Years ago I built in my basement the Gannite and Great Gorge HO layout (which I never finished) but had to throw it out when my kids needed the room for their bedrooms.
Now I am finding myself being forced to move to a one bedroom apartment and once again I would like to build an HO layout.
But living in an apartment that I do not own (as opposed to my own house I have always lived in) concerns me. I don't think I will have alot of room and the thought of moving or throwing out the layout if I have to move out worries me. Can anyone give me some advice?
Like I said I like a small HO layout with dual mainline maybe the size of 4x8'.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Good Morning Joe, and Welcome to the Forums.
This problem you have has to be studied out carefully. Mr. Paine has given out a good idea for a start. But now you need to decide if a 4x8 would be to cumbersome in that small area or would it be better to go with around the walls shelf layout and if that won't work with too many doors to cross then possibly an elongated dog bone that is point to point on a shelf on one or two sides of the room. If at one or both ends there is room you could put in a loop to bring the train back to the starting end. Probably wouldn't have room for a dual track mainline but it certainly would be less invasive in your small apartment. There are lots of ideas out there, study them well and with foresite you will make the right descion.
You have already made one correctly and that is coming to this site. There is a great realm of experience and knowledge here and the crew that sticks around here are always willing to share that knowledge and experience.
You will find that you will be limited to smaller locomotives, small steam and four axle diesels, and 40 to 50 foot rolling stock so that kind of sets a time frame for you or makes the RR. a branch line. But thats OK.Or you could back date it to oldtime steam and truss rod rolling stock. Lots of choices.
Take in all the ideas and wrestle with them and you will come out with a winner.
I wish you much success in rebuilding the G&GG RR.
Keep us posted on your progress, we will be interested.
Johnboy out............................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
Building a layout that you are worried you will have to throw out should be built so that track and scenery can be salvaged and reused. Katos Unitrack is a good track system and using structures that are not fastened down, trees that can be removed and replanted along with other scenic materials are what you should be thinking of. You might want to think of switching scales and going down to N gauge from HO. You can do a lot in a small space with N and it runs very well and there is a lot to choose from.
Thank you everyone for your input. It helps. I can't find an apartment until I find a job so I don't know where I will be moving to. But my dream is to find an inexpensive 2 bedroom apartment. That would be great as I have alot of "stuff" I would have to find room for. (Yes, I would be by myself.)
I bought "How to build small model railroads" by MR and there are 2 layouts that I really like, "Oklahoma and Western" and "Indiana and Aurora".
Since I am a novice at layout design, could anyone tell me how to take these two plans and come up with a track plan using code 83 Atlas snap track? I'll also ask in some of the other forums. I have always used Atlas code 100 track but would like to learn to use code 83. Thanks.
Joe
P.S. I live near a CSX main line here in Dutchess County, NY, and so I would like to model present day CSX. My first layout was NYC in the mid '60s. Now I have lots of CSX video and I want to model what I see now. Therefore I don't need steam or passenger equipment with their large curve requirements.
Hello. I see you are from Westchester. It is funny but I may be getting a job in Westchester! Any apartments there?
Regarding scales, I love HO. I tried N scale a few years ago but did not like it. I had too many mechanical issues with the small size. Whereas I have had HO since I was a kid. I know N can give you alot more in the same space but I just like HO too much. Thanks.
When I was renting, I built a portable N Scale layout, which I kept on top of a plastic folding table. I see no reason you couldn't do the same in HO. Are you looking for continouse operation or switching?
Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.
www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com
At one point in my life, I lived in a one bedroom apartment that had a 10X10' dining area. The little lady knew I would go insane without a layout of some kind so she agreed to letting me take the spot. I built a small HO layout as a square out of 4 free standing modules that were 24" wide. I framed it with white pine and the base was extruded foam to be light. I operated it from the square in the middle.
I knew it would have to come down eventually, so everything was screwed instead of nailed or glued. The modules were connected with threaded rod and wing nuts. When we moved out 18 months later, I salvaged all the buildings, trees, and details. Then I just snipped the track and wiring at the joints, undid the wing nuts, and unscrewed the legs to take it apart. The only thing I scraped was the hills and some scenery. The 4 modules and 4 totes of buildings and trains went into the trailer and come right along with us.
Everything that I saved was incorporated into the next layout. In my experience, a 4x8 layout, that is accessable from both sides, takes up about the same room as a 10x10 box. I like to suggest to folks living in small spaces to consider thinking INSIDE the box.
My previous layout was in an apartment - I built it in sections and it was freestanding so I didn't have to put holes in the walls. I had a 2 bedroom and used one fo the bedrooms. You can see it on my web site. Right now, all the sections are piled in the basement of my new house, and probably will not be reused.
This is the second layout I built in an apartment, the previous one was around 19 years ago. There was a room off the one bedroom which they called a walk in closet, yet it had no facilities for hanging anything, and no shelves. Just a small square room. I put a folding table in there and had my computer in there, and I got the bug to build a layout. So I put up the slotted bracket type of shelving and two of the walls, being more careful than you usually would to keep the levels matched up, and built a narrow L shaped switching layout. I had plans to go to a third wall, but ended up taking it down and moving before that happened. One piece I gave to the club I belonged to so finish the scenery on and use as a 'teaser' display, the other piece is in my Mom's garage. The first piece was basically Apple Valley Junction from 101 Track Plans, the idea for the third wall would have been Switchman's Nightmare, also from 101 Track Plans, and the middle piece was a main line and some sidings that I just came up with myself. Not a lot of space but I had fun switching cars around on it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
This is exactly my situation right now. I'm in the middle of building a layout with the expectation that it can and will be moved (I'm moving to another city in 6 months). It's approximately 6'x9' and, like Hobbez above, I designed it 'donut-style' so the operator will be inside. Not everybody can build a layout to fit around the walls of the room (or to drill into the walls), but a donut, though smaller, has similar advantages. First, you can reach all of the track from one location and don't have to spare extra room for aisle/access spaces. Second, you can't see the entire layout in one view from the primary operating location, which makes it look larger than it actually is. Unless you break up the view somehow, if the entire oval of track on a 4x8 or any similar-size island layout is visible from where you will be operating, it will look quite toy-like (...which may or may not bother you. This also assumes you want continuous running, which I gleaned from your post.)
I went a step further-- the layout is built in a few 1.5'x6'sections that can be taken apart and put back together with great accuracy (PCB ties at the track joints and 1/4" carriage bolts with wingnuts through the benchwork.) I don't have a dedicated train space in my apartment, so this allows me to save space by keeping the sections stacked up against the wall when I'm not working on them.
P
1) Build a new bed. A king size bed, make the bed elevated so that it is as tall as you can make it in your space. My appartment had 12' celings so I was all set. I had six foot head room under the bed. Five foot head room will be quite enough for a large layout under the bed. Attach it to the bed so that the same legs support the bed as well as the layout. Make it so that it comes apart and you have a layout about the size of a king-size mattress.
As long as both sides of the bed/layout are free from the wall, you will be able to walk all around it, except maybe at the head of the bed. Make the contraption so that it disassembles in pieces and it will move just fine.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
A 4x8 will work but be sure to put it on casters so you can move it against a wall for more room. Then when you need acess to the back side move it away.
Jim
My last layout was in an apartment, and it was built around some would-be club modules. I built custom shaped connector modules to adapt the standard ones to fit the room, and had a nice little pike going for awhile. All of the heavy construction was done off-site and then the blank modules were moved into the apartment for tracklaying, scenery, &c...
The best aspect of this kind of construction is that it's freestanding, portable and easily modified for future spaces. If you adopt Free-Mo standards for the endplates, it gets even better. There are a few variations in the standard that are quite adaptable to any space, so even a small around-the-walls affair in a bedroom could be hauled out and used as part of a "Mini-Mo" setup or whatever.
Freelancing two railroads...and I'll probably think up another one by the time you read this.
Hello and welcome,
In a one bedroom apt, you may find that a 4x8 will be gigantic depending on the size of the space to contain it. Don't forget to add a minimum of 2 feet on each side of the table to just be able to squeez around it, hence the previously noted suggestion of casters on the support legs. You are probably looking at an HO switching shelf layout or N scale. Standard interior doors are 30-36x80, which is smaller than a 4x8, so for continuous running, N may be your best bet. Also, consider the space the layout will take up if you have friends over. Just a thought. Hope this helps
Jim (with a nod to Mies Van Der Rohe)
joecatch I have always used Atlas code 100 track but would like to learn to use code 83
There is not that much difference between code 100 and code 83, just the height of the rail. If you have used one, there should be no problem using the other.
For small spaces, consider flextrack. Snap track confines you to a couple of radii and certain lengths of straight track. Flex track allows you to curve the track to fit a space, be it 12" radius, 36 radius, even 100", or a spiral that contunually changes radius. It reqiures some tools like a track cutter and files and a short learning curve, but most everyone uses flex.
You might want to look at the Hear Of Georgia railroad. It was built doughnut style out of a 4x8. Each side is 1x8 feet. It was built to model a modern short line but you could do it as a CSX branch. You would have the same amount of square footage as a 4x8 however you would get for scenes instead of two, and you can increase your radius to run more modern equipment.
EDIT: the duckunder would be negligible since the benchwork is one foot wide, and you could build it high enough to incorporate some bookshelves underneath, or a tv standand tv. There was an article within the last few years in MRP about a guy who built the bench work for his L shaped Southern layout in hisliving room out of Ikea bookshelves. There are lots of options out there.
Jason
Modeling the Fort Worth & Denver of the early 1970's in N scale
Welcome to the forums and back to model railroading.
Have yo thought of an under bed layout? You don't have to build a bed, as Lion suggests, just make one on rollers that would roll under a conventional bed. Yes, a raised king would be nice, but....
My other thought is a layout that could be tipped up on one edge for storage. You would have to have storage space for your rolling stock, vehicles and other moveable things. Structures could either be well attached or removed to storage.
Good luck,
Richard-
As an apartment dweller, I have learned a thing or two. I'll sum up the lessons I've learned in one word several times: module, module, module.
I've got a 2x16 foot linear layout in my living/dining room. It was designed to break up into three segments for movement and form the basis of an L when a fourth section could be inserted between sections A and B, to make the corner. But in the end, the reason I caution against anything more than a couple 2x4 modules, is that I'm now skeptical that I'll find a new place that my layout will actually fit. You need, and I'm reluctant to dictate something to someone I don't know but I think it'll be good advice like when the doctor dictates NO SPICY FOOD, to have a layout that's completedly divorced from its space so that it can be relocated easily into a new space. I don't mean in actual portability. I mean in "if you plan for the room you have now, you're going to have a square peg when you have to move to a new apartment and end up with a round hole."
NittanyLion You need to have a layout that's completedly divorced from its space so that it can be relocated easily into a new space. I don't mean in actual portability. I mean in "if you plan for the room you have now, you're going to have a square peg when you have to move to a new apartment and end up with a round hole."
You need to have a layout that's completedly divorced from its space so that it can be relocated easily into a new space. I don't mean in actual portability. I mean in "if you plan for the room you have now, you're going to have a square peg when you have to move to a new apartment and end up with a round hole."
This is why I recommend something like Free-Mo. It can be modular and work with a variety of situations while still being "bent" to fit another space. Certain connecting sections that make the railroad fit the available space might have to be sacrificed in the event of a move, but the main elements can remain. The key is to design the important stuff for portability, and let the sacrificial connectors be simple, cheap and easy to part with if you move.In other words, don't build that steel mill into a space that only works for that home.
Best design I have seen for you situation is a modular dogbone. Just the double mainline track moduals were finished and the return loops on the ends folded down so the entire space took less room. When they had to move only the double mainline made it to the new space in current form.
I do not know if this helps but I live in apartment and will be rebuilding my layout in 2016 to go around a 12 x 12 room. I plan on making it modular using short file cabinets for support. That way my wife can store her Mary Kay stuff under the layout making for efficient use of space which is the key in small places
Joe Staten Island West
joecatchNow I am finding myself being forced to move to a one bedroom apartment and once again I would like to build an HO layout.
Try a 1'x10' switching layout that can be set up and taken down when not needed..I used small folding tables in the past for layout support.
A switching layout beats no layout.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"