I have become a little disenchanted with my 4'x8' layout and wondered if all the people here might have any suggestions as to what I might do to make it or the train room more interesting? They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here it is:
wait ... wait for it ... wait ... Crumb, I don't hear much laughter.
I'm just yanking your chain. I've had the new model railroad home for about 6 months now. I finally had a few minutes and took my son's layout into one of the potential layout rooms. A 22'x26' room really just makes it seem tiny. The whole project has been very interesting. A couple examples. The electrical panels were well marked but I could not get the lobby lights on. Every circuit breakers was "on" but no lights. By mistake I found an electrical panel in the gym with a breaker marked "office clock". For some reason I turned it on and "ta da" I had lights in the lobby. ??!?!!? Now I have a new "to do" of going through all the electrical panels and re-labeling them. We finally got the water running. It is great to be able to wash ones hands and flush toilets. But even before we got water we discovered the BEST thing to get working again was the sewer. It is fairly easy to bring in water, but what does one do with waste water when finished? It even made things like washing dishes a major effort. We have also already survived a blizzard and a tornado... On the fun side, we set off our 4th of July fire works from the roof so that the whole town could enjoy them. Oh what we do for the love of toy trains.
history......
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/146568/1626317.aspx#1626317
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/81789/971105.aspx#971105
I sympathise with the breaker box situation, have fun... As for the room, I'd definitely keep the chalkboard, great for sketching out layout plans. The small layout in a big room gave me thoughts of the GD...
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Quite a few years back I had the oppertunity to purchase an old passenger station in my home town. It hadn't been used for passenger service since the Erie Lackawanna took over the line so that tells you how old the place was. I wanted to A: live in part of the dwelling, put a hobby shop aka train store in the ohter side. I had a deal all worked out with the railroad and unknown to me a small freight house across from the tracks was part of the deal. Although it needed a lot ore work then the station did there owuld have been a home for my model railraod. Well we were all set to ink the deal when the town stepped in and said they would A: not issue an occupancy permit for the railroad station as a liveable dwelling as it was too close to the railroad tracks. Did I mention that this was now a dead spur line no longer in use whihc even the railroads attorney brought up but that didn't matter, B: they would not issue a certificate of occupancy for a store of any kind becasue this was in a residental neighborhood, wait you first said I couldn't put a house there becaseu it was too close to the tracks the dead tracks but now I'm in a residental zone? and lastly C: The freight house was issued a condemed building certificate because of it's state of disrepair? This is small town buracrcy at it's finest. I spent a whole pile of money fighting the town and even had Conrails people backing me up as their attorney told me they just want to get the property off the books becasue it's nothing more then a liablility to them. Well a few months after finally giivng up the fight it seems some low life attorney with connections in the town or should I say someone's pocket attempted to buy the same piece of property. They refused his offer and sent out a demolition crew the following week and demolished a beautiful old vitorian styled station and left nothing more then an empty lot.
Moral of the story be glad you don't live in New Jersey where what you have accomplished would never have happened. Sounds liek you have a few little things to resolve but if the building is structurally sound thats more then half the battle all you need now is a few dozen volunteers to help you build that railroad.
Good luck very nice digs.
Personally, I'd put a workbench area under the windows, lots of light to work by!
Fill the rest of the room with nicely spread out HO or N scale empire. Nice long runs of mainline and plenty of room to model towns, cities, docks, whatever you fancy from your desired prototype.
Have fun!
With that high ceiling (12 feet?) you might want to consider a mushroom layout, similar to Joe Fugate's.
I presume you are looking forward to a half-century of active model railroading...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in slightly less space with a much lower ceiling)
I would create a train club and let them use the space rent free. Basically, it would be a layout in your home, but others would help you build and run it.
Otherwise, you've got too much space and too little time and, I presume, money.
My own 5x12 foot layout has taken over 4 years to build and scenic. That's 60 square feet. Admittedly, I'm a detail freak, which takes a lot of time, but at 15 square feet a year how long would it take you to fill that room?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleybut at 15 square feet a year how long would it take you to fill that room?
tomikawaTTWith that high ceiling (12 feet?) you might want to consider a mushroom layout, s