Very ambitious. I'm interested in how you will provide for maintenance and/or replacement of the furnace as they don't last forever. Based on your prior work, you will come up with a creative scheme.

This video shows how you're doing a layout for yourself and, from watching your videos of work for customers; it shows how when you design and build a layout for someone, you work on it like it's your own. That is what makes your work so good. You won't do something half way for yourself and you treat the work you do for your customers the same way. Can't wait to see you start building your layout back. Excellent video. Stay well. -Wil 👍

Definitely worth waiting for Peter, love the way you give insight in your very own design process, whether it is for customers or your own layout. You’re a source of inspiration and the way you incorporate prototypical info, compression and tricks to hide tracks is very interesting and informative. Thanks very much!

I have watched this several time, Today while your were speaking about the exposed lower level straightened out helix run, I had a design epiphany for my own layout to handle a rather complex area. Thanks ever so much for sharing your ideas and thought processes on your own layout, they are indeed quite helpful! I also can not wait to see what all you do with your "expanded" home layout version 2.0.

Thank you so much, it's great seeing what you would do when you have all the freedom to do what you want and not limited based on the customers wishes.

That's some very interesting 20 minutes, being invited to follow you, processing and planning for your own layout! And what a layout! Looking forward to upcoming updates on the progress! Whishing you all the best!

Cant wait to see the complete Railroad !!

Wow, not just a new layout but renovation time. Love it.

1000 thanks Peter for the up-dates Your work is STELLAR!

I enjoyed the video so much, but I understand why you don't really have time to work on the plan and layout now because of your business and so on. Regardless though, I'm surprised you got all that drawn out before you stopped working on it for a year. That impresses me a lot and I really was amazed at how much you managed to fit inside the space you now will have. It was totally worth the wait to see what you had drawn up a year ago, but I think it will be even more worth waiting once you start breaking ground on your new model railroad. Keep up the brilliant work Peter, I'm always amazed by your videos and I always seem to learn new ways I can plan and construct a layout as well as the models and scenery to go with it in each video.

Now that's the ideal approach, reshape the basement to your requirements as railroad has priority and the wife freely lets you! Great to see all your expertise in action not just for your customers but yourself now, it looks absolutely great. You have a lot to look forward to ....when you get more time. Perhaps plan in your calendar a "my railway" building holiday. Stephen

Excellent update. Your thought processes help inform others as you are working through many different iterations of many different situations.

That's going to be a lot of work. I'm sure you will enjoy every minute. A couple of suggestions, As one gentleman said, change washroom door to outward swing? Or change to a small pocket door on either partition wall. 2nd, lower your stairs "landing" be one tread. That will let you move your lower stair treads towards the landing. Giving you approx. 10" more room basement floor. Then split your landing with a winder stair tread, making two treads on your landing footprint. Make sure you are following local building codes... Cheers.

Hooray! I've been looking forward to seeing the plans for your own layout :)

As always I learn so much watching you work through a layout design....thanks so much...Jack 👍👍👍👍

Clearance around water heaters and electrical panels drive insurance companies mad. You need air space around the tanks to avoid fire chances and damage from rupture if they fail. I did inspections for a company that contracted with insurance carriers for several years. When new policies are written inspections are usually done. Sometimes repeat inspections are done if at first glance any issues were noted by underwriters. They may ask or tell you to make corrections in order to keep homeowners policy in force. Good luck

Well worth the wait, and thanks so much for showing us now. Coming back to the plan after a year it seems unlikely that you wouldn't find areas you wanted to change? I imagine you are still pretty busy and that looks like a big build. Hopefully one day you will have the time to build it all, but it will be a great journey to follow. I really appreciate how you have some super busy areas and others where you can just watch the trains go by. Very nice 'trick' where you turn one side of the lower level 'storage area' over to extra scenery, and that it is a complete contrast to the industrial scene above.

This is going to be an amazing layout.

Love it. It’s neat watching your brain work through all of the possibilities and iterations. Looking forward to when you’re able to get started on it. Stay safe and healthy! - Sean

Wow. This looks like a massive project.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm happy for you and for your work. Can't wait to see further developments on your personal layout as you are able to get to them.

Have you considered relocating the bottom section of stairs 90 degrees anti-clockwise towards the room pillar, giving you a straight stairway down. Then you can remove the wall outside the furnace area. This would open up the bottom (on plan) area of the layout. It also gives visitors a better first impression instead of just seeing the wall at the bottom of the stairs. This also removes the pinch-point there.

Sir... You Amaze me. It would be interesting to hear the story of your background and how you became this Superman of model railroading. Cheers !

Wow that room is massive. Probably bigger than my entire house in terms of square footage

Looks like the design keeps improving. I wish I had that amount space but mine is quite limited.

Good to see that you put as much thought and work (and think objectively on pros & cons) in to your own layout as much as your customers, be great to see it when a bit more work has been completed...are you going to show some of the build?

looks good

Been following your work for a year or so now. I've come to appreciate your efforts and would recommend you to someone looking for trackplan and custom building. I like the way you do videos and show evolution of a design, and the trial and error to get to an end. Your own design seems interesting and quite extensive. If your going to build in stages, I'd consider putting Centerville and Eastly into play and connecting them. Skip the stagging yard between them, instead run simple and somewhat temporary track/benchwork between them, bypassing the peninsula. Possible include a passing siding. Then put your efforts into the staging around Eastly. Bring Eastly up to full operation. I would built the staging on the opposite side of Centerville, but I'd consider a reversing loop, so that you could run loop to loop. I look forward to your future postings of designs and builds...

instead of digging out the unexcavated area, make a giant flat drawer unit staging yard sitting on the floor of the crawlspace. pull it out if there is a problem. make removable connecting tracks onto the drawer

it´s... it´s just... stunning!

Very nice plan. I know you don’t want to bear the expense of digging out the crawl space but if it is anything like the one I had in my last house it was 50 inches tall and I was able to use it for a 30 inch staging yard. If yours is a similar height to mine and you moved the track on the right side onto the crawl space you could have a 2 1/2 x 20 foot long staging yard and extend your main loop by 2 or 3 feet. If yours is higher, you could reduce the height of just the first 3 feet and pour a cement patch to seal the area to keep the bugs and humidity out at little expense.

Wow! Can't wait to see your empire being built! As a few have mentioned: a pocket door or outward swing door on the lavatory, would consider moving the water heater in the 'lower right corner' to under the stairs (would be a real pain if it needs replacing afterwards) the other one should be reasonably accessible, staging tracks in the furnace room... could be a pain if the furnace needs cleaning/repair/replacement (make the New Haven loop to staging removable, the quarry access should be fine) and the repair person uses the bench work for putting tools and rags on or bangs into it derailing cars. Where I live at long last we get a warranty on water heaters, between a ferry and rough roads you took your chances on maybe getting a year of service to twenty+ years.

wow great further detail layout got there to build as wish best thank you for share detail video with other

It looks like it's going to be an excellent layout. I'm very excited for you, and can't wait to see it when you're "done". And who in the heck would dislike this video? I guess there's always at least one in the crowd.

Hi ya Peter, any idea of when you might “ break ground ?” It’s looks fantastic. Thanks for the update. See ya.

A thought, if that was my basement I would cut the stairs up 3 steps and turn the stairs in the direction that would best suit you , you just add a platform on the third step and turn it, there should be plenty of head room.. Then you don't have to shrink to 1 track to pass in front of steps

👍👍👍👍👍👍 Peter!! Wow, that is a lot to digest and to wonder how it will all finally work out. That layout design is quite comprehensive. This is definitely a multi-year project - being that you'll still be balancing your "day job" and then all the side stuff of the railroad accessories and designing/ building layouts for other people. Thanks for the update and all the design steps that got you to this point. Now a quick question.... Being that you will have all this extra space to run long trains. Are you considering modernizing your locos and rolling stock. If I remember correctly, I think for your previous layout, you were modeling in the 1930/40's. Would you ever consider moving ahead a decade and start moving into the introduction of diesel power? This thought came when you suggested expanding/adding to the "Widget" factory. That'd be the perfect opportunity to add a more modern architectural touch to the buildings. Not suggesting "walls made up of slabs of precast concrete" but other material instead of just basic brick walls and traditional "factory style" single pane windows. Anyways, it was a suggestion only. You will have lots of time to figure out the look/theme between now and the time you have the platforms built to accommodate these designs! Thanks again - take care and keep well!@

Nice vid. If you have the head room, you can put a one step high landing at the bottom of your stairs with the step left and right. This would give you more width there.

Hi Peter, thanks for the update, looks amazing, great idea on the lower senic route , personally Id be digging for that extra room ,lol our first layout was the dugout foundation of our split level townhouse, cavity of 1.5m😊😊😊😊 just dug out a pit big enough for access, build a brick retaining wall 900mmm jigh , backfilled and put a table over the rest , 6m by 5m was the end result !

Nice one Peter. I'm curious about the overall operating concept of your layout. Coverage on that would be appreciated as the plan evolves. A geographical map and/or schematic of the modelled connections would be helpful. From the plan it appears that the staging represents points east and points west of the main yard. This allows staged trains to reach the main yard from either direction for either your road or the NYC. I think the illusion will work well since the appearance points from opposite ends of the compass are on opposite sides of the backdrop. An advantage of your single-helix plan is there is no need for a separate 'far end' helix to connect the scenicked operational deck with staging. If I am interpreting correctly, there'll be a lot of car exchange happening at the main yard as well as through trains that simply go up the helix, visit the main yard then return to staging. The main operating route of the layout runs from the main yard, to the harbor where I recall you mentioned a connection with the NH. Some through trains will come up the outer helix track, stop at main yard and continue to the harbor or the NH. And the reverse routing also applies. Plenty of options for locals and turns and a good length mainline run to keep things spaced out. Seems like a room full of fun, challenge and excitement!

That's an impressive track plan, it would be great to see you start building it and follow the progress 😊. That's one of the things I enjoy about this hobby, making progress (at least that's how I feel when I work on my own layout). I must say that I always enjoy your track planning videos a lot. I do have a question about this. Often when you model track plans with more than one level it can become difficult to envision how it looks in 3D. So here's my question: would you be able to show these plans in 3D? Kind regards, Paul

Impressive. Hopefully for your sake you can actually start. You do need to think about yourself and family 👪. Take care, Chris

One problem you do not have with the basement stairs. Due to the axis through your storage space for a garden tractor etc into the basement it eliminates the problem of moving items down the stairs ac and having to turn immediately

Straightening out the bottom half of the stairs or otherwise redirecting them is probably doable without too much grief. But it looks like you're pretty happy with what you've come up with.

Consider: Putting an out swing door on the lavatory (half bath), Diagonal wall for second water heater can use a door for access.

Hello, I do have a solution to the stairs issue, You can take out the half landing and fit three winders, one is known as a kite winder, this would take the bottom step back to where the fourth step is on the plan, this would give you roughly an extra 2ft6in walk room at least past the bottom of the stairs, but you would lose the top of the cupboard. I am a carpenter and would do it for you but I live in Cambridge in the UK, find yourself a carpenter and he or she would know exactly what I am suggesting, it could be done using 1inch ply if you wanted to keep the cost down. Hope this suggestion isn't to late.

Wow! That will be impressive for sure! How many more scene iterations will you go through before you build it, though? ;)

If you change the bottom tread of the staircase into a platform, you will have a thirty inch space with a safe step down each side.

How do we get invited to a running session😉😉😉

You can gain 10" at the base of the stairs by extending the tread to the wall and then step down one riser into each room.

When designing multi level layouts, should the upper level be deeper than lower levels?

Stunning plan, but Peter, can you give some context please? Scale? Era? Prototype? Steam or diesel? Ruling locos? Operating emphasis eg Mainline running, branch etc? Timetable operation? Also, how do you power something of this size? My N scale UP empire is 6ftx3.6 ft so I need to understand better how you scale up. Thanks. Love your work. Ian (London, UK).

What if you rotated the stairs 90-degrees to join up with the support beam? That would give you two full length walls. You could retain the landing. Just a thought.

Forgot to add clearance around furnaces as well

Are you considering additional levels above your main level?

Awesome design Peter - is 50 feet x 30 feet?

How long do you think it would take to finish it, if you worked on it none stop?

Why is it that no matter how much room there is, there's never enough?

What happens when you need to get at the water heaters?

I need to get you my info so you can design my plan.

why did the house have to hot water tanks I understand you bought it that way lol before you get to far ahead of your self how old are your furnace if it on the last leg subject you move your furnace to and outside wall we have done this to one of the townhouses we have in the town we did tear out the basement to many things were already wrong and not to the building codes here furnace was new was not installed right same as the water heater to call a friend work for a for one company that does furnace we wanted to instill and AC unit too yea at the same time we have fixed the electrical panel too they house was tear right apart new everything it got the small room it had too we took the roof off and add the 2nd floor for the bedrooms too new roof after too the furnace was able to pipe it on the side of the house and the On-Demand Water Heater put 3 in the house one pre-floor it work out to be moved the washer and dryer on the main floor large living room and kitchen with a larger eating area too and a new bathroom to sold the house a short time after that we bought another one tear that one down and build a new home on the lot this time hand only one problem with that one tear down the garage to we build the house and the garage at the same time with a new driveway pad the power company had a brain fart and buried the power likes guess the has NO brains and put the transformer in the middle of the new driveway they had 4 acres on the other side of the road lol lol they had to remove it anyway it was supposed to be on the other side down at a corner of the lot that was it is now lol but the condo development was not allowed to build back here lol yea was a dump back here at one time lol yea it still sucks my house is still not being build on the farm

of course you have enough space compared to Eli's craft area 🤣

Hello.... 😊