For those of us that might start spitting out layout designs, what is the width of the door? Also, you mentioned not knocking the closet out (a good idea-I remember getting a stern look when I just wanted to put a hole in the wall to get into mine!) but can you run a line or two through the wall and maybe stick some staging in there?
It would be a great place to put a hideaway workbench, too! Staging above, your workbench below.. just how I've always imagined mine.... So it sounds like you like to see your trains run. Do you want yards or anything, or just some long runs with a spur or two for some industries? Do you want to model an interchange? That would be kind of cool and incorporate more than one railroad... Also, what era are you modeling? Modern? Alex
The door is 32" and takes up 39 1/2" of wall space including moulding. its a bi-level with a 5 3/4" deep ledge 46" above the floor. The closet is tight to the wall with a double stud on the wall side. The only way to get through that side with a track is above the 46" ledge... 1" above to be precise. Holes are ok as long as I make it look good.
Those are good ideas. I have a place to work right outside the door to the room. A nice long work top. Im kind of thinking the mid 70's to the mid 80's I am thinking to fit in with the wooden elevator aspect. Im hoping for one longish run and maybe a shorter one as well. The long one running around the whole layout somehow and the shorter one around the prairie aspect and slightly into the elevated area. I thought a 3rd running through just the elevated but able to switch it and have it a part of the long run making it a longer run. i would love a yard with one of those fancy $300 turn tables but that would be in the future... Maybe quite far. Some switching operations are a plus for sure. As usual, more wants than room.
Excuse me for the lag time between posts but work is nice and busy. Things have changed a bit in the layout department. I have been given a slightly larger room with the added bonus of being at the bottom of the steps. Oh yeah, she does like me i have attached... Hopefully, the new room dimensions and the bench work. It's built and waiting for the install tomorrow. I've been drawing lines for days now and still semi unhappy with what I have come up with track wise. Yep. I use paper and a pencil.
Hi Daniel - Congratulations on the additional space! Looking at your benchwork, I have to wonder how you will reach the back edges and especially the corners of your layout. The maximum reach for most people is about 30 inches. The maximum reach for doing layout construction or re-railing a derailed car is quite a bit less than that. If there is a couple of feet of space between the layout and walls, you will be fine. However, if the layout up against the walls, you will need a few access holes in the layout, both to build it and to operate it. You'll need to crawl under the layout and pop up in the access holes to reach everything. What are your plans for dealing with the reach issues? - Jeff
I was contemplating that very same thing the night before last jdetray. I got to thinking about the wire hangy thing from mission impossible with revisions. It would be cool and my fall arrest harness would see some use but I am afraid my wife would question what little sanity I have left. i must say the plan in my head has most of the track in the first 20" with the back being a gradual incline/decline thing a ma bob. But you are right. I am comfortable working over 32" and semi comfortable with 36" for shorter lengths of time. Thank you for the words, helped it sink in. Now back to my pad.
thank you kind sir. It's not by too much but every little bit helps. My wife has even been checking n scale online, a good sign
Just an observation and suggestion. 36 inch depth is pretty far..even for a tall person with ape length arrms...like me...to reach...LOL. Stand in the corners with pencil in hand. Reach over the layout into the corner. Draw a curved line at what is a comfotable reach. This will be the max depth for your curves in the corner. I did this on a mockup before I built my current layout. I found 32 inch widths to be about the max I could confortably reach when those 32 inches met in a corner. I just did a quick graph measurement and I get approx 44 inches into the back corners on a 32 inch width layout. My track curves in the corners 'start' about 2 inches in from the back edge of the layout. I can reach all my track comfortably. I can reach past the curve and reach into the very back corner...if I suck in my gut...hold my breath..lean way over...and hurry ;-) Always check your finished 'comfortable' reach on any track you plan to lay. You may get up on the layout to lay that track...but you arent gonna crawl on top of it when finished and operating trains...lol. This from experience on my last "U" shaped layout ( 36 in HCD's ) ;-)
That's good advice. I know when I am building forms (and I do it a lot) I can work on 32" easy but to keep it real that's on top of saw horses. Ill build it and do like you say and see if the comfort level is there thank you mtntrainman Might have to do a quick nip and tuck today.
Put the bench work up in the garage and you were right as rain mtntrainman. The 36" is comfortable till I get to the corner, then the stretch is much uncomfortable. Im going to do the pencil thing once coffee is done. I'm thirsty and its too early for a rye. ill go with whatever works in the corners except for the banjo end. Ill do an access there I think. Maybe take it down from 48" to 40-42" the attached picture is the first time I put it together. Talking on the phone and putting things together properly just don't seem to work well.
So I cut the bench work down to 32"... Mostly. The large banjo is 44" and I'll leave the closet open for access until I figure out a track plan. The smaller banjo retains the original width. The short side is shorter yet. 7'3". I thought that it made it to closed in when entering the room. Tomorrow the rigid.
Prairie rail workshop [QuotePrairie Rail Workshop is hosting it's 29th Annual All Aboard 2013 Model Train Show [\quote] yes, the local train club is having a moment. Ok, that sounds wrong. Can you tell I'm not a joiner? Lol im going for sure. I'm hoping I can get a freight car or 6 my wife works at the local uni and one of her professors is an HO scale aficionado otherwise I wouldn't have heard of this at all. Now on the layout front... the rigid insulation is well glued for sure. I had a few hundred pounds of books weighing it down while the panelling/foam board adhesive did its thing. I am thinking of working the joints with drywall mud to smooth things out. Im going to be picking up an NCE Power cab FCC unit this weekend from ovrtrains. The slush fund ( I take out a small amount of cash every week) is almost at a place where I can pick up a locomotive soon. Kinda thinking of an Atlas gp40-2 for a first loco lim thinking the mid 70's is wht I want to model. Course what I do in the anonymity of my own home... lol
I'm kind of thinking of using Kato unitrack for the layout. With atlas moving production or whatever it'll be awhile before they have spread their track enough I can order some and really, I am anxious to get some track.
Slowly but surely. I was down mudding the joints and realized its been a few days between pictures. See attached. The Saskatoon model train guys have a show starting tomorrow morning so I'm going to head over to the western development museum mid morning. who knows? May just find what I need to keep going. If not I have a power cab in my wish list at an NLHS one province over. .. and an atlas 40-2 in a wish list one more province over. Don't yet have a track plan but I have a clue. It would sure be handy to be able to pick things up locally.
Just back from the model train show and it was a real eye opener. It reinforced my decision to use n scale for sure, although the larger scales are awesome as well. Layout #12 was by far my favorite. I should have taken pictures of it. Managed to pick up a gp38-2 and a freight car for a wonderful price from a hobby shop in Alberta. The loco has the dcc decoder already which is nice. also talked to Jeff from prairie shadows about the CN caboose advertised on their website. Im definitely picking one of those babies up when they finally come in. He had one without the paint scheme and decals and the details are excellent. once I got back from the show I ordered an NCE Power cab system and 4 pieces of Kato unitrack 9 3/4" long as a tester.
