I know that small N Scale layouts are key to have fun. Like the 28-36"x80" door size layouts, or the 36"x66" SOU Spartanburg Subdivision. Unlike most beds that can hold a somewhat decent train set. Well my bed frame measures a total length with no wiggle room 4.5"x2.8".
The layout design I was thinking of using a 60 degree diamond and couple of #4 turnouts for switching industries and perhaps a passing siding. Should I stick with 12" or 11" curves? But not 9" of being to small nor being boring and plain.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
The motive power would be one or two F units, an alco rs unit or an nw2 switcher nothing over 4 axles. The freight cars would be limited to 40' to 50' feet and no passenger equipment for those huge overhangs.
The equipment you are going to run will run on 9 inch radius and look OK. However, the larger the radius, the better they will look and the easier they will run.
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.
I'd be concerned about dust. My bed gets tons of dust bunnies under it, likely from the bed. If you find a way to keep the dust down, it would be a great idea.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
dale8chevyss I'd be concerned about dust. My bed gets tons of dust bunnies under it, likely from the bed. If you find a way to keep the dust down, it would be a great idea.
You will probably want to put a dust cover over the layout, or build a lid. Another prion is to have a desk and build your layou in the desk and cover with glass or acrylic.
So, how old are you? (ergo: what can you get away with?)
LION has tall single bed, him has boxes of 'stuff' under it. Him can make bed withoug bending over. Very important, ewe know. Layout of LION is in a classroom in a different part of our campus.
But LION not alwyas live in monastery, once him live in New York City, in a one room apartment. Him built bed six foot tall. Ladder him needed to climb up into the bed. But him gained a whole living room (ok, you can call it a train room if you like) under the bed.
Think outside of the box. (Unless you are a cat.)
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Sleepyheads on top, N-Scale layout below. No need to buy lower mattress.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
One, age is not the issue plus I don't think it matters.
I really have no room in this house for a layout and not even for one that fits under a bed. If I do get a new metal bed frame and box spring. I'll have at leased 5 or 5.5 inches of height clearance to work with. The structures are not going to be glued on.
angelob6660One, age is not the issue plus I don't think it matters.
Well, it does matter. If you are a kid living at home with your parents, there is a limit to what you can get away with.
If you are living in an apartment, you may want something portable.
If you have a home of your own you are good to go, unless you also have a wife with other ideas.
If you are in a nursing home, other rules may apply.
If you live in a monastery, you will have to ask the Abbot for permissions to do and or buy anything at all.
I thought I should mention that I'm building an under-bed 2x4 layout for my nephew.
Here is the trackplan, animated by PW&NJ over at N-Scale.Net.
just a quick stretch of it to your size lets me add an interchange and a yard.
One of the two industries is not trailing point, requiring using the entire layout as a runaround, but this is mostly for watching trains run. the non-trailing point industry could be removed and that whole loop turned into a removable mountain/tunnel area.
When I hear the iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils, it seems as if the earth had got a race now worthy to inhabit it.
-- Henry David Thoreau
Well I'm 28 and still live with my parents. I been trying to make a layout since I was 7 but never got around to it because of no space.
My disability agent says I can't live on my own which I believe is total nonsense.
Sure you can live on your own. But then you would not be covered by disability.
Nothing wrong with living with your parents, I did that many times, always paid full room and board, and the last tenure back home, I even rented a car from dad. But trains? Once he got me out of the house, he was NOT going to let the trains back in. They remained in boxes until I entered the monastery. The Abbot gave me permission to set up my trains, but he only knew about a train under a Christmas tree, and not what a foaming train fanatic could do.
14 scale miles of track over 500 trains (scheduled) per day, and electronics that would blow your socks off, or at least the building fuses.