Need Help Planning Elev Bedrm Layout

[s51flyer]

I'm planning an around-the-ceiling layout for my boy's room. Size is 12'6"x15'6", using 8' dia. curves. Will likely run short loco's and cars (no streamliners), 50' boxcars, Old-time coaches, etc.

How much clearance do I need to provide, measuring from track centerline, for Loco/Car swing coming out of the curves? I have the track, but I don't yet have any locos/cars to measure with.

Thanks in Advance!!

S51flyer...

[Anonymous]

S51flyer, I'm not positive but I would leave about 3" to 4 inches from tie edge to wall. You could also take newspaper rip it the width of your shelf and tap it so the outside edge is the size of your room. then you could lay the track out accordingly. This would also help figure out you corner pieces and how much depth or the shape you want. Or you could snap chalk lines in your garage or driveway of your room and lay your track out on that. hope this helps[%-)]

[bman36]

s51flyer,
Welcome to the forum! Great bunch here. Hope you enjoy all the info found here. I look after a train that runs in a grocery store here in the city. It is about 8' off the floor and runs across counter top displays. I too will be building a bedroom layout for a friends' son later on this year. Something I cannot stress enough is the fact that the layout should have protection to keep any derailed trains from falling to the floor. I don't like to say this but a falling locomotive is heavy enough to kill a small child. Take precautions! I am amazed at the number of overhead rail systems that offer little or no protection from a falling train. In the grocery store layout I built a fence made from 1/2" oak dowelling. The dowels were placed wherever a support bracket was used. Drilled and mounted on the edge facing the inside of the room. Small holes were drilled through each dowel and I strung aircraft cable through the length of the fencing. The end result looked like a farmers fence for keeping in livestock. Looked very natural. If you wi***o post your email address on this thread I can email you pics of my indoor layout here at home. It is wall mounted in our basement. This would give you an idea of what it can look like. All the best in your endeavor! Later eh...Brian.
[#welcome]

[Anonymous]

Bman, I'd like to see your pics. Please E-mail me at [e-mail]

[Anonymous]

Me too!!!
[e-mail]

Thanks!

[bman36]

Hi guys,
Sent off those pics. Hope you get them OK. Let me know on here if you do not receive them. Later eh...Brian.

[s51flyer]

Thanks for the feedback! I used to be an HO'er in my teens. That's been a few years ago. Putting up a railroad in my kids bedroom was the only way I could see getting back into the hobby. Wink [;)] Still planning, so anything is an option. I like the idea of rails.

I've allowed for 3-1/2" for loco/car swing coming out of the curves. Hope that's enough for the shorter coupled equipment.

My email address is [e-mail]. Would love to see the pics.

Thanks,

Bob...

[bman36]

Hi Bob,
Was into the HO deal myself for a number of years. I used the same excuse with my wife that the kids would love the trains. She knew better all along. Anyhow I sent you the same email I sent the other guys with the pics. Any questions...let me know. Later eh...Brian.

[s51flyer]

The "sell" wasn't all that hard with my wife. Boys already have just about every Thomas train that's available. At least the trains will be up off the floor! [:)]

Thanks for the Pics. Nice work on the brackets. Do a little woodworking myself. Actually, a couple weeks ago I finished a futon-bunk bed out of solid Cherry for my daughter's room. With that project done, I was able to start another. [:D]

Another question... I'm thinking about a remote throttle that I can put a governor on or preprogram a speed control. All the boys have to do is turn on the power and it goes one speed - slow! Don't want any runaway trains. After all, they are boys! I don't want to spend a ton of money, but I don't have to go cheap either. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Bob...

[bman36]

Bob,
AristoCraft makes what is known as the Train Engineer. The basic TE is not very expensive. What this does is that it turns yor transformer into one controlled by handheld remote. If Dad has the remote....you get the idea. Very simple installation. Read the thread vsmith started on the other part of this forum. We all had our input on the Train Engineer there. Later eh...Brian.

[s51flyer]

Making progress on the around the ceiling design and construction. Am basing construction on some examples I've seen in a commercial ad in Garden Railways. I'm using a 3/4" aluminum channel I screw into the studs. 3/4" plywood is used for the track bed. It's 8" wide on the straights, 5-1/2" on the curves. Liquid Nails is used to secure the plywood in the channel.

Using 8' dia curves. I don't run the plywood all the way into the corners on the curves, so I am reinforcing the curves with a Reverse girder bridge approach. I've glued and clamped a 2" wide x 1/4" piece of plywood on each edge of the trackbed Strength seems to be pretty good. I'll post pictures eventually if anyone is interested.

Still debating on throttle and power approach. Would like to just give the boys an "on" switch with speed and controls inaccessible to avoid the "runaway" train inevitability with two boys.

Bob...

[Anonymous]

If you have the ability in the room, I would suggest tapping into the closet light
or possibly a a feeder of household 110 amp wire up from the basement. and wire in a switch controled outlet to enable the power pack to set on the closet shelf away from little hands. This would enable you to be able to set power pack at your predetermined speed setting and a small inconspicuous hole 1/4"
or so poked through the closet wall for your feeders( power pack to track) to be connected. Good luck

[s51flyer]

That's definately a possibility as the train runs over the top of the closet door. It wouldn't be too much work running 110v from the bedroom ceiling light to the closet. I'll have to see how much room I have in the attic... haven't been up there since we bought the house.

Thanks!

Bob...

[bman36]

Bob,
Glad to hear construction is under way. I'll bet those boys are excited!!! I would love to see photos of under construction and/or the line up and running. Keep us posted! Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

s51flyer, Better to climb in the attic now verses in a few weeks temp wise. I always end up having to do stuff in the summer for some reason [xx(] Hope you don't itch much.

[Anonymous]

This is my first time posting a message on trains.com. I just had to participate though. I was in the process of searches on google about wall mounted elevated layouts and came across this. Several of the ideas have already helped. I'm in the process of brainstorming about the possibilities in my own basement for a simple HO loop around the wall just below ceiling height. I would be delighted to see any pictures you all have of your own projects including BMAN and S51FLYER. I have an idea for how to do my straight runs but am lost on the curves. Thanks for the help guys....I'm going to need it!

Paul
[e-mail]

[grandpopswalt]

s51flyer,

I'm going to be putting an around-the-room shelf RR in my grandson's room in about 6 months. His room is about 12' X 12'. I've been considering this project for quite a while now and have concluded that G scale trains might be too large for such a small room. Therefore I'm going to use the Bachmann ON30 trains instead. I purchased a few cars and put them on temporary shelves at the proper height and found that the effect, in my opinion, is much better.

I pass that along to you for your consideration.

Walt

[s51flyer]

This is just a test to see if this works. I'll post some other pictures if it does!

Bob...

[s51flyer]

Another view of the Orre's Elevated Railway! Room size is 15'6"x12'6". Curves are 8'dia. 3/4" plywood is used for roadbed. The plywood slips into a 3/4" Aluminum channel. The channel is screwed into the wall studs with 2-1/2" flathead screws. The roadbed end-to-end "joints" are rabbeted using a 1/2" rabbet bit set to 3/8" depth.

I currently have the roadbed and track installed, but I have not "glued" the roadbed into the channels yet. i will use liquid nails for this, but I need to pull the whole thing down for painting first. Even with this temporary setup, I'm running trains around the room and the shelving is solid.

Total cost not including rail or trains was about $145, although I could have probably purchased the 4 - 8' sections of Aluminum channel cheaper then what I paid.

Enjoy!

Bob...

[bman36]

Bob,
Very nice work! I like what I see. Looks like a clean installation. Was'nt exactly sure how this was hung by the description but now that I see it, it all makes sense. Keep up the good work! Look forward to seeing more as it progresses. Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

Bob,

For some reason, I can't get your pictures to load in the posting. Only about the top 1/3 of the picture is visible after about 10 minutes of loading. Can you please email them to me? Thanks!

Paul
[e-mail]

[s51flyer]

A couple other photo's:

[smcgill]

When you paint the supports/bed the same as the walls the kind of blend in!
I see your doing that.
Every thing looks great.
I miss my lionel I had set up like that.
This gives you a chance to try -----
A covered bridge
Some flat store fronts etc.

[Anonymous]

I just stumbled into this forum looking for ideas to mount an LGB railroad above my HO one that is about to be rebuilt in a new home. The aluminum channel idea looks great. I had planned to use metal shelf brackets and 1'2" plywood mounted on 1" x 2" pine set vertically with homasote for roadbed. The idea of using 3/4" plywood with a 1/4" plywood stiffener would solve the problem on the curves. Extending the stiffener above the track by 2" would provide a guardrail against derailments. This could be a piece of masonite laminated to the plywood which provide an attractive fascia. My plan calls for 2 parallel tracks with one small yard based on the John Allen timesaver configuration cut into the loop closet to the operator's aisle. This would let me do a little switching on one loop while a train laps on the other. Probably a few sidings thrown in somewhere and a crossover between the two loops. I intend to set the HO railroad at 40" above the floor so the large scale will need to be set at around 60" to give me a minum of 16" clearance between the two railroads. I'm working in a space roughly 30' by 20'. This time the railroad room is drywalled, painted, and well lit!

Anyone have some tips about track centre spacing? I was planning to use 6" between the track on straight track with 10" vertical clearance ( i have some ductwork I need to clear). Also plan to handlay the rails in ties. I've been told I don't need a rail bender if I'm spiking the track indoors. Any thoughts? Switches (turnouts) will be commercial: mostly LGB. I haven't checked out alternatives for proper mating although Aristo appears to mate with LGB if I'm reading the ads correctly. I've been building HO railroads for 40 years and it feels like I'm a novice all over again!

At this time it doesn't look like this railroad will ever make it outside but a siding might just terminate near a basement window just in case.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Bill

[s51flyer]

Bill, I'm not an expert on laying LS track, so I can't help you on the clearances. I had similar trouble finding any publications that gave guidelines. However, someone on this forum should be able to give the curve clearances... It also depends what you'll be running - short consists or streamliners. The latter will need wider clearances.

With what you're planning, you may want to use the liquid nails in your aluminum channel. I didn't need to use it because the installation was pretty rigid w/o it. However, if you have a 30' run, you may lose some rigidity in the straights due to length. This is definitely something you could play by ear once you "dry" fit the plywood.

Good luck! Bob...

[Anonymous]

To S51Flyer,

Did you complete your project?

[s51flyer]

Yes, Anthony. I finished it around early May. My boys love showing it off to visitors.

Bob...