Indoor Garden Railways

[vsmith]

Marlboro

Rene and Kevin are right on about checking out the MLS forum, I'm also indoors, you can check out my tiny tiny layout here under the topic, "The saga of my ever shrinking railroad" ...should have mentioned that earlier. Be happy to give any sage advice of what NOT to do[;)]

The only real difference between indoor modeling in HO and G is to UP your lumber dims, DO NOT use 1x2's to build benchwork supports like you can in HO, use 1x4's minimum, and space them a bit closer together, if your thinking of using a tradtional cut plywood subroadbed dont use the thinstuff , everything has to be structured for the much much heavier G engines, Other than that, its no different than anything youve done in HO.
[8D]

[kstrong]

Check out this thread on mylargescale.com - http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27704

That'll give you some benchwork ideas.

Later,

K

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TurboOne

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor

I don't understand why you would want too.

Ian

Because some of us dont like them "small" trains but dont have the spare 40 acres like Marty has for a grand outdoor layout or even the avalible sideyards for a more modest layout like you have, some of us have to make do with what space we have.

Plus Vic, unlike you and me, some of our brethern have that white stuff on the ground, making it hard for them to run their trains outdoors.

Tim

Its summertime where Ian lives, the only hardship he has is trying to hold onto his drink whenever the topless sunbathers walk past his back porch[;)][:D]

[kstrong]

Most of the construction techniques used for small scale railroads will work very effectively for large scale indoor lines as well. Check Kalmbach's offerings, and grab a copy of Model Railroader and check the ads in there for others. If Dave Frary's (sp?) book on scenery is still available, that's one to look at. He's a longtime scenery guru, and has written hundreds of articles over the years on the subject. I don't see it listed in Kalmbach's list, but they've got some by Lou Sassi, who is equally enjoyable to read. (Lou's photographs are works of art, too.)

Benchwork construction techniques will be similar, though you may want to beef up the construction a bit, not so much for the added weight of the trains, but because there's a better chance that it may have to support your weight to get to remote areas. That, I think, is the biggest difference. With a small scale model railroad, you can build quite a nice scene within the average 2' arm's reach. In large scale, you'll be a touch limited in that respect. You may not have to ever stand on it, but certainly, you'll find yourself setting your hand someplace on the railroad so you can lean over to the far edge, and it's best not to have the ground give way beneath you. Some folks have replaced the common plaster scenery with cement. Others use stacks of bluefoam as would be used on a smaller HO scale railroad or module.

You should also check out the "indoor modeling" forum on mylargescale.com . There's a fair number of folks confined to the great indoors, so you should be able to get many questions answered over there from folks who have been there. (They may even have a spare T-shirt for you.)

Later,

K

[Rene Schweitzer]

Marlboro,

There are several model-railroad magazines that cover indoor large scale periodically, but none entirely devoted to the topic. GR does 2-3 articles per year and Model Railroader does a few too. The only videos I am aware of are for the smaller scales (which isn't to say that you couldn't use the same techniques. We've done a few articles on really nice indoor set ups. One (which I've seen, and it's great) is here: http://www.trains.com/content/dynamic/articles/000/000/004/976qjfbp.asp

Rene

[TurboOne]

QUOTE: Originally posted by vsmith

QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor

I don't understand why you would want too.

Ian

Because some of us dont like them "small" trains but dont have the spare 40 acres like Marty has for a grand outdoor layout or even the avalible sideyards for a more modest layout like you have, some of us have to make do with what space we have.

Plus Vic, unlike you and me, some of our brethern have that white stuff on the ground, making it hard for them to run their trains outdoors.

Tim

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by iandor

I don't understand why you would want too.

Ian

Because some of us dont like them "small" trains but dont have the spare 40 acres like Marty has for a grand outdoor layout or even the avalible sideyards for a more modest layout like you have, some of us have to make do with what space we have.

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by marlboro

Any mags or videos out there that promote How To Indoors. Gotta work with what I ve got so far!!!!

I only have one "How To" guide, its a small book called "Beginners Guide to Large Scale Model Railroading" published by Kalmbach written by Marc Horowitz and Russ Larson and includes one "how To" for a smaller indoor set up but its incomplete, only going as far as trackwork, (What gives with that Marc?) and an article on a large indoor layout. I have just used the same technics from HO and looked to back issues of GR that include indoor layouts. I keep those issues handy.

[Tom The Brat]

My railroad is indoors, but a little short on the "Garden" aspect.

In planning to change habitat, I'm thinking about building plant boxes set into the benchwork to have a garden railroad indoors. This Asylum break is taking LOTS of planning, and keeps getting set back[banghead]

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why you would want too.

Ian

[marlboro]

Any mags or videos out there that promote How To Indoors. Gotta work with what I ve got so far!!!!