lay-out room preparation

[Anonymous]

I've constructed a 12 x 32 room for my lay-out, and doing all the wiring myself, I installed about 17 receptacles, 4-gang box for the track lighting and hi- intensity flourescents for constructing and working on the lay-out. My question is, can anyone think of anything else I would need to add before the sheetrock goes in !! Thanks to all that reply

[rogerhensley]

Have you put those recepticles on two different circuits? With the increasing power demands of DCC and other new control systems, two 15 amp circuits would be appropriate. Same for the lighting. Break you track lighting off from your general lighting.

Roger

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your response Roger. I have 6 recept. on a 20amp breaker, another 6 the same way, and 5 on another 20amp breaker. 3 seperate circuits. Using all 12/2 w/ gr. The track lighting is on a seperate circuit as well. The 8' flourescent and the (4) 2x4 4-bulb flourescents are on the same circuit. I plan to use DSS but wasn't sure of its power (receptacle) usage. You nkow they say when you run conv. cab, plug in's, plug in's, plug in's you can never have too many. I hope I've got it covered ! Thanks again

[Anonymous]

Seeing this room is just for the layout how about running a 1" conduit around the parimeter with junction boxes every four feet. Put blank covers on the inside wall. This would be good for later computer wiring or possible sound system. I've always found, even in the house, that the ability to run extra non-electric wires around the room would be helpful.....Walt

[gerryleone]

Walter's suggestion is excellent! I built my room 2 years ago, and already I've got an extension cord buried under the [loose] carpeting -- that could have been a dedicated AC run in conduit as he suggested.

The other thing I wished I'd remembered: make some of the wall receptacles SWITCHED at the door of the room. That way, when you've got a soldering iron plugged in and leave for the night, you know it's shut off. Can't tell you the number of times I left the room for the night, leaving all my transformers and DCC station on.

-Gerry

[Anonymous]

Another thing to be sure of is your heating/air conditioning setup. I can't offer exact advise, but again, this is a room set up especially for model trains so you want to make sure it's adiquate but doesn't blow directy on the layout. The second thing that's important in all this is the future value of the home with this room. You can't expect the next owner to be a model railroader.... no you can't! So make sure the room can easily be converted to other useage should things change.....Walt

[Anonymous]

Walter, the heating and A/C is just a window unit with enough BTU's to handle the room. As far as the value for resale goes, one of the reasons this room is only 12' wide is so when we do move I can suck it up on a trailer and take it with me. This is a Hardy Board yard building that I'll finish out the interior. As far as the 1" conduit, great idea but how far off the floor would you run it? I suppose the covers for the junction boxes would be flush with the drywall. Thanks for the feed back, it's always good to hear from other people who's (been there, done that).........

[Anonymous]

Eduke, you could run wiremold around the room instead of conduit, the wiremold will be a little more expensive but it there are different options you can do with it, plus it will look better then conduit. Searay

[Anonymous]

Seeing the building has a sole purpose I'd probably run it around 36" off the floor but your might want to adjust that depending on your deck height. Yes, I figure on the outlets for these being flush with the drywall. You can get a flexible plastic conduit pipe at places like Home Depot and Menards. I'd probably use quad boxes at each junction but don't over do the number around the room. I thinking it would be good for computer lines to various areas of your layout and as I said maybe a central sound system.
The central sound system brings up a new post as I was discussing the idea with one of my sons last night and he came up with a good idea, I go do that post now..... Walt

[Anonymous]

maybe you should add wiring for some smoke detectors.... can save you lots of money.

have fun
sandro
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