Saturday, August 17, 2013

Not gone, just absent

The 6 people who have ever looked at this blog may have noticed I haven't posted anything for a couple years. Unfortunately the layout I was previously describing here fell victim to moving out of that house, not long after the last progress shots seen here.

Since then I've been moving every month or two, so anything that doesn't fit in my (very small) car is not allowed, so no layout (even a Z-scale layout in a pizza box would be difficult to find room for).

However, hope is starting to appear on the horizon: I expect to be able to stop roaming so much and be able to start again, with room for at least a modest layout. After starting and demolishing several layouts over recent years before they progress to anything even operational, I'm now firmly committed to a modular design of some kind. I have no plans to join up with anyone else's modules, but I have tentatively adopted the Free-mo standard as a guideline.

Inspired by M.C. Fujiwara's Shelf Layout Project in N scale from Model Railroad Hobbyist, November 2012 (page 100), in turn inspired by Byron Henderson’s “Alameda Belt Line”, I came up with this 12' x 2'8"

Two modules, each 6' long by 32" wide, designed as a linked pair. The outside ends (one of each module) tapers to 24" endplates per the (single-track) Free-mo specification. The inner endplates also (mostly) conform to (dual-track) Free-mo standards, although the end width, scenery and secondary tracks do not.

The "3-track yard" in the lower-right corner is the Walthers Car Float and Carfloat Apron.
HO Scale
12' x 2'8"
Minimum radius: 42"
Turnouts: #8 mainline, #6 industries

 

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