I live in an apartment and would like to start building a layout but, obviously I don't have much room to build one. Instead I am considering building the beginnings of a much larger HO layout on a door. Basically the door would be one scene (a town, large industry, junction, etc..) that will eventually link into a large layout when I have the room.
Would this be a good or bad idea?
I sure hope so, as that is exactly what I am doing with my layout. Although I have the room to build a large layout, I must share this space (18x35) with a pool table, air hockey table, foosball table and tv watching area. I use 24" doors and so have modules 24" x 80" that I can stack on a rack/rolling table I built that also doubles as my workbench. So far I only have laid track on one door and have made legs and test fitted 3 doors together to make sure the benchwork will fit the floor plan. I made 45 degree pie shaped wedges to fit between modules so I can "turn the corner" in front of the big screen TV which seems to work just fine. I have plans to make a loop track by adding a 32" door to the side of one of the 24" modules so I can have a 28" radius return loop for continuous running. This will be placed ath the end of a string of modules like a peninsula to allow access to all sides of the loop. Legs are 44" high to allow positioning of modules to span over the collection of game tables, and have castors on them to allow easy positioning rolling over the carpeted floor. Good luck with your plans!
I once caught a train in my pajama's. How it got in my pajama's I'll never know... (sorry, Groucho)
It's a great idea!
Be aware, though, that a door is not going to be big enough for a continuous-running loop in HO, so you will be limited to some form of switching layout for now. However, you can plan ahead, and have tracks end at the edges of the layout, with the idea that you can connect them to a larger layout in the future.
It's not usually the way we plan to start, but you might give some thought to intentionally building this as a "throwaway" layout. You can salvage track, or at least turnouts, but things like mountains and such "landforms" are not big financial investments, so if this layout proves to be difficult to incorporate into a larger one in the future, then relocate all the buildings, bridges, etc., and consider it a learning experience.
Another option is to try building a module. This is a section of a larger layout, with well-defined dimensions so that all the parts fit together. If you live in a place where there's a train club with modules, you could build your own module or two, which could run independently at home, but you could also transport it to a show and run it as part of a greater layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
When I downsized to return to college for a career change I tore down the home layout, which was a bummer. Now I'm building Free-Mo modules that are easily stored in the apartment and will be part of the home layout when I eventually get back in a house. I will never build a home layout again where at least some of the sections can't be saved and moved.
http://free-mo.org/standard
http://free-mo.org/
When I was in college I built an N scale layout on two L-girder modules (2 X 4 feet each) These bolted together to form an L-shapped point to point layout. I built the layout as if it were not modular, except that I routed all of the wiring through a pair of terminal strips at the location of the joint. I also designed it so there were only 2 tracks that crossed the joint and made the scenery a very thin shell at the joint.
When I moved the layout, it only took a couple of hours to separate the modules and remove the legs. They transported easily in a station wagon. Reassembly took a little longer because the track had to be repaired where I cut it with an abrasive disc in a motor tool, and the scenery needed some fixing. The benchwork and wiring went back together just fine.
I think you have a good idea. I'm not sure about using a door for benchwork (the surfaces of hollow doors seem a little too bendy for me), but I've never done it so it may be fine. If you really think it will become part of a bigger layout in the future, I suggest planning the four feet on either end of this piece, so you can blend the pieces together.
If you are building this over carpet, you may be wise to get a canvas drop-cloth and stretch it tight and tack it to the floor inder your layout. My experience is that in this hobby, drips happen.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Just a thought:
Have you considered using 2 doors, held together by door hinges. They could be easily separated for storage by removing the hinge pins.
When you have a home to build in, you can separate them and build your new benchwork between them.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
jcmark611 wrote: I live in an apartment and would like to start building a layout but, obviously I don't have much room to build one. Instead I am considering building the beginnings of a much larger HO layout on a door. Basically the door would be one scene (a town, large industry, junction, etc..) that will eventually link into a large layout when I have the room. Would this be a good or bad idea?
It is an excellent idea. I use the method for my layout designs. (Switching modules as towns.)
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
jcmark611 wrote: I would like to start building a layout, but don't have much room. I am considering building the beginnings of a much larger HO layout on a door. Basically the door would be one scene (a town, large industry, junction, etc..) that will eventually link into a large layout when I have the room. Would this be a good or bad idea?
Im building mine on 4 seperate doors in a 12x8 space with a man access in the middle. That layout will be moved to a bigger space and incorperated into the final layout that should occupy about 24x16 or so as a minimum well into the future. I can easily make that happen by removing one wall and replacing it with a beam to carry the load overhead if necessary. Or adding on to one side of the structure which will probably happen at some point in time once all the other obligations are dealt with.
But for right now, that little layout is just a small part that will be a part of a complete empire (Such as it is) someday. For that reason the railroad is being built in a semi modular fashion. Easy to move again in the future.
I was told by a family member it is easier to add on or go into the next room than it is to tear down a layout and move it all lock, stock and barrel to a brand new larger home. Cheaper too.
Finally but not last, if my health gets bad and I pass on before spouse does all she has to do is load the truck and make two trips to the dump or the club to clear the room out. Easy peasy. Not like some of the really pernament larger layouts.
I have plans for a large HO scale layout, however my job is 500 miles from my basement. My layout is modular "dominoes". I take some of the dominoes with me to my home away from home and have small modular layout that can be incorporated into the larger home layout.
The home layout is currently 25' x 25' around the walls with a staging yard at each end. As I complete construction of new dominoes to the layout, I move the staging yards out increasing the size of the layout.
Jim, Modeling the Kansas City Southern Lines in HO scale.
I will. But it will take a time, there is a bit of storage in that room during Ike's passage overhead tonight. That corner of house is going to take the worst of the winds most of the night and serves as a buffer. I will post it as soon as I make it presentable after the storm.
The concept is very simple. 4 individual 2x4 foot tables costing 30 each support the corners with the 4 doors in a pattern of rectangle. Foam fills the gaps on both long sides. 1/4 inch birch will be laid on top before everything else is built onto it with #8 screws countersunk all over it.
The doors themselves are a solid inch thick wood that has been installed way back in 1970 something when the house was built. Any problems with humidity has been stressed out of the doors a LONG time ago.
Building a smaller scene that possibly later can be incorporated in a larger layout is not a bad idea.
But since you are living in a small apartment, and are thinking about moving the layout with you to new places later, I would building that first test scene/layout on a two or three smallish hollow section "platforms" that are 4 feet long and maybe 20-24" deep and can rest on a shelf put up on a wall instead of building it on a door.
A door is fairly big and unwieldy to move around.
Maybe something like this:
Put a sheet of plywood on top (to have something to screw switch machines etc to), glue a layer of styrofoam on top of that, put on a shelf (or on shelf supports):
That way you can build more sections later if you want to and swap the ones you are running, while storing your old sections somewhere else in the meantime, or even have several shelf layouts up - one above the other, with maybe 16-20" between the top of the tracks on one layout and the bottom of the next layout.
You can also simulate "the rest of the world" using train cassettes that you attach temporaily to the ends of your layout - a U-shaped channel (like square rain gutters made of plastic, where tracks is glued to the bottom, or two L-shaped aluminium profiles glued to a wooden baseboard - see under), where the train can leave your layout and drive into the cassette, and the cassette can be moved to another shelf to represent the journey there, or put away or turned around so the other end attaches to the layout - in effect turning the train.
Cassette:
Cassette profile:
Example of plan using cassettes, to illustrate the concept:
If you need inspiration about how the tracks for real railroads look - a great book on railroad planning is "Track planning for realistic operations" by John Armstrong - which you can find here: http://kalmbachcatalog.stores.yahoo.net/model-railroading-books-track-plans-and-layout-planning.html
No matter what you decide on to build - good luck with your modelling!
Smile, Stein