Hi Rob, love your videos and just wanted to ask you that, what is the distance between two n scale tracks? Yours very nice and closer. Thanks

Great update Rob, and glad you found a great spot for the pub! Cheers, Dan 😃

Sorry I missed it Rob! Congrats on the 5000! 🎉

Fantastic Rob!

Agree with you: large curves.

Nice new pub! I like what you did with the shop lighting.

Congratulation to the 5000

A great idea and well done.

A nice workbench and seems more room now that you have draws to put things... how long will it stay clear for is the question.. haha....

Congratulations on getting to 5,000 Rob. Really, well done!

Greetings from Melbourne Australia.. your layout looks fantastic.. well done. If mine could only look 1/2 as good I'd be happy.

Very nice. I initially tried planning myself with a couple of different s/w packages. I came to realize that I really just didn't have a clue on 'what made sense' or not, even after reading several books/articles. Finally bit the bullet and paid a professional to design it for me. He did what I asked but left me with some 'hmm this still doesn't seem right'. Had a couple of friends review/make comments/suggestions and now have what is being constructed. I have fully come to the realization that some minor changes are in the making including some terrain, some changes to facilities, etc, but have the frame work laid out. Again very good job and for most, I am sure planning down to the XxY coordinate on the layout is where this intersection is, this building starts, etc. I just couldn't wrap my simple brain around it LOL

Result Rob. 5k

Good evening Rob and congratulations still loving your layout Stephen

Good luck Rob ❤

Ah, you’re back Rob.

Beautiful!❤😊

Fix the sound check your video back and you will hear that sounds like you are underwater

Add 1.25 inches to each radius to be safe

Good to see that you are keeping busy with Farland upgrades. Always a pleasure to watch. David.

Thanks for sharing all that! I feel much better about being on v15-2 now!

Very nice review, I love ❤️ the lovely class 40 alot I have the blue hornby railroad class40 and the mainline class 40 and I will getting the jouef class 40 next week from smiths railways model shop next week ..

本物に近づけるなら、最小半径ではなく緩和曲線が大切だと思う。直線と半径一定のカーブだけだと競技場のトラックになってしまって、現実離れしてしまう。直線から段々半径がきつくなるカーブを入れるとよくなる。緩和曲線が取れないのなら、HOなら直線の次に半径2400㎜程度のカーブを入れると実感的なる。日本には2400Rの曲線が販売されている。

Regarding planning, I’ve seen a lot of people spending decades dreaming but not getting started building anything. I’d recommend to get trains running asap. Experiment. Build temporary layouts. On the floor or a table. Find out what you like. And of course, plan on parallel.

As much as running operations is a lot of fun for so many model enthusiasts, it's nice to run across people that are like you and me, who are happy with simply watching several trains running through beautiful scenery.

What’s the longest amount of time any one crew would spend per trip?

So that 288 foot curve is o72 in O Scale

Rob, you must feel that you are now in heaven with Mastering not one but TWO layouts, building LOVELY trees and NOW seeing and being so close to " BIG BOY " !!!!!!! God has looked down on you and given His blessings to you !!!!!!!

Wow Rob! Your layout and running sessions are becoming more realistic each time. Great sound from your locomotives, so real sounding. The automated railfans trackside is just amazing. You had me thinking it was real action for a while!

Absolutely brilliant love this Rib all my favourites in one shoot I have the Big boy in OO or HO and as you know my Union Pacific in N gauge . Thanks for sharing 👍

The way around all the hassles is by building it 'Point to Point' with turning facilities on one or both ends of the line, like the real guys do it, using a balloon track/wye/turntable. It's the 'roundy-round' or 'continual' which usually presents unrealistic situations.. Point to point can still go up and over, and down and under, and produce long running time.. But what it really does is bear realism; single mainline with passing sidings, spurs, industries/stations/terminals, yards, engine shops. It just does not need to and shouldn't go in circles except for 'belt lines', or say, light rail or trolley/subway.. P to P, if designed right, will leave no duck unders, to boot. Sorry. It's always the way I've seen it but in no way is meant to criticize anyone else's way of running model trains.. Los Angeles, Ca.

Dear Rob, very cool series, very interesting, informative, useful, unique and illustrative content! Love the way you flashed out the different rail profiles and referred to the CSX ‘bible’ of track dimensions. Didn’t know that, definitely will put it on my ‘hard drive.’ Whilst visiting the Essen technical museum I saw the museum’s display of track rolling equipment. Plus cross sections of all the different types of rail that was produced. Absolutely put your guide rail on the ground rules of design principles on the technical level of my ‘gene pool.’ On your point about the backdrops, humbly think it is a multi pronged design aspect. Especially on shelf layouts there’s often the necessity for a backdrop. However, it all depends on how the 2D relates to the 3D part of the layout. A too perpendicular design towards the background only allows for a single point perspective, which most often looks awkward when not observed from the correct 90° angle. Hence, a placement which uses a two point perspective has much greater flexibility and can indeed help to increase the field of depth and the illusion of perspective. Just recently saw a great example of a railroad with excellent painted backdrops. Al Pugliese showed the railroad of David Busch. David’s wife did an excellent job with the backdrops by using the slight angles in which the 3D footprint around the track already opens up the scene. By slightly exaggerating the angle onto the 2D image, she has made several excellent transitions. Overall, when planning my layout I would indeed try to avoid backdrops altogether. See much more in a height solution. It’s all about exploring our creativity after all. Best examples to me are railroads which use a natural divide. A city scene on one side can very provide an excellent profile for a hill on the opposite side of the aisle. Even when watched from the other side it should be possible to camouflage the buildings in such a way that just over the hilltop the city starts. From the city side this would mean its periphery connects towards the horizon under those same hilltops. Of course, that’s much harder when one wants to model a more flat landscape. But even then slight undulations might provide similar modeling opportunities. Cheerio

Dear Rob, such a cool and interesting idea to add those girder spans to indicate the underground tracks beneath ‘m. Will be curious to see your idea come to fruition. It won’t surprise me if this little project will further develop into a small cutout where the subterranean tracks will be exposed. Love the trees, fully agree on the ‘not soaking’ with Matte Medium, a more sparse application will indeed help make them trees look better. Although those ones that look fully feathered are of course excellent stand alone items, maybe for a little park or horticultural space. Always wondered about the Superliners. You definitely got me up to speed there. Great set, love the details. Cheerio

Hi Rob, very interesting video, I kind of find figuring out the whole thing quite enjoyable, trial and error seem to be my preferred methods but I’m learning as I go! There is so much in planning a layout that you can end up doing nothing thinking about everything. Doing for me is a much better way with a basic plan in my head or on a bit of paper and working it out from there. Farland has gone through so many transitions in planning but has turned into your lovely layout which I thoroughly enjoy watching. Thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge Rob, cheers for now mate, John

Very nice. I model in O gauge, so things are a little different. My basement is a bit over 1600 square feet, but subdivided into three rooms. Instead of having a 34x24 foot area at the one end of the basement, I had to make an 'L' shaped layout. I settled on a 24x18 L, with the short end at nine feet wide and the long end a seven and half feet wide. I'm pretty good at planning, so I quickly sketched out a basic design and then just went to work. I have the two mains, a trolley line and a commercial/industrial loop, with the industries on sidings and a small yard, along with the engine facilities. It is meant for long runs with decent sized trains, plus, the industrial section is run separately. That way, I can keep the mains running, so I can have people over and have switching operations at the same time. Either way, your video is quite informative and should help out those that are just starting out with a larger layout. An excellent video, for sure.

I didn't do the math myself, but are you serious that the scaled down recommended curve radius comes out to the prototypical standard gauge between rails? That's some kind of witchcraft coincidence there. :-)