Multideck Layout Design and Construction

by Tony Koester

Overview

Model railroaders are always looking for ways to pack more operation and scenery into a limited space. Adding a second deck to a layout is a viable option that can effectively double your mainline run and increase the real estate you have to work with. Designing and building a multideck layout, however, is much more complex than simply adding another layer of bench-work to a single-deck layout. Benchwork complexity, lighting, shelf widths, room size and shape, and other factors must be carefully considered. In Multideck Design for Model Railroads, veteran modeler Tony Koester addresses these factors and more, including: Deciding whether a multideck layout will work for your space, time, modeling skills, and finances, Dealing with grades and whether to include a helix, Determining heights of decks, Planning for sufficient aisles and benchwork widths, Lighting lower decks and the layout room itself, Dispatching and operational options

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627008709
Publication date:	12/01/2021
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Multideck Design for Model Railroads is Tony Koester's 19th all-new or substantially updated book about scale model railroading. He has been the editor of Model Railroad Planning, a special annual issue of Model Railroader, since its inception in 1995. He is a contributing editor to MR and writes the magazine's popular Trains of Thought column. He took many of the photographs for this book on his former Allegheny Midland and current Nickel Plate Road HO scale layouts.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A matured approach to layout design 4

Chapter 1 Defining the purpose

No sense making a big commitment unless you really need to 6

Chapter 2 A mature technology

Multideck railroads have been in operation for decades 18

Chapter 3 Key Design Considerations

Benchwork height and depth, getting between decks, backdrops, and more 26

Chapter 4 Then and now on the Nickel Plate

Comparing aspirations with realizations at the two-decade mark 52

Chapter 5 When stuck with lemons …

Multidecks are about compromises, so make the most of them 78

Chapter 6 The aesthetics

Ensuring that crew members, visitors, and you are comfortable 84

Chapter 7 Operating a multideck railroad

There will be twice as many crew members in the same aisles 96

Chapter 8 Multideck photo gallery

Scenes on railroads discussed in this book 102