploring those types of options, like this one:

(Attachment Link)

But you drew outside the line.

So where are the real lines?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

But you drew outside the line.

So where are the real lines?

That was poking through the wall into the laundry room.

[Dave V]

That was poking through the wall into the laundry room.

That's what I told your mom.

[CRL]

And that’s why his mom won’t let you come over to play any more. 

[Point353]

... the laundry room.

Perfect place for the staging tracks that represent Enola, or wherever the origin/destination for traffic to/from West Cressona yard is in your operating scheme.