...with about $120 of lumber, that I finally have enough material to begin construction, (nearly 4 years after closing on the house) of the first phase of my "basement empire"


It doesn't look like much, but bear in mind that most of this will be a 10" wide shelf. The other levels will come much later, once I have something operating here on the sizable investment in track that will be required to circle the perimeter of the basement.

Oh, while I'm at it, why not post the initial plans that I used to calculate how much to buy initially:
Left side

Right side


The first photo is looking at the east wall in the plans above. Unusual engineering lies ahead--I haven't included all the clutter I'm going to have to deal with Make no mistake--much of the big open space in the center of the plan is already occupied by "stuff", hence the challenge.

The "drop section" mentioned at the bottom refers to a 16' section lowered 7" below the rest of the plan, that will accommodate ramps joining the top level with the one below it. The two mainline tracks continue across on twin viaducts. Vertical-lift sections (yet to be designed) will keep the trackway (60" height) clear of walkways when the layout is not in use.

---PCJ
(Edited title to make it less vague)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: RailRide,

Looking good. What's the minimum radius on your curves?

I love the hand drawn plans! It's good to see someone who can still measure and draw by hand. It's becoming a lost art.

Looking forward to seeing your progress. My first layout began again last weekend .... for about the 4th time.

quote:

Looking good. What's the minimum radius on your curves?

He didn't respond yet because he's probably down in the basement drilling holes and screwing some of that lumber together!

By the way, Susan, that's quite a layout you have in that "Run Room" of yours! Very nice!

quote:

Originally posted by Susan Deats:
Looking good. What's the minimum radius on your curves?

Looks like all 72', except the one over the Dryer, which looks like 60".

quote:

Originally posted by Allan Miller:

By the way, Susan, that's quite a layout you have in that "Run Room" of yours! Very nice!

You should consider contacting Susan about an article - that magnificant Helix is pretty amazing

Minimum radius is 072, with 081 for the outer of the two tracks. The curve over the dryer may look sharper only because it's a 45-degree bend. 60" is the height of the main track above the floor (actually a little higher owing to the 3/4" plywood trackway and roadbed).

---PCJ

The journey begins!

A trip of a thousand miles begins with the first step and now you're ready to take that first step, so congratulations are in order.

Should be a nice layout and you should have a great time building it. As to the obstacles in the center of the room I think most of us who have built layouts have encountered the same thing.

I envy you for the space you have to build your layout so good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

Steve Tapper

quote:

Originally posted by GG1 4877:
I love the hand drawn plans! It's good to see someone who can still measure and draw by hand. It's becoming a lost art.

I thought about using Google SketchUp (since only the benchwork is being plotted out), but I haven't learned how to work with it well enough to draw out the plan in a timely manner (and I'd be tempted to model all the clutter in the way too ). When we took over the property, I measured out the basement and made a plan on graph paper that I photocopied. I can get even more precise and detailed with hand-drawn plans (I was always halfway decent at drawing machines), but this just happened to be a rough that started to look do-able.

Many earlier plans were rather convoluted and involved taking up most of the floor space until reality set in. At one point late in the process I thought about tunneling through the bathroom in order to avoid the S-turns going around it, but nixed that idea when I realized that would involve moving a medicine cabinet set into the wall.

The around-the room top level gives me the earliest opportunity to have something running with the least investment in switches (I'm looking at using Atlas track). The next lower level will probably be more expensive trackwise since the first yards will be on those (somewhere), but at least I'll have a loop or two to play with while doing that buildout.

---PCJ