Hi All,
Does anyone have any tips/advice for a layout with space restraints, (i.e. Garage)?
I have already built a fold up table-like layout mounted on one wall. I was looking more for ideas like a roll-away layout, that's easily accessible from all sides. I was also considering a pulley system from the ceiling, but that seems very complicated.
Are there any articles/threads/books that I should check out.
Thank You very much for any and all suggestions!
-D
Your best bet would be an around the walls narrow shelf layout. Although the layout shelf is narrow you can have broad curves. Model Railroadr has an online data base of published track plans which may give you some ideas.
Before I moved to my present basement (home) I had an around the walls domino layout. My layout sat on 48" high 2"x2" legs. I could still use the room for other things as the layout was high enough for furniture to fit under neath it. In fact, before I was married I had a 15'x25' HO domino layout which ran around the walls of my living/dining room in my apartment. This worked out very nicely and both rooms were fully usable. When the layout was not in use, I removed one section so visitors would not have to "duck under" to enter the room.
When I moved to my present basement (house) I just set up my domino layout from the apartment. Although I will be building a large layout, the previous domino sections will be added to the new layout, and I have something to run trains on until the new layout is constructed, so nothing is wasted.
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
I tried the pulley system idea, your layout to be light enough to pull up ends up being flimsy. You could try a fold down layout but that limits what you can place on it when its in the folded up position.
My current layout is in the garage and is a wall mounted layout with storage shelves below and above the layout, this to maximize storage in the garage itself. The shelf above will actuall hold the lights for the layout.
Have fun with your trains
The problem with a hoist-pulley system is that it can easily run into conflict with the usual roll-back garage door. Also, the layout frame will require some serious strength - long,deep L girders for openers.
Best bet is probably an around-the-wall shelf with fold-up end lobes and/or peninsulae.
The ideal situation, of course, is to exile the motor vehicles to the apron and take full possession of the garage. That's what I ended up with [and the layout is still basically a shelf along three 'walls,' one of which is the roll-up door (that doesn't - permanently locked.)]
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Uhm, I'm thinking that I like the idea about the shelf layout going around the living room and dinning room walls.
Wife or model railroad?
That is a tough one.
This is my basic benchwork for my 5x12 layout:
It's on wheels, and even with the layout almost fully loaded now, I can still push it around a carpeted floor pretty easily. The keys to making this work are the triangular gussets holding up the legs, which give rigidity without adding either a lot of weight or putting a lot of structure under the layout to get in your way.
You might consider a "Murphy Bed Layout." A Murphy Bed, for those who don't know the term, is on a frame which is attached to the wall at one end, with a hinge or pivot. The other end folds up, and is about at ceiling height when folded. The bed is then vertical against the wall, and takes up very little space. (Typically, a frame is built around it, so that the entire bed folds up into the frame.) There is usually some form of folding leg structure for the end which comes down.
For a Murphy Bed Layout in a garage, you could attach one end to the garage wall opposite the garage door. The other end could be on a pulley structure for lifting up. The key here is that the whole layout does not have to lift up, so you're not dealing with a complex pulley system. It's only rotating on one simple axis. Also, you don't need the full 90 degrees of rotation that a true Murphy Bed provides. You only need to get the layout up high enough (I assume) to put the hood of the car under it. The "stowed" position of the layout would therefore be at something like a 30 to 45 degree angle upwards from the back wall, far easier to deal with than a 90 degree angle.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Good ideas, all.
If you are still considering the lift, a torsion box, or even simpler, hollow core interior doors, are light and rigid. If it's still too heavy, consider a small block and tackle. With a big enough block and tackle, you could raise the car by hand.
My garage had such an arrangement for overhead storage when I moved in. Several light pulleys from any hardware store was all it took.
The only reason I took it down was to install overhead tracks for my photography light system.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Thank You everyone! Great ideas! I appreciate it immensely!
MisterBeasley, Thank you for the help. I actually already have a "Murphy Bed" up against the inside Garage wall. However, I have it hinged along the 8 ft. axis, which makes a tough 4 ft. stretch across the layout to do any work. I've done some more research and I found an old article about an N scale layout on a chalkboard-like (inverted) T-frame on wheels. The layout was centered along one axis (either the long or short) allowing you to flip/rotate (90-180 degrees) the layout, for easy access to either side. When finished with a session, you would flip/rotate the layout to a vertical position, and roll the layout out of the way, for easy storage.
Has anyone heard or seen this done with a HO layout? (I hope I described the project accurately enough to do it justice
Thanks again to All!
D
Luvadj (a member on this forum) has a tilting N-scale layout, here's a link. His layout inspired me to start building my own, a small (185x105cm) H0 test layout. N or H0 shouldn't make any difference, it all depends on how big the layout will be. Here are some pics of my project:
CAD renderings (legs and additional bracing not shown):
Frame construction:
Is this what you are looking for?
Svein
This is exactly what I'm looking for!!! Awesome!
Now, all I need to do is to figure out dimensions.
Thank You very much!
Tim Fahey
Musconetcong Branch of the Lehigh Valley RR
Until my wife and I repossesed her old mobile home located on the adjacent lot which opened up (part of) that space for model railroad use I was in the process of designing a multi-modular layout with 54" X 72" modules suspended in A-Frames. I had worked up plans for a two and three module setup, the two module setup forming a 54" X 144" layout and the three module setup would be formed into an L-shape 128" X 144". Space restrictions prohibited my setting up a permenant layout in my mobile home so portability was a necessity. These modules would be set up and taken down in my carport; I gave thought to a six module layout configured into a donut which would have allowed a twice-around track plan but rejected anything that big because it would have necessitated construction of some kind of outside storage space. My wife is not necessarily hostile to this hobby but she is a little restrictive as to just what I can do inside the house.
I don't know whether anyone else remembers it but somewhere or another there was an article in the hobby press about a guy who resided in the snow belt and whose wife insisted that their two cars be parked indoors, especially in the winter time. He did not relish designing a layout to be suspended from the ceiling so he opted to construct his garage layout built high enough off of the floor to allow the family car to just barely squeeze in underneath.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Hi! I recently picked up two used cafeteria type tall tray holders on wheels, cut them in half, bolted together two with wheels and a center one. The tray inserts hold a plastic covered storage unit from Wal Mart perfectly. LOTS of storage for tack, cars, etc. Put a $29.00 solid birch door from Lowe's on top and hinged two 19.00 hollow core doors on each side.
When I work on setup, side doors fold up level with middle one and are held by 1 inch steel square "tube" (2) by passing them thru u bolt under ends of middle door.
Starting to lay track and experiment with ways to set track together when doors are up.
Anybody with some help on that????
thanks st
tcf511 wrote:Would you be willing to share the specs of your 5 x 12 (wood used, dimensions of lumber,etc)? That looks like it might be a good option for a garage layout I want to build when I move to Florida. With 5 foot width, it isn't that bad a stretch from either side. As you are building it, did you put a scenic divider down the middle? Thanks.
Sure. The outer frame is 1x4 pine. Inside that, I used 1x3 pine as the cross rafters. They are set even with the bottom edges of the outer 1x4's, so the top of the rafters sits down 1 inch. This gives me a protected base for the 2-inch foam I'm using for layout construction.
The legs are 2x3's. The triangular gussets are 3/4-inch plywood. There is one long diagonal brace to keep the 5x12 box square, and two diagonal braces holding the center legs square. These diagonals are 1x2 pine. Here's another angle of the diagonal bracing:
I didn't use a view block. Mostly, this layout has a "front" and "back" side, although it's possible to walk around the back and see things from that angle. I installed jacks for my DCC control bus on both sides of the layout. (One on each leg, mounted on the gussets, by the way.) Here' a shot from one end, showing most of the track and scenery in place:
I wired my turnout control panels so that all wires run in a single bundle from the panel to a common point along the center line of the layout. So, if I really wanted to, I could take the panels off and re-mount them on the "back" side of the layout. By flipping the panels upside down in the process, the schematic track diagram would remain lined up with the layout, too.
Dproman - I have the exact same issues and have decided to tear up my original catalevered 4x8' plywood (raise to get the truck in) and tie it to a wall-mounted L-shaped extension that will allow me still to open the truck door and also give me plenty of length for a yard, and staging area eventually.
I am using L wall brackets and the type of bracing shown in MR 01/08 pp. 74-75, then use homasote roadbed (I think??!!).
Trying to tie together the transition from moveable 4x8 to the shelves is giving me some trouble as I need an overpass, thus about 4" elevation gain. Still puzzling that one but forum gave me lots of ideas.
Cheers, Jake
cregil wrote: Uhm, I'm thinking that I like the idea about the shelf layout going around the living room and dinning room walls.Wife or model railroad? That is a tough one.
LOL Hmmm! I think the layout would be less problamatic than the wife....but that probably why people call me cynical LOL. I don't see it myself
Signed
Happily divorced
dproman wrote: I was also considering a pulley system from the ceiling, but that seems very complicated.
I was also considering a pulley system from the ceiling, but that seems very complicated.
The idea of a hoist & Pulley system is not really complicated in itself, Boatlifts can be lookedat to see just how simple the actual aystem is.
The problem lies not so much in structural flimsiness either since you could fesably distribute the weight over a multitude of load points.
Here is where the real problem lies.............Unless your cieling/Roof truss system was designed as a Cofferred truss setup, you Lose the ability to have much for elevation without losing alot of cieling height......
For N scale and a flat layout this could be made to work but as soon as you wantto add elevation, the problems begin......scenery..more problems...Urban tall buildings, forgetaboutit.
With a Cofferred cieling truss you could get an Indent of say 12". Add say another 12" for scenery height and yo end up with layout hoisted a 7' cieling....perfectly acceptable.
A Better solution........Build simple Open Grid framework Sheves and make them so that they can be Easily Removed utilizing carriage bolts......Put a Solid top on this.
Now build your RR as a series of Lightweight Modules that can be hooked together in an around the walls set up.
Since you are building them lightweight, Build a Case that covers each of 1/4" birch plywood.
Now you can take a portion if not all of your rr to shows.......you can take a segtion indoors with you and work on it when its cold out in the garage.......Build it like this and as your modeling improves, Older sections can be easily replaced without alot of expense or redoing an entire model rr.
Check out some of the modular groups for more on this type of layout.
FremOn30 is just 1 TexasOutlawsOn30 is another Ntrak for smaller scale yet another.
See if this appeals to you........Maybe as a good way to get started.
Down the road you never know, You might end up with more space one day for a dream layout. Until then, even a wife doesnt mind a small 2 x 4 module being built..........the 40' of length kinda sneaks up on em doing it like that :)