In the Beginning
Date: December 15, 2009
I guess I should have started blogging about this a bit earlier, but it just didn't occur to me until today. Anyway, this is where I am starting.
I have been working on my model railroad for a couple of months now, and had been in the planning stage for several months before that. After several months, I thought I had the correct design for my layout. It was going to be a modified L-shaped layout about 16 feet on one side and 10 feet on the perpendicular side. I was going to use an electric winch to hoist it up to the ceiling so it could be moved out of the way when I was not working on it. I started laying out the track and started putting in a few elevations. Something just didn't seem right. I wasn't happy with it.
So... back to the drawing board I went. I rethought the shape of the layout. I decided to use one whole side of my garage. That would give me plenty of room. My layout would be just over 19 feet long and about 7 1/2 feet wide. While I was constructing my benches, I designed the layout, or at least a fairly complete rough draft of it. I had the main lines designed and a few of the spurs and scenic areas. I covered the entire set of benches with two layers of 1/2 thick extruded insulation foam that is used for insulating houses. The first layer was for the general foundation and the second was for the roadbed.