Hi All,
I am in the process of planning and designing a train layout in my new house's developed basement. It's a narrow house design so I am taking my time to figure out a good plan for a shelf (around the wall) style layout which does not take over the entire basement. My first choice was to use the spare 9.5 ' x 9 ' room as shown in option 1 in the below image but I think this room is too tight for a good layout.
Option 1 link to floorplan: https://postimg.cc/F19BVdCw
My second option 2, is to use the open "recreation area" and even maybe put a tunnel into the "Spare" room for a turn-around section? Any advice would be appreciated.
Option 2 link to floorplan: https://postimg.cc/Lq2tFfPp
The objective would be one or two yards with a refinery / oil & gas plant with 1 or 2 mainline complete circuits in ho scale. No grades.
Any suggestions or advice? Thank you in advance.
Not my area of expertise, but I can make things visual
Option 1
I like Option 2
I guess I should tell you how I did that. I clicked on each link. That opened the pictures of your options. I right clicked the photo and copied the image link. I then used the photo icon (mountain and sun) and copied the image link into the post.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I also vote for Option #2. Lots more space and lots more open area. Visually, the layout will appear more panoramic, and if you have buddies over for an operating session, they will not be bumping into one another.
Rich
Alton Junction
Option 1 looks nice but a bit hemmed in and Option 2 seems to have room for expansion. Because my choice for benchwork years ago was the David Barrow "domino" approach (identically sized units in my case 2'x4') where the benchwork building can begin before a layout plan or even layout location is decided on, I could move my initial several dominos around the room to get an actual physical idea of which location seemed best. Somewhat less awkard, I also had a 1" to the foot drawing of my basement (INCLUDING overhead ductwork by the way) on large graph paper and moved 2" x 4" paper dominos around also looking for ideas and decisions. That was helpful but having the actual full sized layout pieces made it all somehow more real to my over-literal brain.
Dave Nelson
What is your family situation? It is easy to pick the option using more space if you don't need to share the space, but if that wil create domestic problems you will need to determine if you can put up with the grief.
Rick
I am just sitting here being jealous of everyone's basements.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190 I am just sitting here being jealous of everyone's basements. -Kevin
When I built the house in which we're currently living, my plan was to build a layout that would include the entire 1200 square feet of the basement, but by the time SWMBO had decide that she wanted the laundry room in the basement, along with a rec room for the kids, I was left with an oddly-shaped room with 10 corners, and a square footage of 355 sq. ft., although I was able to squeeze-in a workshop of about 100 sq. ft.
Wayne
SeeYou190I am just sitting here being jealous of everyone's basements.
It may sound better than it is. We have a full basement -- heated, cooled, and dry. I couldn't fit a coffee table layout in it. It is full of 'stuff'.
York1 John
Option 1 can offer continuous running with a liftout. I have a space that is 11x7 that meets my needs for that. But I'm a lone wolf operator.
Option 2 is more comfortable but turning around steamers would be problematic. Do you have a workshop space? The spare room could be used for that.
A third option would be to move a wall and make the spare room bigger...
Simon
York1 SeeYou190 I am just sitting here being jealous of everyone's basements. It may sound better than it is. We have a full basement -- heated, cooled, and dry. I couldn't fit a coffee table layout in it. It is full of 'stuff'.
SeeYou190 I am just sitting here being jealous of everyone's basements.
A yard sale and a dumpster can fix that. Facebook market place works too. As I am starting to build my layout in the half of the basement I have cleared out, I am working on clearing out the rest.
The stuff that must stay, goes in plastic tubs under the layout.
We really only have stuff in the basement because we moved from a larger home and still need to go thru some stuff. We got rid of a bunch before we moved.
Just picked up some more lumber and homasote this week.
In five years I don't think my wife has been in the basement 15 times....
Sheldon
Option #2 encroaches on the sink area. IF the sink is staying and will be used, then I would strongly suggest that you scale back that portion of the layout by 66" from the wall. That's 24" for cabinet depth and 42" for recommended clearance. You will save yourself some future headaches that way. If there's a dishwasher in the cabinetry, even more reason to stear away from it.If the sink and cabinetry is being removed, then full speed ahead.
is the basement bedroom going to be used? If not, then that to me would seem the better option. You could even use the closet for a staging yard. That would give you a little more space, but not so much that one man couldn't build and operate a fine layout.Anyway, that's my
(Edit:) Upon reexamination of the sink area, it's a wet bar. I would definitely scale back the layout unless the wet bar will be totally removed. And that involves plumbing work.
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
9.5x9 seems small for an around the walls layout. It could work if you are planning to run short trains that won't eat up space in staging yards. I guess it comes down to whether you would want to use the larger space for other things.
I like the idea of having a tunnel and turn-around in the spare room. Then have the other turn-around in the rec room alcove hidden by some scenery.
ATLANTIC CENTRALA yard sale and a dumpster can fix that. Facebook market place works too.
Could you talk to the boss of the house? She doesn't agree with me about having too much stuff.
Count me in for option 2. How much more room can you expand? Smart to start small given it's your 1st layout.
I vote for option 3, use both rooms. Also remove the door to the utility room and have a couple of shelves on that wall for a staging yard. As for taking up the whole area, nobody says that your shelves have to be very wide or at what height. I have expanded my layout into two bedrooms with the shelves are a nice height that is above the furniture but still around shoulder level so that the footprint is zero. The shelves are between 5.5 inches and 18 inches wide. That gives me room from two tracks with flat background buildings and scenery on the narrowist sections and room for some standard buildings and scenery on the wider parts.
That was my thinking, Regardless of what option OP goes with, removing the door to the spare room improves the space.
Also, era modeled matters. Oil tank cars will still fairly small in the 1960s and before, whereas now they are getting a bit longer, especially if OP is looking at Gas (LPG) cars.
If the little wide spot in the rec room could be devoted to the main industry...oil and gas user....then the spare room could be used as a turn around area. There is enough space to make that turnaround fairly broad radiused with a hole in the middle of the loop for access.
Cars could come from the spare room and then traverse the rec room wall to head to the switching area, and then back again. With this, the shelf that runs around the room and over the wet bar does not have to be very intrusive since its going to be mainly scenery. There are ways to make shallow shelfs look nice.
Option 1: The 9x9 room is small. Remove the door. And would probably focus on the 1970s or before to keep the cars small.
IMO, the space we have dictates the era we should model. Trying to fit a modern era layout in 9x9 is going to make the radius too tight for satisfaction, IMO.
Here is a nice little layout from previous member Steinjr (R.I.P) his room was about 11x6.5 and had a pocket door for entry. I think era was pre-1970 and all diesels (no turntables)
- Douglas
If you use both rooms you can have a very large dogbone type layout with only a small tunnel between the rooms.
Before settling, look at the industries you want to include. Look at prototype and how they are laid out and see where they could be placed with selective compression. Between looking at prototype operations of the industries and placement operations one day out of the blue, the layout will design itself more or less. You will see how it all fits together. It does take time though don't want to spend time and money on a bigger layout only to find it just doesn't work out well at all. Then have to start over. Beong in the ballpark with tweets to do is half the fun of it. Some tweets you will not find until trains start rolling. Take your time before settling. Poke around at how similar operations work to get ideas.
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Sounds like my wife too. I added a 14x14 room in the basement, plus a bathroom, and was all set for a nice n scale around the wall, when my better half informed me that my son's employer went belly up and the 14x14 was now his bedroom. Family comes before RRs and he now has my was supposed to be train room, plus his own bathroom.
I have a table top layout now in the work shop area I'm working on, 40 x 88 inches, Bah, Humbug!