Hello All, I recently moved to a different home with a much larger basement. I sadly had to dismantle my other layout, but am starting fresh. I wanted to share my track plan that is "L" shaped and fits within a 16' x 8' area. I've had a lot of success with Unitrack and will be using it again on this layout. I used SCARM to plan this layout and am nearing the time to start on benchwork. I'm also hoping to upgrade the lighting in this area of my basement to LED shop lights within the next several weeks. My layout will have mostly grain and coal traffic. I have yet to work in a location for an interchange track, so any ideas you have on that is greatly appreciated. There is a grade change of 2" with max. slope of 2%. Here's the plan to date...
I'm not seeing an image? Will you be able to stay in this new residence for quite some time to come? If not, perhaps it is worth considering a modular construction?
to answer your question above, we plan to be in this home for 10-15 years as that gets our kids at least thru high school and mostly thru college. Just went to Costco today and they had LED shoplights for $30 each so I'll see how those look in the train room.
Very nice layout plan mightypurdue22. Try and use 28 1/2 inch radii if you can. Have fun with it..... Shades
I had over a week off during the holidays and was able to get started on my layout. I'm going with 1x4 benchwork that I picked up from Lowes. I paid $30 for (15) 1" x 4" x 8' long furring strips. All were surprisingly straight, and smooth on all 4 sides. The legs are 2x2 that I had from a previous layout and each has a T-Nut and bolt installed on the bottom. I'll be topping the benchwork with 2" rigid foam. The backdrop is 1/8" thick hardboard. I did purchase a corner clamp from Home Depot for $9, and it came in quite handy on nearly every connection I made. I have a good amount of the track, but will be picking up some additional this week. Here are some photo updates...
Nice looking bench work. I like that you drilled the holes already for the wiring. I do have a couple of suggestions. One would be painting everything to seal the wood. This can help to prevent future warping. Look in the HD or Lowes paint dept. for something that got returned. I got a gallon of a tan color for 5 bucks at Lowes. The other is to cove (bend) the hardboard around the corner so the backdrop won't have a right angle corner. This will visually enhance the look of the scene especially if you put a photo back drop on the sky board. Thanks for the update, hope to see more.
Very neat/interesting layout and I would suspect that it should keep you entertained in the hobby for atlas that many years to come.
I couldn't find two furring strips that nice at Lowes even for an actual wall, but 15? Wow, that is awesome! Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Thanks! I will want to paint the woodwork, probably at about the same time I put up and paint the fascia. I'll likely wait until spring when I can open some windows and hope to draw any paint fumes out of the basement. The curved backdrop is something I thought about and certainly agree on. I have some 1mm PVC that I can attach and feather into the hardboard in due time. Even a 12" radius would be a huge improvement over leaving the corner.
Looks great so far! Love the plan and the photos of your benchwork so far. Like someone else said, I like how you pre-drilled the holes for wiring. I'm playing with plans for a future layout, and am curious, how deep is your benchwork? It looks 24-36" from your photos? Look forward to seeing more progress!
