Looking forward to this!

Good luck.

Failure? I doubt it...

If you learned anything it certainly wasn't a failure. Don't be so hard on yourself. Hi my name is Mike and I'm a "mediocre modeler" too.

Mike

Mediocre is pretty good

Mediocre means you’re better than half of the model railroaders out there.  

I’m also a fan of Lance Mindheim’s approach, I’ll be watching with interest.  You didn’t say what scale so I’m guess HO.

Growing pains - been there too

I've been in situations similar to yours - switching roadnames, eras, and having to tear down layouts and start anew.  Although I didn't really think of them as "failures" but rather inconvenient learning experiences.  

If you have a Mindheim-designed track plan, you're definitely off to a good start!  I just finished reading his book Model Railroading As Art and he certainly knows how to make even a small switching layout look spectacular, hopefully I can put some of his ideas into practice on my pike. 

Like the others, I also look forward to watching your new layout take shape!

another FEC modeler

I love the FEC, it is the railroad I grew up watching. I model FEC in 1960 when diesels were red and yellow(for the most part the blue was just starting). 

FEC Track Plan

Below is the proposed track plan designed by Lance Mindheim.  We are using what he calls proto-freelanced, meaning the track plan is not exactly like proto-type, but is based on a specific area using existing customers. To find the basis for this layout go to Google Maps, type in Trujillo and Sons, the major customer on the short leg on the left of the diagram.  Go up the branch until you hit the FEC east/west main.  You will see three branches running south.  Right at the turn on the first branch is Neptune Cold Storage.  Although not rail served on the FEC, it will be here.  If you run further down that branch you will see corn syrup cars being unloaded.  Right behind the corn syrup facility is Dixie Ply.  I will be using that instead of Vision Candles on Lance's track plan.  I will need center beam flat cars for lumber loads.  Boy, those are expensive.  Back to Google Maps, go a little left of the three branches and you will see Iris Crossing where the CSX crosses the FEC.

As far as the room, the long leg is 27 feet, the short one 13 feet.  We have a totally finished basement, so tearing down walls is not an option. The major doorway to the rest of the basement is at the bottom left.  There is another doorway to the laundry room and electrical panel at the upper right.  Having doorways in diagonal corners has been a challenge and kept me away from around the walls type track plan. Once past the entry doorway the room narrows from 13 feet to 11 feet, which has been another challenge.

We have a Saturday morning breakfast group of model railroaders.  I rolled out the plan last Saturday and had to endure a lot of criticism.   More on that later.  One was living in the Midwest, why FEC?  My answer was, why not?  Have you ever seen it done?  Does the world really need another Santa Fe layout.

Nice plan

That looks like enough industry to keep you busy for a decent but not too long op session.  If you swap out the candles for dixie, you'll need to space that siding further away from the main track to allow forklift access on both sides of the centerbeams.  Will sorting track next to the empty lot occasionally be used as a team track?

Dixie Ply, Team Track

Ken,

Correct on both points.  I will move candle turnout a foot to the right and have a concrete pad for lumber unloading.  Another industry will be at the end of the sorting track by Trujillo as a team track.

lead track

assuming you will be staging on the lower mainline, and switching onto the industry track from there, looks like most of the ind are 4 car spots, but it could be tight to fit 4 cars on the switching lead, so you might have to do 2 cuts of 2 which is sorta fun. I also really like how there's a grade crossing right on the lead track so you'll have to use your horn or whatever other safety measures are in place. 

I really love Lance's work. I'd consider adding a foreground industry across the track from Neptune to add a bit more of his signature "alley" style (as shown in his LAJ in Great Model Railroads 2019)

Lead Track

Lance and I talked about the lead track. To the far right there is a door to the laundry room.  I talked to Lance about adding a drop down to do as you suggest.  He really saw no need for this and would be kind of a waste of time.  I am also with you, adding more buildings to the front of the layout to make the track look like it is in a canyon of stucco.  This would be proto typical to the area.  Lance agreed, but said he did not add that because one of my goals was ease of construction, so he limited the number of buildings.  I am thinking hard on that one.

Lead track

I assumed the mains were just scenic (except from the turnout right to the end of the layout on the lower main), and that you’d start the session staged on the industrial lead.  I don’t think there’s any artificial constraints if you stage that way.

Funny how we take away different things from others’ work.  I would have said that Lance’s signature is avoiding overcrowding, and if that’s a look you like you should be very carefully adding additional things to a plan he’s cooked up.

Layout Room

Below is the layout room for the new layout.  The bench work from the last layout will be used which is up.  Hollow core doors and brackets  Looking down the 27 foot side you can see some buildings for the Rock Island branch that I decided not to build.  Next step, the electrician is due Saturday to install four more cans to improve the lighting.  The upper brackets and aluminium backdrop are from the old layout.  It will come down and the wall painted blue. Simplification is a goal.

 "The upper brackets and

I'm curious why you can reuse the old benchwork but not the backdrop and lighting valence? Seems like they'd save some time. Did you lose interest in the Rock Island so couldn't just simplify that layout instead of switching to  Fla?.......DaveB

Dave B-Brackets

Dave,

I wanted a more open look when you walk into the room.  The current wall brackets are support for the back drop.  I will must taking them down and replacing them with shorter brackets that do not go above the level of the layout.

I'll talk about the abandoned RI layout later.

What Went Wrong on Previous Layout

As I start building the FEC it is time to  reflect on why my previous layout was not completed and became a source of frustration, not satisfaction.  It was based on a Frisco branch line in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City.  If you want to look at the area go to Google Maps, type in Kansas City West Bottoms.  Find the 12th street bridge and then the crossing underneath of Santa Fe St.  The Frisco branched off the mainline and ran up Santa Fe on street trackage. At the end of the block it swung left and headed west into the large Armour meat packing plant.  I had no great interest or love of the Frisco.  But what I did have were a track diagram and two local model railroaders that know about everything you would ever want to know about the Frisco.

It was not all bad.  It was a pretty good track plan.  I had been invited to an operating session on one of the Frisco guys layout and determined what I really liked was switching industries using a switch list.  My layout had about nine customers, all with multiple spots.   It was out and back with no run except at the end of the branch in a small yard.  It would take hours to work the branch.

The killer ended up being reliability, derailments and stalling.  I thought it was going to be a steam powered layout using a Proto 2000 0-6-0.  But about half the time I tried to back into a switch, it would split the switch.  I started operating with a SW7 and Baldwin and it was a little better.  I had a current keeper installed in the SW7 which also helped.  I had made a mistake, I found out later, in that I soldered a lot of rail joints.  This apparently ended up throwing a turnout right in the middle of the layout out of whack causing a derailment every time.  Problem was, that turnout was embedded in the plaster road.  The road itself was a problem, as my standards went up it just did not look that good.  Since I operate mostly by myself for short periods of time, it was more railroad then I needed and there was no way I would ever finish it.  Since the actual area is heavy industrial built in the late 1800's, it is mostly large brick buildings    I had a lot of DPM and Wathers modules.  I think these have really been useful for a lot of people.  But frankly, I got tired of working with them and the whole layout looked the same.   I also had some of the industries on the front of the layout, modeling about 2 inches facing the track and the aisle side a flat piece of plastic.  This did not look that good and I kept knocking them off the table with my elbow when switching or doing maintenance.   I also over complicated my life by putting in dwarf signals and overhead signals as the Frisco crossed two lines (UP and KC Terminal) going up Santa Fe Street. The wiring ended up being a mess although I had been warned about this and had good intentions.

I could go on, but that were the main points I can remember.  But the bottom line, it was time for this beast to go and move on.  The lessons learned, simplification ( 22 turnouts to 6) and reliability were paramount.    

Model Railroad Planning-2019

Yesterday I picked up the new MRP issue, I  look forward to this ever year.  A lot of nice, big layouts.  But the one that drew my attention was a Belgian gentleman had a free lanced short line Lake Valley & Northern, 4 1/2 feet X 13 feet.  I seem to be more and more drawn to these type of layouts as opposed to "lifetime" basement filler and budget busters.  Mindheim talks about making sure to have "dead space", where basically nothing is going on.  Do not think you need to stick another industry in just cause you have the space.  The builder here did an excellent job of splitting up scenes with dead space.  I wish this kind of track planning was around 30 years ago.  I spent a lot of time moaning about lack of space but could have done something like this in about every house I lived in.

"But the bottom line, it was

   I think this is a natural evolution, we tend to want to simplify things as we age. I'd caution about over reacting though, a too simple layout can be more boring than a too complicated one.Half of 22 is 11 so 6 might be overkill?...DaveB 

How many turnouts

I think Bob Dylan sang “How many turnouts must a layout have, before it becomes fun to operate?  The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, ...”

My O scale industrial switching layout had 9 turnouts, and most of the time when I operated I didn’t use several of them (I didn’t switch all industries every time).  When I had friends over to operate we’d do two man crews and do a couple back to back “sessions” with different combinations of operators, with no one session switching every industry.  I think 6 or 7 turnouts would still have left plenty of operating interest.  Maybe even fewer.

Build it as a "plywood central" first.

Once the track is laid down and powered, run it for a while.  If you want to, stick in a few mock up buildings maybe even using the buildings from your old layout to serve as industries.  After you have operated for a while you will know if you have enough switches and enough industries to keep you interested.  You can add more switches and make more spots to switch if you want more easily at the plywood "central" stage.  Once you are satisfied with what you have, you can do scenery and structures etc.

Don't forget that when planning scenery, industries need parking, and streets for access.  Some of that stuff can be off scene.

Plywood central

I agree with this advice.It’s easy to put down some flex track and try things out. You might find things you don’t like when operating. For example different types of cars become interesting,or more spurs facing the other way so you can run with the engine on the other end at times.....DaveB

The Old Frisco West Bottoms Layout

Here are a few shots of the layout that came down.

Simplification

I could relate tthe simplification on my own FEC RR layout. I modeled the Ft Lauderdale yard to the "T". I also modeled the Intermodal yard to the "T" that is next to the Ft Lauderdale yard plus the auto rack yard in Medley. I had over 60 turnouts which I hardly used. Too complex to have fun. So I am in the process to simplify it.

Completion of Layout Room

Have not posted for a while since it took some time to finish layout room.  The L shaped bench work is 13 feet by 27 feet.  Attached are photographs from main entrance, the other side of the room looking down the 27 foot leg. The final photo shows how I managed "floating bench worK" as Lance Mindheim calls it.  I took the shortest bracket available and had a machine shop shorten further and drill another hole to anchor it to wall studs. I don't think I could sit on it, but it is pretty solid.  I am starting to paint track so I can start laying it down. I will start on the 13 foot leg first.  Which will give me the largest industry to switch, Trujillo and Sons.  This is basically the "One Turnout" track plan Lance has posted in MRH.  Scratch building the large Trujillo building will be a challenge.

Track Plan

I don't know what happened to my original posting of the JPG of my track plan, but here it is again.