PLANNING A NEW LAYOUT

We moved into our new home in mid-December, in awful weather.  I wasn't planning to build a new layout, but instead decided to build static models to display in a glass-fronted cabinet we have.  However, we do have a double garage with an extra bay/shop area deep in the rear, almost a separate room. So that's where I have decided, with my wife Susie's strong encouragement, to build a 3' x 12' switching layout.  It will lie along one wall of the shop area and will have a 4' floor to ceiling "wall" on the front end to ward off dust. 

I'm not sure dust in the garage will be much of a problem.  At least, it hasn't been so far, even with a lot of home construction still occurring on our street, which has stirred up plenty of soil.  Our garage is very "tight" and, moreover, is very, very well insulated in both ceiling and walls.  Much of my decision to build a layout was due to the garage passing the "comfort test."  Since we've lived here, the past six months, outside temperatures have ranged from minus 11 in January to nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit recently.  Through all that, the garage has remained quite comfortable, and would be even more so using a small electric heater and a portable fan.

The layout, as I said, will be a switching pike.  I'm once again modeling April 1947, this time in a small, fictitious town in southern Idaho on a fictitious railroad line running across Idaho into Oregon, with branch lines into Wyoming, Nevada and Utah.  I haven't settled on a road name yet but am leaning toward "Idaho & Oregon."  The town will be at a junction point where a branch joins the main line, though the actual junction would be "off stage."  Thus, the town name I'm thinking of will be "Snake River Junction" in order to convey a sense of place. 

My track plan is essentially finalized and is actually based on a layout in "101 Track Plans."  The plan in the book is entitled "Mechanic Street Yard," though I've modified it in several ways.  Since my S Scale layout will be small, I've laid out a full-size track plan on four sheets of leftover packing paper.  I plan to use this as a tracklaying template when construction begins. 

I also will be buying a brand new supply of rail.  When I scrapped my Texas layout, I really scrapped it!  The only things I saved, besides rolling stock of course, were most of the structures and all of the vehicles, figures, signs, etc.  I didn't save the rail, since it had been used and reused in six different layouts over nearly 40 years, and the original 3' lengths of rail had long since been reduced to various-sized fragments.  I think I definitely had gotten my money's worth from that rail!

So my rough plan is to begin construction around September or October.  This summer, since we've been through moving, settling in and major surgery for my wife, we're just going to take it easy!