Track Plan. Geometry Class

Ahh, the limitations and blessings of sectional track. Personally, I like it. I am able to easily try many different track configurations and reuse all my track. Sure, I can't do arbitrary or gentle curves, but this is a cubicle, and I don't have room for large radius curves anyways. The limited geometry is sometimes a blessing in disguise. If I could do anything I wanted, it would take me much, much longer to decide on a track configuration.

As I showed in my initial plan, I have a main terminus station with a freight depot and a locomotive maintenance facility.  My plans have morphed a little since then, with an additional station track and the elimination of the team track.  I eliminated the team track to save space.  The additional station track is the result of making the passenger terminal track alignment more realistic.

Marklin uses a very well defined track geometry, and as such there is a standard parallel track distance. Using the standard methods, a 3-track terminal would look like this:

Each track is separated equally.  This just doesn't look right.  In all the train stations I have been in, the tracks between platforms are always very close together. To hack the geometry, I changed it to this:

Cubicle-Hanging-Shelf-Work

I would call it bench-work, but that might be a little misleading. But simply calling a shelf would down play the design work I put into it. So, for lack of a better term, I give you my cubicle-hanging-shelf-work!

There were three main requirements for my self-work:

1. Minimal height
2. Cheap
3. No support legs on the front

Building Buildings with Building Blocks

I love finding ways to use items that i have lying around or things that would normally get thrown away: things like cardboard, old pencils, old plastic parts and models, etc. As a kid, I also collected Lego and had a lot just sitting in storage.  I decided I would build my structures use these old blocks. I tell you, it was so fun pulling these out again!

I pretty much took over the living room, but my wonderful wife didn't mind!

The first building I built was the freight depot. Its the only building in a color that is normal looking, but hey, its fun... and free!