A dilemma

[88gta350]

I've found myself in a bit of a dilemma. We've finally moved into our new house. The house has a two car garage with a large (~22' x 15') attached workshop. The workshop is insulated, the garage portion is not. My intention with this house was to confiscate half the garage to use for a layout (approximately 11' x 22'), and keep the workshop as a workshop. This would involve a lot of work preparing the room, as the garage would have to be insulated and drywalled prior to starting benchwork, and that alone could take me a year or more to do. I already had several track plans to choose from for this space, and was looking forward to having the long mainline runs I've always wanted.

Now that I'm actually in the house, I don't know if I want to lose half my garage and wait until I get around to finishing it off before starting a layout. The shop is large enough to allow me a sizeable layout. It could be about 18' long and could range in width from a shelf layout to 6' wide allowing for a loop of continous running, depending on how much of the shop I'd be willing to lose. This would save me a lot of time and money that I would have spent preparing the room, as it's already finished. Although I would still plan on finishing the insulating/drywalling the garage whether I have my trains in there or not, eventually.

What do you guys think? This would be my frist real layout, and cost is a consideration. Right now I'm leaning towards a layout in the shop that I could eventually incorpoarte into a larger garage layout in the future if I choose to go that route. The smaller layout will be much easier on my wallet, allow me to get some modeling experience before tackling anything too big, and get trains up and running faster.

One last question, what type of layout would you go with if you went for the shop layout. You have a 22' x 15' shop, but 4ft of the long wall is door, so your maximum length is limited to about 18'. How much of that shop would you be willing to give up, and what type of track plan would you go with? (I do other things in that shop other than modeling, so the more of it I have, the better.

Thanks!

[mcouvillion]

88gta350,

Wow, what a problem! Really, how much time will you normally spend in the shop? If I had your choices, I'd put the shop along one edge of the garage and build the layout in the finished shop space. Build a linear layout that has peninsulas that go into the room such that you maximize the length of the layout. Figure out a way to avoid the 4' (sliding glass?) door. I'd enjoy this "problem".

Mark C.

[Anonymous]

I would go with the shop layout. If you were planning on giving up half your garage space anyway. Why not move the shop stuff into the garage?

[88gta350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mcouvillion

88gta350,

Wow, what a problem! Really, how much time will you normally spend in the shop? If I had your choices, I'd put the shop along one edge of the garage and build the layout in the finished shop space. Build a linear layout that has peninsulas that go into the room such that you maximize the length of the layout. Figure out a way to avoid the 4' (sliding glass?) door. I'd enjoy this "problem".

Mark C.

The shop is atached to what would be the head end of the garage, I guess. Where the front of the cars are. There is a full garage measuring about 22 x 22 with a shop measuring 22 X 15 attached to the end of it, accesible through a doorway at the right-front of the garage. The workbenches are at the very front of the workshop, meaning the layout would go on the wall with the door (the wall that seperates the shop from the garage). Only a fraction of my time in the shop would likely be for MRing. I'm also a big gardener, so a lot of the time (at least in spring and summer) would be spent for that.

[Anonymous]

well. You could build your layout high where your workbenches go and lower where its empty. That would give you a larger layout as well as access to your workbenches.

[mikebonellisr]

You may run into many problems with dust,dirt ,vibration and other problems with your layout sharing a room with a workshop.If you dedicate the room to the layout,it will be easier to heat,cool and ventilate.You could build it about chest high and make good use of the space below the layout.Whin crossing the doorway, you may consider a removeable or dropdown or swing away section.Depending on the climate you are in,shareing the garage with the car[s] creates all sorts of problems.

[Anonymous]

here is what you do.

build in the workshop and do he garage when you can.

when the garage is done you cut a hole in the wall and expand your layout.

there problem solved.

[88gta350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by brclem

here is what you do.

build in the workshop and do he garage when you can.

when the garage is done you cut a hole in the wall and expand your layout.

there problem solved.

That's actually the exact solution I was leaning towards. Build something now in the shop, then I could incorporate it into a larger layout down the line as a branch line or another area off the main layout. I won't really be doing any woodworking or anything that creates dust in the shop, so it shouldn't be worse there than it would anywhere else.

[SilverSpike]

Yep, I have to agree with the last two posts, so I second that vote! Start out in the shop room, and later on expand into the garage area. Makes perfect sense to me.

Ryan

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 88gta350

QUOTE: Originally posted by brclem

here is what you do.

build in the workshop and do he garage when you can.

when the garage is done you cut a hole in the wall and expand your layout.

there problem solved.

That's actually the exact solution I was leaning towards. Build something now in the shop, then I could incorporate it into a larger layout down the line as a branch line or another area off the main layout. I won't really be doing any woodworking or anything that creates dust in the shop, so it shouldn't be worse there than it would anywhere else.

I like this solution too. The shop insulation is already in place. You already indicated that you are a garden man so that means fall and winter railroading for you.. why shiver in a unfinished garage fighting warped track while you can at least get something up and running in the soon to be train room -workshop.