And if so, do you know which scales the residents model?
Well if the tracks have 3 rails,it is probably O gauge!
I have only one basement on my layout. It's in an office building downstairs from a restaurant. But, there's a shoe repair shop there, not a layout.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Only California basements (garages) on my layout.
Hornblower
Of course, some are HO and some are O, I model the middle class suburbs of the 50's, so some even have basement filling empires.........
Here in the Mid Atlantic most houses have basements.......
One modeler I know, who has now reached that age where he decided to take down his layout, had a passenger station on his layout, which had a detailed interior. On the second floor of the passenger station was a model railroad club, and model of their layout, partly sceniced and partly still in the benchwork stage.
I'm sure he gave that structure to one of the other modelers in the local round robin group, just not sure who.
Sheldon
I have never had a residential area on any of my layouts, other than the apartments above the stores downtown.
There has been an odd one-off rural house here and there, and a couple trailer homes, but no single family homes with basements.
Modeling residences has never really appealed to me.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
We don’t have a basement but our retirement house on my layout has a HO layout in the room over our two car garage.I don’t have a finished picture so here is a during construction picture.We call our retirement home Perrydice.And in Perrydice there has to be a HO layout.
Both are Mel scratch builds. To take a finished pictture I will have to remove the back drop so that will have to be on another day. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
philo426Well if the tracks have 3 rails,it is probably O gauge!
I'm pretty sure the split-level house on my layout has HO in the basement. The ranch house has S gauge.
RR_Mel
This is great, and it begs the question: Are all of us nothing more than scenery on The Creator's train layout?
I like that one Mel
I don't have any room for any houses on my layout, too many bridges in the way
I don't even know where I'm going to put my grain elevator I spent so many hours working on. I was looking over all the lack of space left, pondering it today. I'm still coming up blank and it's starting to concern me
TF
My layout is rural, no city structures. Just never liked the squished up look. John Allen was and still is my mentor and he didn’t have scrunched up structures.I have a home for each of our children and some of our grandchildren.I do have a passenger station and a fair size locomotive maintenance area of the 50s leaving the feeling that there is a town around the corner.My layout is family based 50s era rural community near the happy village of Susanville (named after our youngest daughter) tucked into the foothills of the mountains.
Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
RR_MelJohn Allen was and still is my mentor and he didn’t have scrunched up structures.
I draw inspiration from John Allen in a different way. The rocky vertical scenery of the GORRE AND DAPHETID is not what I want to duplicate, but his city scenes always were incredible.
His city of Port has always been magnificent to me. I hope to capture some of the feel of this city in the town of Port Annabelle on my layout.
Port is actually in a smallish space, but John Allen was able to make it look huge.
I've heard that radon gas from the crust is thick in some places. Is there anyone ventilating the basement for that?
All of my residential units, including apartments above stores, are subject to restrictive covenants which prohibit any and all forms of model railroading. This is done as a protective measure for the residents health and safety, both physical and mental.
Rich
Alton Junction
BN7150I've heard that radon gas from the crust is thick in some places. Is there anyone ventilating the basement for that?
Is this pertaining to the OP's modeling question, or did you hiijack the thread to ask about radon in our homes?
No matter, I sold my home, built 20 years ago, near Annapolis in June. It flunked the radon test. Apparently radon can increase over time. swat-radon.com installed a fan and an external 6" pvc pipe that ran up the side of the house for $900.
My new construction home in the Shenandoah Valley came with radon mitigation and there is no external piping on the side of the house.
If you've lived in your home for a decade or more, I suggest getting a test. Swat recommended radon.com.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy I suggest getting a test.
Well... As a joke I googled Radon Gas In Florida Basements, and I found out I have something else to worry about.
Drat!
SeeYou190 BigDaddy I suggest getting a test. Well... As a joke I googled Radon Gas In Florida Basements, and I found out I have something else to worry about. Drat! -Kevin
The research I have done on Radon is in direct conflict with the statements on that page you posted.
We have Radon here in the Mid Atlantic, lots of it. It took two vents/fans to get it under control here in the new retirement house. The seller paid, we did not even ask them to fix it, it's a long story.....
We never had the 1901 house tested, and the buyers did not have it tested when we sold it. We sold the house "as is" so we would not have been obligated to midigate it anyway.
There is no question that at much higher levels than typically found in basements that Radon is a known health risk. This risk was discovered in underground mines where the Radon levels are 100 times or more those typically found in homes.
Since Radon is a naturally occuring gas that is present in many places depending on the geographic conditions, there is considerable controversy as to what levels represent measureable danger.
But governments and the real estate industry have decided to err on the side of caution.
Personally, I see it as one more strike against the idea of building houses that are too air tight. The unintended consequences of which have already revealed themselves in other areas, like mold.
No, my 1950's layout does not have any silly little Radon vent stacks.......
Shock Control RR_Mel
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Sorry Kevin, I was referring to John’s original G&D.Click to enlargeAll of my layouts have been based around John’s first design, twice-around. No large cities just rural and mountainous. I simply fell in love with his first G&D after reading the article in the Fawcett #133 Model Railroad Handbook in 1951.The miniature layout in the room above the garage is a small Mel’s current layout. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
My houses only have train collections and no layouts.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
[/quote]
Bayfield Transfer Railway"In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." Isaiah 6:1 So, yes.
I guess I've been preaching that passage wrong all these years!
The houses on my O gauge layout have armchair modelers who have been planning their HO Layout but not yet built them!
If I do the NYC/CR section of stub end maintenance yard ex passenger car yard. There's a neighborhood across the bridge. (I found a PC and CR pictures that I can slightly model.)
I'm just going modeling half the houses and doing backyards along the road. The region is New York I believe that they basements.
Since these homes are old probably around 1930s or 40s but it can surprise me if their 50s. One of those houses might have a Lionel, American Flyer, or HO layout.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Back to the original question - sort of - I have thought of making a operating "model" model railroad, using Z-scale equipment...maybe as part of a diorama with a concrete block basement wall behind it and concrete floor. It would end up being fairly large though, to get Z-gauge track to represent say O-gauge, you'd have to use something like 1:6 or 1:8 scale.
I was hoping someone would post John Allen's outdoor miniature steam railway scene, with one of the locomotives you' get if lucky out of those 25-cent gum dispensers. Ever since I saw that as a kid I've looked forward to operating 'models in models'...
The current thing of best potential use is T scale (between 1:450 and 1:480) which is still a bit large for indoor modeling even on O gauge.
There are some railroad details made in 1:720 for the ship-modeling community, and these might easily be made to slide around a simple 'layout' following a magnetic moving track below.