Is your house big enough to handle your trains?

[Anonymous]

Hows this one for ya, Many years ago I lived in a small cramped house with no basement. My bedroom door was pretty big so what I did was nail down track with turn outs to the back side of the door & made special door stops so the track wouldn't get damaged when opening the door . I did this in "N Scale" & I fabricated some door hinges into a quick release system. I used velcro to atatch buildings ect. When done just took the buildings off & stored them in a box . & then put the door back up. I guess ya just have to improvise sometimes. Now i've got a basement big enough to go transcontinental in "HO". PS; It was a crude setup but I sure had fun, This hobby is very addicting!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JCB3

You never have enough space. I have a 3000sq ft home but with 3 girls the toys and barbie stuff i'm limited to a 4x16 in the basement

Given that Barbie and Ken are no longer an item according to the news media, Barbie should be moving out soon, taking all of her possessions with her. This should create more than enough room to expand your 4'x16' layout![(-D][(-D][(-D]

[cmrproducts]

Well with a 25ft x 75ft basement which is drywalled and a drop ceiling installed it still isn't quite big enough. I have over 2600ft of track and still adding. As for the maintenance of such a large layout it all goes to the planning. I have built 20 layouts over the years and most of them were club layouts. With club layouts that are open to the public you soon learn what works and what does not. When the public is paying to see the trains run they better be running. And the club has 6 scales that are operational. There are a number of ways of making a no (low) maintenance layout and it is not hard to do. But trying to use exotic materials instead of the older tried and true methods can leave you having problems many years down the road. Plaster vs Blue foam. Wood vs metal benchwork. What are the long term effects? Do we know? Only time will tell!

Bob H Clarion PA

[ClinchValleySD40]

When the wife and I moved, in talking to the real estate agent, tops on the list of wants was a large unfinished basement. When we went to look at houses, I went in first to check the basement. If it didn't pass, we just drove away without ever looking at the house. We finally found one (61' x 34' unfinished) with the basement all mine. Yep, it's big enough.

[Jetrock]

I live in a house smaller than many apartments (731 square feet) so railroad space is limited--mine is in my no-car garage--it is 8 by 16 feet, technically big enough to get a small car inside if you put nothing else in the garage, but in California climates a garage is basically a storage bin.

The layout is only seven square feet now but will eventually rule about half the basement, at least against the walls.

[Budliner]

no but if I get rid of the computer

[mikebonellisr]

I moved my railroad from my house to a 30 x 30 ft.room above my garage.I have a studio up there and the layout is slowly taking over.Being I'm a 'lone wolf' I'm starting to get overwhelmed with the amount of work in building a fair size layout by myself.

[Anonymous]

Mine is fine. We have a 2150 sq ft house and the den is 22x18. There is also a 45x16 building out back.

My layout is only 17x5 1/2

RMax

[Anonymous]

I once told an agent that was selling homes in gated communities, that my wife and I were looking for a very large train room with an attached house. Needless to say, she looked at my wife to see if I was serious, and of course, my better half just rolled her eyes and said she didn't know me[(-D][(-D][(-D][:D][:D]

[pbjwilson]

I'm looking at building something in my garage or perhaps our greenhouse. The greenhouse is rather rough - no floors, just stones and the flucuation of temperature could be difficult to deal with. The garage has got heat, but come mid January when temps hit -10 I don't think I'll be running out to the garage. I'm hoping in 10 years the kids won't need so much space in the basement and I can regain some space.

[Anonymous]

[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]H@%$#&*^%$#@LL NO[:)][:)][:)][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[Anonymous]

Short Answer, NO! Long Answer, NO!

[Anonymous]

You never have enough space. I have a 3000sq ft home but with 3 girls the toys and barbie stuff i'm limited to a 4x16 in the basement

[Anonymous]

Of course not !
Actually I had mote fun with a 4x8 than with any of the larer layouts I have started.

If I still had that all I would consider doing is adding some staging and it should wok fine.

Tom Blair
Hampton Roads, Virginia

[johncolley]

Alas, no, but I have hit on the solution! After 2 years in a regular modular HO club, and being unhappy with the round and round, wanting real operation, I have discovered Free-mo! I can set up and work on a module in just a few minutes, take it down or leave it up depending on whether I need the space for something else. The concept is end to end or out and back, mostly single track main, but with sidings, yards, branchlines, etc. These assemblies can be modest to humungus depending on the size of the space available. The modules are bigger, but lighter, using a plywood frame with foam deck, thus are easier to transport and set up. A great alternative to explore! John Colley Port Townsend, WA

[MAbruce]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Scottydog

I have the whole basement but now I wish I had modeled in N-scale instead of HO. Whereas HO looks good, I think I could have given the impression of a larger country in N.

Let that be a lesson to the rest of you! [swg][:-^]

[Anonymous]

I have the whole basement but now I wish I had modeled in N-scale instead of HO. Whereas HO looks good, I think I could have given the impression of a larger country in N.

[AggroJones]

Yes. And it ain't really my house, but I did grow up here.

I envy the guys who say they "only have 8' x 12' for a layout"
That's huge to me!

[Anonymous]

I've had to settle for a 12X12 spare bedroom in my current home, which has a basement but it's not suitable for model railroading. My house is over 100 years old and has a huge cast iron boiler in the basement...which you access by going outside the main house, a pain during the winter months. Love the house, just hate the limitations. Come next year that will change, when I finally have a ranch home with it's long basement--and interior access. Still, I'm making do with what's available and having lots of fun. By the way, you don't need to live in a million dollar house to have adequate room for trains. I do know a guy in Houston who owns a modest home w/o a basement. His solution was to knock out a wall separating two bedrooms, and now has sufficient room to enjoy the HO layout he's always wanted to build. Living in the Midwest where homes and basements seem to go hand in hand is a big plus.

[Anonymous]

[quote]Originally posted by 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.

[vsmith]

If it was, I wouldn't be out in the garage now, would I?

[Anonymous]

My current space is 10' X 11.' It's a start, but I would like something on the order of 20' X 20.' Much larger than that and I would have to start a club to keep up with it.

Warren

[dharmon]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 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.

Some day.....some day.....

I told my wife that when we settle down, if she needed a place to sew, I needed a place for me........

The workshop doesn't count. It's a joint space since 99 percent of what id done there is for her anyway.....

[willy6]

i think the White House would still be too small.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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

[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.