Planning and budgeting

[sayhall27]

After looking into modelling and picking my layout location and period I now have a dilemma. What projects in making my layout do I do first and how do I budget the buying of items I need. Bare in mind my bigger shed cannot be built till the end of the month. My projects will be:

Building the layout.

Modifying locos 

Creating a coach/ carriage fleet 

Modifying wagons or kit building.

Kit building a GNR loco or 2

 

 

[jhb171achill]

Build the layout first, Sam, and get any old pair of Hornby coaches and any medium sized locomotive to test the track and curves. Bear in mind not to have curves to sharp for an 0.6.0.

The absolute minimum radius is 2ft, but if space permits it looks better less sharp. For ease of operation use as large radius points as you can get away with.

Think about wiring. Will you use DCC, fir example?

[sayhall27]

Thanks John. I plan to use DC initially with possible conversions later to DCC.  Most areas in my layout won't need multiple locos wjere points won't separate them so hoping the wiring is going to be simple enough. And over the next few months I'll learn from the UMRC layout and see how it's wired up

[David Holman]

I'd be inclined to do some serious planning first.

 What sort of layout do you want, which then dictates the stock you need. Consider that you may not do all your modelling in the shed, so things like stock and buildings may be made elsewhere and the work can be parallel to that in the shed. There is no definitive way, I think. Go where the muse takes you and enjoy the journey.

[GNRi1959]

I've learned a lot from making a hasty entrance into layout planning - I started three times and failed three times. The first thing to get into your head is 'what way you see your finished layout' then work back. I went from a maize of complicated paintwork to a simple twin track loop with sidings and a fiddle yard. This allows for long flowing trains of goods wagons, lots of storage and an illusion of distance from A to B. My shed measures 3m x1.7m and my baseboards are a sensible 350mm wide.

I have 15 points in total and am fitting point motors to 10 of them at the moment. I've learned to do a little each day, or when I have time and now I enjoy it more than ever. Be patient, think things through and listen to advice - sometimes, I didn't and it cost me.

Good luck

[jhb171achill]

In terms of planning, I started with a Hornby oval of track, an 0.4.0 and three goods vans; like many of us, and aged 12. By 18, I'd had a standard 6ft x 4ft layout with Hornby BR stuff (I always had a soft spot for Class 31s). Then came an extended version of that, followed by a venture into 009 which was meant to loosely represent a CIE narrow gauge line somewhere in the West. That didn't survive a house move (my first), where a very large 009 set-up was built in the attic - my pride and joy until a damp problem and burst pipe bent all the baseboards and that was that. It was a substantial set-up, though never had scenery applied - not even platforms. It was meant for operational intrigue, which it had. That's gone now, a victim of two house moves in 20 years. The house in between had a G scale line in the garden for a while.

Now, Dugort Harbour takes shape by degrees. It's small - a shunting / fiddle yard thing - but hope springs eternal for planning permission for an extension......!  For the first time in my case, it'll have high quality scenery. Currently, baseboards are in the hands of Baseboard Dave in Edenderry, and a superb job so far.

Point is - don't be put off if something that you initially plan doesn't live up to what you expected. Like Robert the Bruces' spider, "try, try and try again". As others have said, doodling station plans on random bits of paper passes the time and fires the imagination, and the planning is part of the journey.