First Post - My Vision

Hello... So I'm starting this blog to serve as a journal of my progress in creating a fully automated, computer controlled, N scale commuter rail layout.  Wow... that's a mouthful!  Anyway, I figured I'd describe my vision first, and my next post will be about how I got here.  After that I'll start posting my design details and eventually my project plans. 

So here is the vision... I have a small amount of space for a train layout.  I share my house with a wife, two daughters, and a brother-in-law.  Needless to say, there isn't much "me" space left in the house.  (And what I started with has slowly eroded away over the years)  So I need a layout that can be mostly "out of the way".  I have (or had) a Rec Room in the basement.  It has a pool table and bar, an exercise machine, poker table, along with a couch and an old recliner.  There just isn't much to work with.

But I came to realize that I didn't need a big 4x8 foot layout to have fun.  In fact, a friend suggested a "switching" layout... Out and Back.  So I decided that I DID have room for a layout that would sit along the window sill.  This gives me a whopping 24 feet of length!  The downside?  16 inches in width...

Anyway, that is what I'm working with.  Ultimately what I wanted was a set of tracks (3 right now but more on that later) and 5 "stations" including the ends.  I plan on having sensors and switches to allow 2 trains to share these tracks.  That is where the computer comes in handy.  It will be able to leverage DCC to sense those inputs, and throw switches, and provide the "smarts" to make sure that the $500 or more in locomotives and rolling stock that this layout will have don't pull a Gomez Adams and crash into each other.  He had money to burn... but I don't!

At the end of the day, I should be able to set the turnouts into known starting positions, and move the trains via the throttle to known starting positions, and then just push a button called "Run" on the computer that will make the trains move through their programmed routes.  They will sense when they are going to get into each others way, and will resolve such situations. 

I can then sit back and watch it run.  I can play with schedules, and speeds to watch these conditions happen more or less frequently.  I may even put a third train on the tracks and see if I can keep it out of these fellows way. 

Oh yeah... and the whole thing is going to have a Simpsons theme!

More to come...