Is your house big enough to handle your trains?

[FJ and G]

Architecturally, that is, for train layouts?

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Some thoughts and observations.

Obviously, if we could afford it, we'd all (well, most of us) be in million dollar homes with humongous basements.

But, since 90% or more are not, we must make due with space we have.

One dude had a good idea: he custom-built his own home so that the basement had maximum space without poles sticking up all over. Large steel girders spanning the length was his solution.

Another friend of mine actually rounded up his family members and they all hand-dug a basement. They must have been watching too many episodes of Hogan's Heroes.

My buddy is into 3-rail trains. He owns a very modest Ranch home. The great thing about Ranch homes is that to make up for the lack of many floors, the house is built long. Thus, long basement.

Obviously, people who live in condos, townhouses, apartments, have to be a bit creative but nonetheless, can enjoy a smaller, but fun-packed layout, perhaps building multi-levels or cramming a lot into industrial, mining, or logging scenes.

And your thoughts?

[Anonymous]

No!

[Anonymous]

Nope. I live in a Victorian tenement in glasgow. It was built in 1897 and it has sagging floors (due to the 40-50ft span of the joists, they run the full length of the flat) and walls that are not vertical or straight....

As you might imagine this makes it difficult to get even my little railway straight and level. Now I just need to convince my girlfriend that we don't really need all the rooms and fill it full of model railway.

Of course I would really like a big basement but I'm on the third floor so I might have to move before I get my dream space.

neil

[cmitcham]

my house is only about 800 square feet. my two labs are about 600 square feet. and now i'm going to build a model train layout ???!!!

calvin.

[Anonymous]

No, I may have to build a second house to live in!!! Seriously, the basement has two large layouts and there's a third in a second floor bedroom. Any expansion is going to be vertical at all three areas.

[Jetrock]

My house is about 750 square feet, and while there might be room to build something in the house, my wife has vetoed anything but the smallest micro-mini carendt.com type display layouts (an idea I haven't ruled out!) so I am left with the garage. The garage is around 8x16 so I've got less than 130 square feet to play with in there, about one-half of which is taken up by band/nightclub equipment and things like the lawnmower, most of which goes from floor to (7' high) ceiling, and one-quarter of which is taken up by my workbenches. My dedicated layout area is currently 6x7.75 feet, 4 feet off the ground (space below is used for storage, soon to be supplemented by a set of shelves at 6 feet.)

A big basement, with a house to go over it, would be nice. But it's not in the cards right now. I suppose I'll wait until I outgrow the garage before I really start grumping about it, and at the rate I model it will take years.

[dknelson]

The house is fine, the basement is fine. My problem is my butt spends too much time in a chair reading and not enough time laying track. People can always move but they are stuck with the butt nature provides, alas. What I need to to is to get rid of every magazine and book and picture and slide in the place. And no chores to do (which means get rid of the wife too). And the workshop -- too many projects. And the laundry. I guess I need to be a prisoner or in jail but then I wouldn't have the basement. Ah well.

Dave Nelson

[eastcoast]

Not really. But I looked for a plan to have my own room and
had to fit to put a layout in . I do want bigger but, I am happy
with what I do have. IT IS BETTER THAN NOTHING.

[Anonymous]

Short answer to the subject: It could be!

After our kids got married and moved away my wife and I bought our retirement home - 1,850 sqft, 4 bed rooms. If my wife was totally submissive and would let me be totally crazy I would convert the 2 bedrooms we don't use (used only when our kids and grandkids come to visit) and the living room/dinning room we don't use (we spend our time in the family room, the dinning room only gets used at Thanksgiving and Christmas) into one large train room. This would give me about a 1,000 sqft. 'L' shaped heated and cooled "Train room house".

Hmmm... I wonder if I could get my kids to write letters to my wife stating that they would never come stay with us again so the 2 bedrooms will not be needed and we should convert them to... [:D]

[Anonymous]

For what I am planning, I don't think a house can ever be big eneugh, What I am planning is about 500 acre model railroad resort. And it very well could end up much bigger than that.

[ndbprr]

This is all striking a very raw nerve with me because I am convincing myself more and more that less can be more. I don't think there is any one of us who if given the space, time, money, etc. wouldn't model a favorite railroad from end to end and everything in between. So my current theory after five or six railroads that were combinations of multi-level, selectively compressed, fast clocked wonders is to emulate the prototype and attempt to build in scale exactly what will fit in the space given. After pouring over USGS maps and terraserver sattelite photos I have found a piece of the PRR that will allow me to do that. So the railroad is going to be a big dogbone with staging at either end hidden behind the railroad and just that portion that reduces to fit the space. the advantages:
1. a setting that should reek of the prototype
2. a track plan that should assist in the overall presentation instead of saying "toy trains"
3. Real time operation instead of a fast clock
4. even though the trackwork will be longer the maintenance should be less as there isn't as much crammed in
5. Buildings that will dwarf the trains instead of the other way round
I guess I'm on a crusade to think outside the box of what we have been doing all these years and attempting to elevate what we expect to recreate. I have no problem with anybody who wants to build the plywood empire with no scenery using Atlas snap switches or anything else. The self expression is what the hobby is all about. I just want to run the blasted thing instead of maintain it all the time and I see this method as freeing my time to enjoy my railroad instead of having a fifteen year list of projects. I used to say that my wife wanted a 1500-1800 sq, ft. house and I wanted 1 0,000 sq. ft. basement so I was going to build a pyramid. Now I am considering what would give me the greatest enjoyment which is watching GG1's zoom past me like they did when I was a kid in Philadelphia. Keep It Simple Stupid is my new motto.

[CP5415]

So far it is. I can't expand it any bigger than the 9X12 I have now without stiff opposition from my wife. [:(!]

Gordon

[Anonymous]

If we had enough money, time and energy, we'd probably all like to have as much layout space available as possible. But be careful what you wish for--you may get it. I've seen it happen more than once somebody who started to build a layout that was too large to complete and they began to lose their enthusiasm because they never seemed to be making progress. I was that "somebody" several years ago and since then I have scaled back my ambitions to fit available time and energy.

John

[Anonymous]

Our house was built new when my family moved from a farm to town when I was about 1 year old. I'm truly blessed to have a large basement. Before my parents bought the lot and had the house built, they tell me that they were considering buying this one house that didn't have a basement. It's a good thing they didn't. I have my layouts all built, but I keep buying more and more trains and so I keep adding shelves on the walls. Even if you don't have a large house, don't stop buying trains. You can never have too many trains, just not enough room for them.

[Anonymous]

Well I'm limited to a 4' X 8' right now. Maybe in my next house there will be room for more but until then this will be a practice layout. Relearning and improving technics for the next phase.

So yes my house is big enough but my layout is at my Dad's <G>

[aiireland]

hey snake, i think the railroads have eminate domain, and i'm pretty sure that goes for model railroads as well. (at least that is what i keep telling my wife)

i'm not do'n that bad on space. i started this fall on reworking / remodeling my basement to maximize the space. the n-scale wasn't a problem, i wanted more space for my O stuff.

ai

[Anonymous]

I don't have a basement, well one that I would spend time in. I have a 4X9 foot with a 2X4ft ext. and find I have trouble getting it to look right. My thought is start small first then go larger. You don't jump on a bike and go mountaining, you learn how first then expand on your learning. That aside I'm planning on building a 40' X 60' garage and train room and wish I could build it bigger. Stinking zoning laws.

Jeremy


Go Packers

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have had to reduce my layout to a 40" x 11' layout against a wall in our basement/family room/train room. below it I have built shelfs for all the games, puzzles etc. my kids have. I have two different tracks so the kids can each drive their own train. I also purchased a duel controller for this, works great. It also gives me the time to do the scenery in a smaller invironment than the 8'x8' layout I did have. Happy camper with a smaller layout
Hohobo

[Hawks05]

my layout will be 4x8. the room i have is about 10 feet wide by 10 feet long. if that even. i'm in high school so i don't have a lot of room. my bedroom is pretty big but i have a ton of stuff in it so i don't have space for a layout. if i stick with the hobby and i get married (like i plan) and we build a house i'm hoping to get a room for the trains. that is if i have a lot of stuff and i'm into it still. in college i'll either leave my layout at home or take it to my dorm. doubtful on that one.

[dharmon]

I'm active duty........my HO get's all the room it wants as long as it fits back into Rubbermaid totes for moving. We've never been in the same place for over three years. So right now I concentrate on the models (just say no to RTR) and I am a member of a local club. In a few years though.........

[Hawks05]

forgot to add that the floor is sinking. kind of sucks. the people never put the hardwood floor in this room. just crappy boards or plywood i think. after being around for 70 years you have to expect this.

[dave9999]

You guys with basements are lucky. I live in Florida and I have never even seen a basement. We tend
to build up not down around here. I currently use the closed-in patio room, which works until I can
build my detached train room, I mean garage. Dave

[Anonymous]

Mines either gonna be 5x8 or 4x8. Got sort of a half octogon shaped room.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Yes.

I made sure to leave myself a "small" train room when I built my current home. The house is a rambler (or ranch) with all of the living space on the main level. The basement is the same size as the main level. 4450 square feet each level (no its not a typo, the total is 8900). The train room is only about 2000 square feet (40' X 50'). There are two attached garages, one for cars, the other for workshop. The workshop is next to the train room and up a short 3 stair flight, making it easy to bring materials in. I model in 3 rail O.

I DID MY HOMEWORK.

[lupo]

after the wife was gone I now have a 1600 sq feet living, lots of trains and nobody to tell me what NOT to put in there.

I GUESS I DID MY HOMEWORK *** WELL!

[cacole]

dharmon --

I was in the same situation as you for 26 years of US Army active duty. I did manage to build a small layout once in the attic of a building in Munich, Germany, and left it there when we were reassigned. The cost of particle board in Germany, which was the cheapest available product, was astronomical! I eventually put everything in storage for several years because every time I was transferred the movers lost, stole, or damaged practically all of my locomotives. Several years after I retired in Sierra Vista, Arizona, I discovered that there is a local HO scale club, and joined it. As far as room in the house is concerned, no one makes houses with basements or attics in Arizona, so if you don't own a house that is custom built with a special layout room added on, there's not much chance of having room for a layout. A few modelers in this area who do have home layouts either had rooms added onto their houses or the layouts are in an outbuilding. One man had a large pole barn built to house his layout and machine shop.

[sparkingbolt]

I have a 9+ X 11+ room, actually an insulated heated finished shed, once served as a workshop, now have a garage so the room has an around the walls layout. Would love to double the length, add 2' to width. Using the garage is out of the question. our house is a small 2 bedroom, no basement. Adding on a room at some future date would be the only possable solution. Wife puts no restraints whatsoever on space RR takes up, just common sense rules here. Still, it's great to have a place at all for a layout. Dan

[tutaenui]

Sorry Guys but you can have to much of a good thing. Layout can be to big to maintain satisfactorily, particularly if you are a one man band. My current layout on which I have spent 9 years constructing to date uses about a quarter of the available space. I guess I find quality more pleasing than quantity.

[CBQ_Guy]

NO, but I can't complain too much as it's the first time I've ever had an entire basement to do whatever I wanted, for various reasons, since I was a kid. I've got a total area down there of around 24 by 38 feet, BUT it's a 100 plus year old house so I've got posts and a couple brick support walls in the way . A couple of these walls have the furnace, and I'll be moving the hot water heater that area, too. This isn't a room, just a 7 by 15 foot open area between two of the brick walls which are about 7 feet long, and one of them is L-shaped. It's been a challenge but I've manged to work around all this stuff to design a layout I think I'll be happy with.

The greater size I would want would mainly be, not to create more of the same over and over again, but to have greatly expanded out in the open running between towns. Also to fit a couple more industries or make bigger ones in existing limited areas, and to also have more room for scenic treatments, parking lots, more modeling of town and residential areas rather than just hinting at them on backdrops, etc. And I would probably add one or two more areas of interest - town, switching opportunities, interchange/junction area - I have these things already, but just would like a couple more to extend certain areas I am currently happy with but wi***hey were bigger. And wider aisles.

And of course, if I had more room I could also add a crew lounge and decent sized workshop. The ideal size then, I'm guessing, for what and how I would like to do it with the current layout design and track plan, would probably be something closer to 30 by 60 feet. Of course the shop, crew lounge, staging and helix(?) areas would be in addition to that area!

[Anonymous]

Is anything ever big enough for our dreams.....
If they could be contained, they would not be called dreams.
Even if its one track with a few buildings on a shelf, it is big enough because
you are active. To sit and dream is nice, but to stand and build, that is fulfillment..
Have a nice day.