History
Rock City Railroad

My first model railroad started around the Christmas tree in 1993, and soon went around the couch, coffe table, lamp, chair, not to mention all the presents and other stuff on the floor. After making the first loop, I wanted to run two trains so I made another loop. Then they had to be interconnected, and they're had to be a yard, and then a second level, and then they had to turn around, and it never ended till the entire living room floor was a maze of track and trestles.

Christmas ended but the train didn't and kept getting bigger and better till the earthquake hit on Jan 24th, 1994. I guess this really shocked me out of train world and into reality, and it also send the TV and computer onto the trainyard, smashing everything into mangled wreckage of track and broken plastic.

That ended my train building career . . . for at least a month, till I could buy a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and start over on that. Our apartment wasn't big enough for anything bigger, and besides, my wife didn't want it cluttering up the living room any more.

Starting on the 4 x 8 was hard cause the wood wouldn't hold the track in place like the carpet did, and I had to learn a lot before continuing. I went to the train store and got some books, and was soon learning all about the hobby.

However, most of what I read in the books was worthless, and what I really wanted to know and learn was nowhere to be found. I had lot's of questions but all the books could talk about was for the 10 year veteran of the hobby. "How to build realistic scenery" was the main topic of most books, or "how to kitbash a Sp-465-pl7, or other such topics. Therefore, I decided to write this little advice on how to get started building your first layout, or rather, how NOT to build your first layout.

Animal Train
Before I could finish my layout on an 8X10 plywood, we moved, and in our new garage I added another 8x10 sheet to make the layout 8x16.

After working for months, it was finally running, and going back and forth. All the loops were 18" radius, which I thought was ok, according to the trainbooks and Atlas, who are the worst culprits in destroying this hobby. 18 radius curves are NOT ok. Neither are Atlas turnouts. both caused constant derailing of cars till I tore up the entire layout and redid the curves slightly bigger.

Now the cars would stay on the track. sometimes. But it was boring watching them go back and forth, So I added a big loop around the entire garage. This meant ducking under the track to get into the garage.

At first this didn't bother me, but soon it did. Once inside the train room, I felt trapped. It became too much work to duck under everytime I wanted to leave the room. My advice to new builders: Never let your layout trap you in a room. You see layouts like this all the time in train magazines, but don't do it! People that recommend this method are stupid. It's a real pain in the ass! You need to be able to pace in and out of your train room without having to duck.

After widening my loops and curves to a 21 inch radius, the trains would finally stay on the track through the hills and bumps but still derailed on Atlas turnouts. No matter how I tried or how perfect the switches were laid, the trains still derailed. I finally had to tear up every Atlas turnout and replace them.

I chose Peco turnouts to replace the worthless Atlas ones, and only used the wide radius ones. Even Peco turnouts derail trains if they,re the small radius switches. Especially on 6 wheel engines. Don't buy 6 wheel engines unless your track is perfect and has at least a 21 inch radius on all curves. They derail very easily.

Anyway, after widening all the curves, changing all the switches, and lessening the incline on all hills, the train ran good for the first time.

I invited my friends over to check it out, and found that the room was too crowded and I couldn't move. When I need to get to a derailment or turnout, I was stuck. The isle wasn't wide enough. This bothered me, since the whole Idea of a model railroad was to show it off to friends. Also, the trains seemed to be only going back and forth, or around in circles, and it got boring real fast. I had 4 separate lines so I could run 4 separate trains at once without worring about a crash, and that got to be too complicated. 2 was the most I could effectively run at once, and the 4 lines, with all the turnouts, was too complicated. I couldn't figure out which switches to switch before the train got there.

I also built two reversing loops to turn the train around going either way, and they turned into a nightmare. You never know which way the power is on the reverse loop, and have to wait till the train stops before you know whether to turn the turnout or not. Then you have to hurry and turn the switch back before the train comes out of the loop. What a hassle.

This problem, and others, caused me to eventually tear down the entire layout, knock out a wall, and rebuild the entire layout from scratch in a TWO car garage.

I might have been able to salvage parts of the old layout if I had built it right, but I didn't. I though I'd save time and wood by fastening the layout to the wall, and that was a big mistake. Now I know, always make your railroad free-standing. this way it can be moved if you have to, making it much easier to finish the back portion, or to move the entire section slightly.

The new layout was built high so everything was at eye level, and this left plenty of room underneath for my workbenches, tools, and storage. It's a little harder to build at a high level, but it's worth it.

I also left plenty of room in the middle of the room for people and storage of my workout equipment, so the garage wasn't wasted on the train only. I also left an opening to walk in and out of the room without having to duck, which improved things 200%. Now the train goes around the garage to the other side, turns, and comes back around the garage to the beginning, slowly, over hills and around curves, which gives the impression of actually going somewhere and not going back and forth or around in a circle. This is good, and makes running the train fun.