# New Layout Plan



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Hello all,

I have a 4 x 8 foot HO scale layout at the moment designed around Christmas so it is my Cristmas Layout. This is the simple layout I have had for years and have decided it is time to upgrade to a better layout to run my trains on. Below is a picture I made in paint showing what I have in mind.








By gc53dfgc at 2010-12-05
Green are where trees will be generally placed at random. The blue symbolizes a harbor with an intermodal crane and a container ship at dock. The harbor water will actually be a 2 1/2 foot to 3 foot tall semi circle acrylic custom made fish tank that will have actuall fish that swim. The container ship will float as will a tug boat and other small craft I plan on adding. They will be anchored to the bottom of the tank by fishing string to keep them in place. there will be some small bubble things at the bottom of the tank to arate it for the fish I might even include a broken Titanic in it for a neater and historical effect. The Main city is the large area. roads are symbolized by the darker lines than that of the railroad tracks. the City is of no city in exsistence that I know but will have the look and feel of NY or another large city. I will either have an elevated rail or subway that goes under the layout or over the main street and will use a Doodle Bug as my subway car as no one makes a subway train that I wan't to have on my layout. There will be a large station with two rails for parked and loading trains and the mainline. the second area is a smaller town that will be made up also but I may make some of it prototypical to the town of Troy, Ohio where I live and will make that the CSX mainline with a station still in service. this town will have a nice calm feel to it. Then you enter the tunnel where hidden as symbolized by dotted lines ther is hidden a large rail yard where more trains will be stored for more options to hide it their will be a large mural with a signal map and a map of the secondary and main yards using leds to show where switches are turned to and what lines are busy. There will also be two to four flatscreen monitors that will be hooked to cameras in the secondary yard and maybe one in the main yard, yardmasters tower for a neat look. Then when exiting the tunnel the main line will have a secondary for a local Timber cutter and a sawmill as an industry for the city. after leaving this area you will enter the main yard that has roughly five sidings that one side branches off into the engine sheds and the roundhouse and the other side branches off to the coach works and car repair buildings. Then you enter the Intermodal Yard where there is an operational crane that can move some crates from the container ship to the train cars for realisticness. then you are back at the stop. I am thinking about adding a small logging or coal mine at the top of the mountian also for a neat little touch, or maybe a small area in the small town where I can set-up my Krone circus set and have a little circus for the town, or maybe both. What do you think about my ideas and what do you think I could add to or get rid of on my layout to make it more enjoyable and useable for me. All advice is apreciateed.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

You think to much.

Looks like a nice plan.:thumbsup:

Your fathers GLASS worktable?

Bullet proof glass I hope!:laugh:


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

I just wanted everyone to know what I was thinking so I didn't get a bunch of questions asking whats that for or what is that. This also is so you can all see what I would need to change or leave the same so I don't screw this new layout up as I want this one to be very nice and detailed.

No it is actually his stained glass work table, he makes windows for fun, I run trains for fun go figure.:laugh:


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

GC,

Where do you park the cars?!? 

Ambitious layout, with the real fish tank idea! We had a guy on the forum some months back who incorporated real fish / turtle tanks into his layout ... quite nice, if I recall. Do a Search or two and see if you can find it ... "fish" ... "turtle" and the like.

Cheers,

TJ


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

tjcruiser said:


> GC,
> 
> Where do you park the cars?!?
> 
> ...


aint no cars gonna be parked in my train haven. Actually you can't park any in there now. No the layout isn't the cuase of it.:laugh:

I will look into his layout.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

took a look at his layout he did good work. The biggest cost factor with this layout I think will be the massive acrylic fish tank for the harbor. I have never bought one so this will be completly new to me. I didn't iclude this in the picture but there will be a fish tank pump filter unit stored in the mountain. the pump will take water from the harbor up to the mountain where it will be filtered and then will exit as a water fall that then goes into a stream that will go through the small town and then go through pipes that will look like drainage pipes for the city and then the drainage pipe will dump into the harbor and the process will repeat.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

This is more of a fish question than a train question, but ...

Is the garage heated? You likely have some cold winters in OH. Though I know one can get heaters for a fish tank, if the garage itself is icy cold ...

Wouldn't want any unhappy little bitty fish ...

Cheers,

TJ


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

the garage is not heated but is almost completly insulated so a heater placed in the top of the tank would keep my fish nice and happy during the winter. I'm also trying to talk my mother into letting the garage become heated so that might not even be a problem.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

gc53dfgc said:


> the garage is not heated but is almost completly insulated so a heater placed in the top of the tank would keep my fish nice and happy during the winter. I'm also trying to talk my mother into letting the garage become heated so that might not even be a problem.



How do you know when the fish are "happy"?

Do they smile?:laugh:

My friend put a potbelly stove with a stack through the roof in his garage.
Keeps him nice and toasty in the winter.:thumbsup:


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## Smokestack Lightning (Oct 31, 2010)

Nice plan. Now execute:thumbsup:


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

big ed said:


> How do you know when the fish are "happy"?


When *school* is out, and it's summer vacation!


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

big ed said:


> How do you know when the fish are "happy"?
> 
> Do they smile?:laugh:
> 
> ...


not sure when they are happy but when they start jumping out of the tank looking for a better home I know they are not happy.:laugh:


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Hey all 
I just finished the rough scetch of the mural that will cover the hidden train yard and will hold the switch layout and camera monitors.
Here it is and be amazed...








http://profile.imageshack.us/user/gc53dfgc


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

GC,

(Can you downsize the image a bit?)

What do you mean you "finished" the mural? A PhotoShop cut-n-paste, that you plan to print out on large-size paper?

I like the steamer watercolors ... that 268 running through the rocky valley is striking.

TJ


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

tjcruiser said:


> GC,
> 
> (Can you downsize the image a bit?)
> 
> ...


sorry tj I meant to downsize it originally and some how managed to upload the original 3000 by 3000 pixel one. now it is a 600 by 600 pixel.

Well this is the rough Idea that I will have an artist paint onto a large peice of wood that hides the yard. I thought about only doing one train but decided that I could not pick favorites amongst the many beutiful trains in the world and just combined them all together. I used a program called Gimp to make the pictures blended together better. When I have the artisist paint the mural I will have Him blend them together even more seamlessly than I could manage with the program.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ohh ... you've got a real painted mural in the works ... pretty impressive. Keep us posted on its progress.

TJ


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

no no not in the works just yet
I probably won't have an artist start on it till next summer.
however I will be getting my garage cleaned so I can start the new layout in the spring
and further more I will be doing a bunch of how to's on installing DCC decoders in different types of trains in the next few weeks.
My mom thinks the mural will cost 400 to 500 for an artist to paint. anyone know what an acurate idea would be for the price of this kind of thing to be done?


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## TapRoot (Oct 3, 2010)

a talented student would charge little to nothing...esp if he could use it as a school project


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

good point but I want it to look very nice though so that could be an issue.


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Here are some of the neat things I did useing the program Gimp thought you all might like to see.








By gc53dfgc at 2010-12-12








By gc53dfgc at 2010-12-12








By gc53dfgc at 2010-12-12


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Just to keep my poor little thread alive here is an update for you all.

The progress on getting the garage cleaned and ready for the layout has been slow to say the least. A lot of the stuff in the garage is my mothers and she gets very upset if I move it or even touch it so with spring break nearing which is when she said it would be cleaned and ready I am starting to wonder if that will happen in time. 

On a happier not I have gotten some major progress done on the old 4X8 layout that will soon be hoisted up to the ceilling. Some of this progress includes adding in the roads which is at about 50% done at the moment and adding a lot of new snow covered pine trees about 95% done with that. I have almost all of the track that will be used bought and installed about 90% done on that. I just have to get another end bumper and install a sort of pilot light to tell me when my DCC system is sending power to the track or when there is a short somewhere. Makes it easy to put locos and other things on and not fear shorting something out do to being unsure.

I also finally got the recording done on the two Atlas gold engines I bought off ebay and that video also includes the new layout progress as well. I should have the video edited and uploaded by the end of this nice three day weekend coming up.

I do not recall when spring break is but if someone could tell me how many weeks from the date of this post that would be much apreciated and hopefully that info will help get the garage cleaned in time for the new layout construction.


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