Fellow rails, it's great to be back on the Board. I've been away from it do to illnesses and employment hurdles..I want to 'climb back in the cab' here with an odd guestion...Will those of you who are building layouts in an apartment comment on both how you've done it (space-wise) and even more so, psychologically ? That is, like my own apartment HO layout,and because it confiscates kitchen, dining and two living room walls I oft feel people look at me as crazy..let alone I'm sure now that I am going to expand around the two remaining liv walls..I have no photo equipment or I'd add pics..I know you're out there..I'd love to know how you do it and cope with the parameters of it..
My daydream had always been to have my layout the center piece of my living / dining room. Imagine my surprise when Roberta, (my wondrous girlfriend), said she thought it would be a wonderful idea. I tell some people it is a kinetic sculpture. When all is said and done that is exactly what it is. That said if you are looking for a partner to share a smallish space with you may want to consider a 2' x 4' in the corner.
Although no longer in existence I made a layout from David Barrows project RR from MR 1996. The South Plains as it was called was an 11ft by 11ft shelf layout that broke down in to 5 modules 18in deep, I managed to carry the layout around with me whilst I was serving in the RAF. The layout was designed to be operated and I learned a great deal from it. Shaun
I've never faced a situation quite like this one. Hope you can avoid duckunders. Those can be a big headache... Have you a track plan that could be shared? Boxcab E50
Where I am is not really an apartment, just a small 2 bedroom house shared between wife, I, and our adult daughter. I had given up on my dream of having a layout until my wife suggested I do something on the dining room table...as long as it's removable for times when the table is needed. My solution will be a roughly 42x72 all foam layout...two layers of 2" foam laminated, with additional edge strips and strategic support blocks of 2" foam under to allow wiring space and additional rigidity during moves. The track plan is a 15" minimum radius oval with the switching concentrated within 18" of the edges for easy reach. Yeah, not the grand pike of my dreams, but better than nothing. Now if our _____ (fill in expletives of your choice) Blazer will cooperate so I can go get the foam, I can go from "will be" to "is". When I do get foam in hand, I'm going to experiment with the 72" dimension to see if I can stretch it a little more and still maneuver through the house when needed. In terms of absolute space where the layout will sit in use, I could probably go closer to 7-8', but maneuverability would be sacrificed, and traffic through the room impinged on more than necessary...trying to keep the whole thing as friendly as possible to the 2 non-railroaders in the house.
I live in an apartment in San Francisco, so you know my space is limited, but that doesn't stop me!! My room is 10x10, my layout is 10x5 A thread on the layout here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=91300 The whole apartment is a 4 bedroom townhouse with separate kitchen, dining, living and even storage. But I'm a mere 21 year old going to college with 3 other college goers as roommates. So practically speaking, a layout in the commons area of the house runs risk of massive destruction when 'Drunken-Joe' decides to play with it. On the psychological side, I got more crap for still "playing with trains" than I thought humanly possible, but I kept to it and it wasn't until my roommates walked in and caught me scratch building an N scale building crane out of brass (also, a thread on that here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=92156 ) that they realized the hobby holds a lot of fine art to be admired rather than bashed. Heck, I even have one of them itching to try scratch building himself :-D
I had a friend who built something similar to NTrak modules and did a U shaped point to point layout. The base of the U was built into a large closet with custom shelves above and below to store the 18X48" modules. It worked pretty slick.....he could pull the modules out and work on them on the dining room table, and when he wanted to run, he would set up the 6 modules and hook them up to the piece in the closet and end up with a 14 X 6' U. About the only problem was the aisle was only 3 ft wide and the controls were mounted on the part in the closet.....he got pretty good at sliding back an forth in an office chair in that little aisle. When he was done, the entire layout went into the closet and you never knew it was there.
Mark, how is the apartment floor plan? Can you make a pencil sketch with dimensions, then scan it somewhere? If you can, print it out on paper, and also save it to a floppy or disk and send me an email copy. Xerox copies are easy to work with for 'designing', and copies to send out are helpful to others who can make suggestions for you.
Apartment Railroads Make the layout portable and in a way that allows for use of the room. We have a two bedroom house with a basement. The basement is finished off in three rooms. The layout is a shelf 16 inches deep four feet off the floor around the walls of a room 13 feet square. There is a lift out for the doorway that is usually left in place. The layout is cantelevered into the studding of the walls so there is no legs. The cantelevering wouldn't be possible in an apartment though. The around the walls design would work just make the layout in module form.
Gents, though you all rallied round the flag (boys), nearly no one answered my question.. With ALL due respect I simply wanted to know how those of you who have apartment layouts in HO, cope with it ;size wize and psychologically.. Every one had nice things to say and beautiful pics and all. But ,I just wanted to hear from those living in and modeling a RR in an APARTMENT...period !... Now, don't make me come down there...!!
We all missed his 'specific' question, guys! Mark wanted to know if any of the 8K members here have lived in an apartment, and built a successful HO layout that takes up some of the space needed for operation, yet can be expanded, while leaving room for comfortable living? In addition, how was it made, and how have you coped with the sneers from non-hobby types when they criticize your motives for playing with toy trains? Or, how do you handle it when some air-head girl throws her purse and fur coat across the layout's fully detailed town and forest while chirping how 'cute' the toys are? (Are you certain all body parts were distributed securely?) He enjoys running long high speed passenger runs, with occasional freight and switching diversions for variety. I once saw 'inside' an apartment that had a long hallway which had one wall that was the actual side of the building, running from the building front, all the way to the rear wall of the building. All the rooms had doors off this hallway, which would have allowed a straight track of some 65 feet, nearly an HO scale mile long! The floor plan was: Starting from the south, was the Living room with front door in the west wall, then going north was; dinette, pantry/linen closet, kitchenette, bath, bedroom closet, bedroom, all on the west wall. Each room had either a door or open archway onto the hallway which ran along the east length of the apartment. There could have been a loop in the living room at the front, with another loop in the bedroom at the rear, for continuous running. He could have had 3 walls for expansion in the bedroom, (if he moved to sleep in the living room, because of the front door). With no closet door in the bedroom, the layout could have been in the shape of a 'J' with the loop inside, and space for a yard and industries. (This bedroom's closet door actually came off the hallway between the bath and bedroom's doorway, which was the 'end' of the hall.) By arranging the furniture, Mark could have fit what he wants into that Town House apartment very easily. It is most difficult for most people to get away from the 4'x8' slab of plywood when thinking about an apartment layout, but Mark is a 'free-thinker', and has asked how have any of you actually built your layout, in an apartment, and how hard do you smack the sarcastic loud mouths up side the head and ears when they tease you? How did I do Mark?
Watash, nice to speak with you again. You're pretty mulch in the bawlpark above ; except that I never stated that I like to run long Pass. trains..Let's say ,I'd like too if I had room..I have,as you should know by now , a switching road with one lone RDC handling the commutation..rest will be coal or ore mining with assorted other small Indust. I will expand around remainder of Liv room for a grand total of (if lucky) 3 miles. It is and never will be 'continual' as I am of the school of turning locos/trains at the termini..yes, some light rail and rapid transit rail DOES loop back to from whence it came .But, not 'common carriers',point to point...Anyway, I still want to hear ONLY from APARTMENT MRRs on how they live wth the layout RIGHT THERE all the time..and Et Al.. I'm not looking for building tips or plans or advice..I just want more of the psychological aspects..Yeah,like the girlfriend's tossed coat over the main line phone poles...Or will a new roommate like/hate it.? Or even cooking odors/grease from burgers settling on it,Etc... this stuff...... Tanks,Mark
Is it me ??!! I just asked to NOT give tips !! I ALREADY STATED ,I HAVE a MRR ! As a nearly 60 year old, I am either truely confused over the responces which I did NOT ask for ; or I'm just a grumpy old man..SO. ONCE MORE...For APT. DWELLERS ONLY. HELLO !! !! ONLY APARTMENT DWELLERS...THIS MEANS Y O U ..Not home owners..Not Trailer park people..Not even if you live in a YMCA...!! You APARTMENT living MRRs are the ONLY ones I wish to hear from and/or converse with in THIS thread! OK ? Got It? Tanks...Mark (apartment dweller ) InLA....
Appartment Dweller Hello Mark, I used to have a layout in my appartment for about 4 years: Do I qualify? Admittedly it was N-scale, but that appears to be irrelevant to your questions (correct?) How have I done it: It was suspended under the ceiling, with a rope, pulley and counterweight system to lower it onto "stops" fixed to the wall. There were two 3-track staging yards on top of each other affixed to a wall, so the lowered layout aligned with them. The underside and front of the layout was covered with wood verrnier, so it looked like a big piece of furniture floating under the ceiling if not in use. The layout was in the dining room of the appartment, which in turn was open to the living room. In total it only occupied about 3% of the appartment (which was about 900 square feet) How did I cope psychologically: It was clearly helpful that it was not too intrusive to our everyday live, taking up a modest 3% of our living space. (Hmm, maybe being N-scale does play a role....) About the "look" from visitors: First most of my friends know what I am doing, mostly requesting to see the layout whenever they visist to check on progress. So no problem with good friends. But my job at that time required to host more formal events once in a while, like the boss and his wife coming over for dinner... So it was a requirement to be able to get the layout out of the way whenever there was one of these more formal event. Could I have "braved" it and build a big layout for everybody to see? Maybe yes, but I nerver even considered this idea. I imagined my boss looking at al the work, saying "You appear to have a lot of free time...". Not good when you start your career... For me the success factor was a relatively small footprint of the layout in relation to the total floor space (so I limited myself to basically a switching layout in N). This combined with the option to "hide" it in plain sight under the ceiling enabled me to have a layout in the appartment at all. A larger or permanently visible layout would not have worked. I hope this is helpful... Cheers Dirk P.S. and Disclaimer: Today I live in a house, with my Northern Pacific layout residing in the basement. But as I do model railroading since 1972 (age 7) it was impossible for me to be 4 years without a layout :tb-biggrin:
