New to the hobby, need advice.

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased an O gauge train. I was only going to display it on a shelf in my office. That was until a gentleman invited me to see his train collection. He had three trains which ran, at the same time, along the ceiling of his entire attic that was converted into an office. I have to do the same thing with my train! I need to know the name of any manufacturers that make a hanging support for the track to sit on. The kind he had looked like stainless steel brackets mounted to the ceiling, and a wooden base for the track. Does anyone know if this is a commercially
available item? Or does anyone have any other ideas on how to incorporate a layout in a small office, preferably over head. Any help would be greatly apprieciated. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hey Donald, There are several companys out there that make the system you described. They run ads in most of the Model Railroad mags. Beside that system some people build switching layouts on top of bookcases. Good luck, Mike

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick response. I'll have to pick up one of those magazines. The bookshelf idea wouldn't work for me, kids would climb them! Thanks again, Donald.

[Anonymous]

I've never tried this, but I have toyed with the idea of running a train around the room, right above the doors, & windows.
I had planned to do this in my youngest daughter's room, but just never found the time.
My plan was to use wall mounted shelves, & maybe even some kind of valance with lighting above the shelves. I would definitely want a backdrop, probably a painted blue sky, with some elements from commercial backdrops cut out, & pasted on. Some low-relief structures, or building flats would be great too.
One important consideration would be that there was enough space in the corners to accomodate the curves. Some test fitting would be in order, before anything is "nailed down".
Another consideration would be the location, & access to the power supply. Do you want to be able to control the train, or just turn it on & off?
What I was planning here was going to be about 84" off the floor, well out of the reach of curious little hands. And because of this height, I was going to have a slightly ratsed facia board to make sure any derailments stayed on the shelf.

[SotaPop]

I am also designing a layout that will consist of a combination of suspended and shelved track. Within 2001, MR or CTT ran an article about a suspended layout where the track was laid on plexiglas where the underside of the train could also been seen. A neat idea that I'm thinking of incorporating into sections of my suspended layout.

I’m thinking the shelf could rest on top of the door and window frames – provided they’re at the same height. With the addition of some nice shelving, support brackets, and a derailment fascia - I would think this portion of track would be relatively easy to construct.

For the suspended sections of track I’m working on a design that would use small angle iron and thread rods. The angle iron would support the underside of the track while the threaded rods could be anchored into the ceiling and then travel down, straddling the track and through the edges of the angle iron and secured by a bolt on the under side of the angle iron. It’s within this suspended section of track that I’m thinking of using a thick plexiglas for underside viewing, which would also support the track and train.

I like the idea of using coated aircraft cable, which might make a nice fascia for the suspended sections of track. Maybe 2 or 3 strung between the threaded rods….that should be sufficient for a standard gauge lionel.

I’ll see what happens when I take my design to the implementation phase. Some prototyping will more than like be required.

Best of Luck.

[Anonymous]

Donald, did you ask your friend about his "layout" and supports? That would probably be a good place to start for information.

Mike

[Anonymous]

On a related note...
We have a local pizza place with an LGB train that customers can run for a quarter a time. They use plexiglass under some of the track and it's quite effective. They also use thin plexiglass for a derailment fascia. This works well because they can build it high enough to be good and safe and still afford good views of the rolling stock.
Hope this helps