# Some layout questions



## polbit (Jul 31, 2013)

I'm designing my first layout ever(36" x 80" N scale), and have few questions I hope I can get some answers to:

1. I started out wanting too many industries (coal mine, wood and paper mills), and settled on one finally, plus a town. I want to run two trains - passenger and freight, and be able to play a lot with the freight train. Is it feasible to have a tunnel, bridge, river, small town with crossing, turntable with a nice yard, and an industry (paper mill is my front runner now...) or is my space too small?
2. Trying to model a real period, area, etc. I've been trying to read a lot. I read The Great Railroad Revolution by Christian Wolmar, and many books specifically tailored to N scale modeling. What are some other good books to read for a total newb to the world of trains?
3. I love the mountains, Rockies in particular. Am I way off on the paper mill setting if I want to model something around Denver area, or along CN?

Thanks for any help!

Polbit


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

polbit said:


> I'm designing my first layout ever(36" x 80" N scale), and have few questions I hope I can get some answers to:
> 
> 1. I started out wanting too many industries (coal mine, wood and paper mills), and settled on one finally, plus a town. I want to run two trains - passenger and freight, and be able to play a lot with the freight train. Is it feasible to have a tunnel, bridge, river, small town with crossing, turntable with a nice yard, and an industry (paper mill is my front runner now...) or is my space too small?
> 2. Trying to model a real period, area, etc. I've been trying to read a lot. I read The Great Railroad Revolution by Christian Wolmar, and many books specifically tailored to N scale modeling. What are some other good books to read for a total newb to the world of trains?
> ...


Hello, welcome to the forum.

First question I ask is do you have room for a larger table?
It seems that once you start you will expand anyway I think it is better to use all the space you can afford in the beginning.
I can see everything you listed as feasible except maybe the turntable.
You will want some kind of yard too right?
The Rockies? I would have to research that but I would say that they did have paper mills?
There must have been some kind of quarry's too?

Look at the site there are a whole bunch of layouts here, look at the HO section too, what you see there you can copy a lot of it in N.
Just make it smaller.

First thing I think you should do is to see how much bigger you could go with a table.
Or.....make it larger by adding an L section on.
If you can go larger I would start there.

I got this little N setup. It used to be my sisters.
It is around 33" x 48" I think it is.
What you see now is all the buildings just thrown on in 5 mins.
She used to have a town. But there is a tunnel and little mountain on it, I guess a bridge could have been worked in. With that size a turntable is out of the question.

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=7158


Check out Steve's threads here, 
This was his first one. http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=6445


He has more threads check them out too. http://www.modeltrainforum.com/search.php?searchid=750395
All N, he has done a lot of nice work though he keeps tearing them down and starting over. 
Maybe you can pickup some ideals off of him.


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## polbit (Jul 31, 2013)

Thanks Big Ed for a quick answer.

As far as room, unfortunately not. I specifically decided to go with N Scale as I couldn't fit a 4' x 8' in my room. I'm using a 12' x 12' office that also has to have my desk, bookcases, and a workstation. The 36" x 80" is already pretty tight but easy using a door + foam. We have a set of 3 year old twins that get into everything, otherwise I'd be building a massive HO scale layout in our game room 

I think the turn table will have to go, I don't want to cram too many things, a big yard will already be a squeeze with an industry and a town, since a corner will be taken up by a tunnel in a mountain. 

I've been looking at a ton of different layouts and I'm finally starting to see the big picture. Thanks for the links too!

Polbit


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Try and make the tunnel so you can get into it somehow.

There are a couple of ways to do that.


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

I can't stress enough the Anyrail software program. Best money I've spent in the hobby so far! Give it test run with the trial version! IT WILL HELP YOU TONS!


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## ktcards (Sep 22, 2012)

Balrog21 said:


> I can't stress enough the Anyrail software program. Best money I've spent in the hobby so far! Give it test run with the trial version! IT WILL HELP YOU TONS!


I'm using Right Track which is the free version that Atlas used to hand out.

K


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