Church Layout Ideas
 | Floor Plan |
 | Drew's Plan A
This is pretty much my normal approach to layout design -- see how much spaghetti I can fit in the space, as a way of testing the upper limit and revising from there. This layout uses potentially both loops at the end of two "fingers". It also just barely fits the dimension from the east wall to the shelves -- I'd want to take a good measurement before embarking on this layout to be sure it would fit. Not much room for people in this configuration. |
 | Drew's Plan B
Another bowl of spaghetti, in an oval-to-loop configuration. Again, to test the upper limit. Same concern about the east-west dimension as Layout A. This one would sure be fun to operate (as would A) with a small group and carefulle chosen modules for some operating interest. We could use either junction, with only minor adjustments of the one-foot filler module. |
 | Drew's Plan C
Basic oval with 4 ft modules. Could be turned either way (90 degree turn). Also leaves a fair amount of space for work table and people. |
 | Drew's Plan D
Larger oval, less room for people outside the layout but slightly more operating interest. |
 | Drew's Plan E
Loop to loop, which gets the loops out in the open for us to work on them. And also uses a junction for a corner so it is out and available for work. |
 | Drew's Plan F
Oval variation which gets both junctions out for convenient work (if you don't mind crawling under them). |
 | Drew's Plan G
Oval with a oNetrak branch (assuming we can come up with a 2 foot oNetrak corner). Gets us into the 1T business, which seems to be an interest for many of us. The oval could also use 4 ft straights with the tradeoff of less people space outside the oval. |
 | Drew's Plan H
An oval variation which gets both junctions out in the open for work. This layout could be turned 90 degrees for a little more space if we want to put a work table on the door (north) wall. |
 | Drew's Plan I
This is about as basic as we can go and still have continuous running AND switching using standard modules. The switching will depend on the straight module(s) we use and how we modify the track on the loops (we had talked about adding some switching to one or both?). A 4-ft module along the east wall increases switching but leaves only about 2 ft. clear for the door to open. This is about as much work-floor-people space as we can generate using currently-existing modules. |
 | Drew's Plan J
A variation of I with a little more running and/or switching on an additional corner, at the expense of a little work-people space and access to the shelves. We have talked about adding a 1T interface off a loop module; this might take advantage of that, depending on the exact orientation of the interface. |
 | Drew's Plan K
This includes a 1T branch of one or two modules, but starts to eat up floor space. Not much room for switching except 1T branch, depending on how we redesign the loops. |
 | Drew's Plan L
Variation of B & G above, which leaves more usable floor space. The 1T branch could run behind the door (1 module only, somewhat limits door access) "permanently" or curve out into the room and detach at the corner or junction when we need more floor space. Also leaves reasonable access to the shelves. |
Comments
Drew:
I think my favorite of everything that I have come up with so far is L. It has it all, and still has more floor space than almost everything else: switching (if we use modules with switching opportunities), continuous running for 3 trains (any layout using the loops only allows for 1 train), and 1T modules. Plus, if we block the door briefly, we have an interface to test new NTRAK modules (by removing the 1T branch at the joint between the junction and corner).
My next favorite is K. It puts the loops out and available for work (a good thing!), same for a junction, includes a 1T opportunity, allows for continuous running (one train only, however) AND makes a little more floor space available than most of the others. The cost is switching -- not much of that available if we use only modules we already have.
Actually, my real favorite is A -- you know me and spaghetti! Relatively long continuous run, lots of switching depending on the modules on the "branch" and choice of modules for the main layout, good use of floor space (for trains only!). Poor access to the shelves. But this layout is WAY not realistic given that we want to preserve floor space for people and work.
