In the beginning…

I started planning my first layout as a grown-up in 2000.  I doodled probably over a hundred designs. My goals were to have two loops to have two trains run around and around, a yard, and as many industries as possible.  The space I had pretty much confined me to a 3’x7’ or 4’x8’ table.  Looking back, I had no idea about operations at all.  But, based on the aforementioned desires, I came up closed to picking one of the following designs:

 

The following one was my favorite and I was going to start building it. I even had decided on the which phase I would build first.

This probably would’ve been a very satisfying layout.  I have no idea why I decided against building this. It’s been 10 years, and I still wonder what came over me.

Anyways, in the end, I decided on the following design:

Now, this design does indeed meet all the requirements I set out with. It also is much easier to build as it is essentially a flat layout. However, it is incredibly boring when compared to the folded dogbone design shown in the previous picture.  I really should’ve built that one.

Anyways, this medium layout is currently built completely, sans the yard, and is fully operational except the reverse loop. It’s been a great learning experience, so in that sense I suppose it served its purpose. In the following posts, I will walk through the construction of the layout.

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