SBLK Redivivus
This is the track plan that Trevor Marshall did up for me back in 2001-2002. I am happy with the concept: It is the same as the old SBLK, i.e. One main town with lots of switching as the focal point of the railway. Operators follow their trains from and to staging.
Picture of Trevor's plan
You can just make out the aisleways. The solid line at the bottom is the wall between the train room and the utility area of the basement. Trevor's plan has located the staging inside the Utiity Room.
I am still not completely committed this plan in all its detail, but it provides a very satisfactory beginning from which I think I can get what I want. More on that later.
Beginning: 120 V. Wiring and a Ceiling
My first step, after having a concept and a track plan was to determine where to locate the 120 volt lighting power for the layout. And to make sure it met building code requirements. (A professional electrician should inspect the work, even if you do it yourself, as I did.) You may be able to make out the wires hanging down from the junction boxes in the photos below.
A cardinal rule of layout building, to my mind, is: Don't consider doing anything else until you have a ceiling that will stop dust falling from the rafters.
The hardest part of starting work on the layout room was to frame around all of the ductwork, plumbing, and other things that are in the basement of a 160+year old house. I finally got most of the framing done and covered with drywall by December, 2006. Then I got a local professional to do the taping and mudding of the drywall. (I did that on our last house and was quite happy to give someone else the aggravation this time round!!)
I also finally got most of the 120 volt wiring roughed in and checked out by a professional electrician at about the same time.
Loris, #2 son, helped me get started on the drop ceiling a day or two after Christmas.
This is where things were at that time.
I have carried on by myself since then, cutting T-section hangers , Cross Ts and tiles to fit around the electrical oxes and making sure the boxes are close to flush (horizontally) with the tiles. Filling in all the nooks and crannies neatly in this old basement is a slow, slow process.
February - March 2008: Benchwork
Most of 2007 went by with dilatory work finally finishing the ceiling, priming the walls and putting together 1" X 2" and 1" X 3" L girders. At the end of January, 2008, I painted the floor with concrete floor sealer to cut dust from that source. I did the sealant rather than painting because the plan is to put down runners in the aisle ways, which will make it easier and warmer on the feet than just painted concrete.
The first benchwork went up on February 4, 2008. My original intention was to build the layout in modules so it could be relatively easily removed and perhaps reassembled somewhere else.
But then reality knocked me on the head. First, I am not moving anywhere from this house. And if I do, I will not be in any shape or position to be doing any more model railroading. So this is my final layout. Second, nobody but nobody - in my experience - ever wants someone else's layout, no matter how good it is. And I doubt that any one or organization will be prepared to take the layout over either for their own use or as a memorial to me.
So, rather than modules, I am building it right into the basement. (If someone else buys this house eventually, they will have their own ideas about what they want to do with the basement. Those ideas probably would not involve model trains and would probably involve much rebuilding anyway.
All of the L girder benchwork was completed by the first week of March. March 6 & 7, I spent out in the wood shop, cutting wood stock and putting together over 150 risers. (And that is enough only for the spline sub-roadbed of the main line!)
Below are the beginnings and the end of the basic benchwork phase.
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Uunderneath about eight inches above the floor is shelving. Lots of dry, useful storage space for empty boxes, kits, and all the other modelling stuff that one tends to acquire over the years.