Dreams Really Can Come True

The big day has finally come.  I have dreamed of this day for more years than I can remember.  For a long time, it seemed as if this day would never come.  Ideas circulated about what to do when it came, but it never felt like it would actually come.  Now that it has, I almost do not know what to do with myself!  The options seem overwhelming, and I barely know where to start!  I have so many ideas, but they are not organized in any way.  Now I have to begin to put them together and decide which ones make the most sense, and which ones will work with each other.  I have to decide what I want the most and what I can do without.  This is all the result of finally having my very own Train Room.  That is right folks, I finally have a dedicated room for my model trains, which obviously means, I have got to build a model railroad for in there!  My trains will finally have a home!

I just moved into a three bedroom apartment, so there are obviously going to be two spare bedrooms.  I have a room which is roughly 13 feet by 10 feet for my trains.  The door is in one corner, with the closet on one side and a bare wall on the other.  There are two windows on the walls opposite the door.  The windows are sufficiently high to build the railroad just below them, which is my plan.

The Train Room at the present.  The wall on the left is bare, and there is
a window on the two walls at the top of the picture.

At the moment, I only have a rough plan of what to do.  I know there are a few things I want.  First of all, I want to pack as much railroad and action into that space as possible, but the windows mean it will most likely have to be a single level railroad.  Also, I want at least a small work bench, with a direct rail link to the railroad itself, so that equipment can be quickly and easily moved to and from the work bench.  On the work bench, I would also like a separate programming track, so new locomotives can be programmed for the DCC system.  Ideally, the workbench will be located under one of the windows so it gets good light.    I also want a railroad that can be somewhat portable.  I have no plans to take it to shows or anything, but I am in an apartment, which means sooner or later, it will probably have to move.  I do not want to have to cut it all apart and ruin it.  I am thinking I will build it in sections and make things like buildings easily removable, which will allow me to move it to another home.  Ideally, it could be set back up in another location, or integrated into a larger railroad later.  The one thing I would like to avoid is any duck under areas, lift out sections, or swing sections to get into the room and layout.  I want to be able to walk straight in.

Those are my specifics.  Other than that, I am open to ideas.  I think it will have to be a switching or industry layout to have an interesting level of activity.  I think I will probably make it about three feet wide, because there is sufficient space in the room for that, and it will allow for a little more action in the same space.  One leg will go along the bare wall of the room, and the other leg on the wall opposite the door, below the window.  I think the workbench will go along the other opposite wall, in front of the window.  I am also thinking that the track to the workbench will continue to a small staging/storage yard between the workbench and the closet.  I would like to incorporate several industries into the railroad, whether related or not, as well as a junction with a main line.  The main line will obviously be quite limited in the distance it covers, but it will give the cars a place to originate on their way to the industries and a place to go when they leave.

Ideas are always welcome!  Just email me at ogden.bros.trains@gmail.com!