Welcome to the Carpet Central layout club

[rtraincollector]

Welcome to all the ones that do a carpet central layout. I did this as its been years since I have had a running layout will add pics as I add buildings and all to mine.

Here was the start last night

 

but got thinking today and with some work added to new carpet under it.

 

I will add pics as I add to the senery and cars to the layout.

[Penny Trains]

Does it count if you lay luan plywood down on top of the carpet?  If so, count me in because I love floor running!  Getting down there and using manual control is the best!  For my Standard gauge holiday layout, I use A, T and K transformers with 95 rheostats and in the bedroom I use an R and a flyer 4B to maximize the hands on experience.  Remotes are nice, but getting in touch with the trains is better.

Pics of my recently dissassembled 4 by 6 bedroom and 5 by 14 livingroom holiday layouts can be found in the "Reader Photos" gallery of this site.  At the moment, I'm in the cleaning/building/upgrading process for my bedroom layout and it will soon return in a Thai theme.  In fact, I just recently repaired and repainted a Marx triple niner in State Railways of Thailand livery.

Becky

[Brutus]

Looking good RT!

[Boyd]

The last one I had was in what is now my layout/bedroom. Vacant of the last person who  had that room I couldn't resist. Before that it was early 90s in my 45x12 mobile home. I had track running nearly the entire length and back with a timer. It went off at my wake up time the next morning  and stopped as it was a hair too close to a piece of furniture that the engine hit. A few years ago I mentioned on this site the idea of installing track IN the floor. Something like a hardwood floor with track laid in it and the tracks rail head even with the top of the floor. Wiring would have to be perfect. The top of the rails might get dirty easy.

 

[balidas]

Now that is a concept. An inlaid track design. Interesting.

[rtraincollector]

I remember you bringing that up but forgot about it. if you had the right place it would be a great concept but bet as mentioned that track cleaning would be a job in a half. as beside cleaning the top for the engine performance you would have to vacuum to keep dust out of there.

Becky yes that would count.

I added a couple more buildings last night and showed Sir James and of coarse his comment tickled me " yea your a redneck you put the church right next to the stinking barn." I told him its not stinking yet its a new barn

I hope to have another passenger platform in the mail today so I can do the three end to end and give me a nice long covered passenger platform.

Hope all have a good day and hope to see some more pics here.

[laz 57]

CONGA RT, now get them rains runnin!

laz57

[SPMan]

I have a regular layout but help put together a carpet central layout every year at the Cal Stewart train meet in Pasadena.  It is  three or four loops of track on indoor outdoor carpeting.  It's about 20 ft. square and we use it to demonstrate DCS operation.  I also had an HO carpet central which I described in the Coffee Pot section.  I put up a small floor layout this Christmas around the tree.  What the heck, it is better than running no trains at all.  I know some guys that just collect and stockpile things but have no layout.  I could not do that without running somewhere.  Keep up the good work RT.

Ray

[overall]

Has anyone ever laid track from one room to another and another and used a cab-1 or cab-2 to wlak along with the train as it goes through the house?

George

[rtraincollector]

sooner or later this will all come down for the building of a permanent layout in this room which I will be using 8' X 16' for the layout Its actually will be a couple of inches shorter than that each way but thats close enough for a description.

I will not be using fastrack but for this it was perfect to use. I still have lots more of it may some day put it up on ebay for sale as have no plan to use it or may use the straights to display trains on my shelves.

[rtraincollector]

tried to add a video but couldn't figure out how to do it

 

so heres another pic with some actual trains on the layout not just engines did find out these 2 engines had no problem pulling these loads so when I get to a bigger layout these 2 anyway can handle more.

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

This is a good topic.  I think we could do a lot with this idea.  Most of my railroading has been on the floor so there could be some photos placed here.  Perhaps CTT could make this a regular feature if the interest warrants.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[rtraincollector]

This was first suggested to me by RockIsland52 more or less in jest and I took it and ran with it. I was hoping others would post pics of past and present carpet or bare floor layouts. I also believe there are many of us out there somewhere.

So where are all the pics all?

[mersenne6]

Shhhhh....It's not Carpet Central....it's The Broadloom Conspiracy and I've been a member in good standing for years and years....Here's one of my earlier conspiracy efforts  ... December 1967

   The deal was every December for 2 weeks I had unrestricted running rights on the Rec room floor - you'd be amazed at how much track you can lay and wire you can run when you have those kinds of time constraints.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

This is neat

Jim

[stebbycentral]

Reminds me of when I was a kid.  During the summer my siblings and I would get out the American Flyer trains and set them up in the basement on the floor.  Along with the trains we would build little cities with "Lincon Logs",  "American Bricks", and other assorted toy building materials.  The city was populated by characters created from "Crazy Ikes".

Can't call it a carpet central though.  See the basement floor was concrete.

[rtraincollector]

close enough to me if its on the floor its a carpet central don't really need the carpet just a name to give floor running verse being a pernment layout on legs and boards I guess

[balidas]

servoguy had a carpet layout going from one bedroom, down the hall into another bedroom. He made a thread and posted pix of it some time ago.

 

overall

Has anyone ever laid track from one room to another and another and used a cab-1 or cab-2 to wlak along with the train as it goes through the house?

George

[Buckeye Riveter]

Sturgeon-Phish

This is neat

Jim

Ditto

[runtime]

OK, now that I've re-learned how to post photos, here's some of my 'on the floor' layout.

I started this as a Christmas project 13 years ago. My childhood trains had not been out of the box for about 20 years. Well, the layout turned out to be pretty complicated to set up, so...it never got put away.

And due to my wife's tolerance, I've even gotten to expand it over the last two years!

These are of the original layout:

I'll post the expansion photos shortly...

 

runtime

 

[mersenne6]

  Broadloom Conspiracy (Carpet Central) part II  - Time December 1980 - by this time I was out on my own and had a place to myself.  The deal was that I could do pretty much as I pleased.  I was a minimalist with respect to furniture so each November I would move what little furniture needed to be moved from the living room into the bedroom and cover the living room floor with trains. Since I was working the effort took a little longer (about 4 weeks) but since I was single there was no real time pressure and I would usually keep the trains up through December.

  After I set things up I would invite co-workers and their kids over for an evening of train running.  In 1980 one of my co-workers took pictures of me at the controls of this layout with his kids and his wife sitting around me at the control panel.  He sent me a couple of copies of the pictures and, since my sister had been asking for an updated picture of myself, I went ahead and sent one of them to her. 

  She showed it to some of her friends and they were furious.  One said, "My G-d, what kind of an insensitive ------- is he???  His wife must be a saint! If any man wrecked MY living room like that he'd be in court so fast he wouldn't know what happened!" 

  My sister had to quickly explain that I was single, had never been married, and the people in the picture were visitors who had come over to look at the trains.

[overall]

runtime,

I have some questions;

1) It looks like you put the track on some kind of finished hard wood and then let that simply lay on the floor. What kind of wood is it? Oak maybe?

2) Why did you choose the wood that you did? Because the layout is in a living room?

3) What is the deal with the large piece of marble with the hole in it in the second picture from the top?

Thanks,

George

[balidas]

runtime,

That first pic in your post is awesome! All I could say when I first saw it was WOW!

[richhotrain]

stebbycentral

Reminds me of when I was a kid.  During the summer my siblings and I would get out the American Flyer trains and set them up in the basement on the floor.  Along with the trains we would build little cities with "Lincon Logs",  "American Bricks", and other assorted toy building materials.  The city was populated by characters created from "Crazy Ikes".

Can't call it a carpet central though.  See the basement floor was concrete.

LOL

Boy, does this bring back memories.  My mother wouldn't let me run my American Flyer on the basement floor.  She said that I would get electrocuted.  So, to appease her, my father brought in a 4' x 8' piece of plywood, and I ran my trains on top of the piece of plywood.

Rich

[richhotrain]

overall

Has anyone ever laid track from one room to another and another and used a cab-1 or cab-2 to wlak along with the train as it goes through the house?

George

Who among us, Lionel and American Flyer guys alike, did not dream as a kid of laying track from room to room all over the house?

As a retired adult, my modern day dream with my HO layout is to completely take over the basement instead of just one corner of it.

The only difference between being a kid in the 50's and a retired adult today in 2011 is the issue of female resistance - - my mother back then, my wife today.

Rich

[rtraincollector]

richhotrain

overall:

Has anyone ever laid track from one room to another and another and used a cab-1 or cab-2 to wlak along with the train as it goes through the house?

George

 

Who among us, Lionel and American Flyer guys alike, did not dream as a kid of laying track from room to room all over the house?

As a retired adult, my modern day dream with my HO layout is to completely take over the basement instead of just one corner of it.

The only difference between being a kid in the 50's and a retired adult today in 2011 is the issue of female resistance - - my mother back then, my wife today.

Rich

Right now the plan is for a 8' wide by 12' long as desk is at the end but I'm trying to maneuver it around so I can do 8' 16' now if i could just get the wife to agree not to use the back door anymore and to just start using the front door I would take over the whole den and do a 14 x 16  foot layout but I see that happening about the same time a very warm place know as the opposite of heaven freezes over .

Well at work right now and its now my lunch time so will talk to you all later need to heat up my lunch

[dougdagrump]

Boyd

. A few years ago I mentioned on this site the idea of installing track IN the floor. Something like a hardwood floor with track laid in it and the tracks rail head even with the top of the floor. Wiring would have to be perfect. The top of the rails might get dirty easy.

I've seen this done, a few times, with "G" gauge where it would transition a sidewalk or even a driveway. Either way it seems like some extremely close tolerance design and construction would be required.

 

[runtime]

overall

runtime,

I have some questions;

1) It looks like you put the track on some kind of finished hard wood and then let that simply lay on the floor. What kind of wood is it? Oak maybe?

2) Why did you choose the wood that you did? Because the layout is in a living room?

3) What is the deal with the large piece of marble with the hole in it in the second picture from the top?

Thanks,

George

1.The actual LR floor is oak. The trains are on 1/8" luan from Lowes, cut into sections no longer than 4 ft, raised up on 3/4"x1/2" molding, finished with oak stain and clear urethane. The track is mounted on cork roadbed. Raising the luan slightly above the floor is necessary so nails and screws don't penetrate into the oak floor,and also permit running wires underneath (sometimes).

2.Because it's in the livingroom I wanted to make it look as nice as possible, so my wife would consider allowing the layout to remain there for extended periods (now 13 years).

3. I was wondering if someone would be curious about the marble. It's the base of a lamp designed by a famous italian designer, I can't remember the name right now, the hole is for attaching the rest of the lamp to the base. The base is 145 lbs of polished italian marble. Two of the same lamps were used in Dr No's livingroom in the James Bond film (but we had ours before then).

Balidas: thanks for the compliment!

Mersenne6: nice pre and postwar trains. Is that a No4 or a No254 in the foreground? In my first pic there is a No4 in the same color; I've never seen another like it.

[mersenne6]

runtime - it's a #254.

  The Broadloom Conspiracy (Carpet Central) part III  Time December 1981

  By this time word of my annual showings, which began in earnest in 1977, had been passed around the water cooler at work.  As a result people would start dropping by my desk in the early part of November, first to ask if I was planning to run trains and then, when I answered in the affirmative, to ask if they could be added to the list of possible visitors.

   Close to the end of the third week in December Paul, one of my co-workers,  dropped by and asked if it might be possible to bring his son over to see them.  His boy was about 6 years old and had been deaf since birth.  He mentioned that, at the moment, they were having a very difficult time with him at home with respect to behavior but he assured me he thought he could keep his son under control.  Since Paul was built like a tank I figured he could make good on his assurance so we agreed to get together the following evening.

  I went home that evening and surveyed the railroad.  Just in case there was a problem, I removed some items and I moved several easy to replace items, including an MPC gateman, up towards the front near the control panel.  Since his son was deaf I made sure the postwar/MPC engines I did put on the layout were either very colorful or, in the case of steam, up to the job of generating a lot of smoke.

  My "show" ,such as it was,  followed the edicts of Frank Ellison.  I had read his articles on model railroading and had taken his advice about presenting your railroad much as you would a play. It was for this reason that I wired everything on the railroad for separate control.  The script for my "play" usually went something like this: 

  Welcome guests, get everyone seated, briefly mention my interest in trains and, just so Mom and Dad would have ammunition for the inevitable why-can't-you-get-me-a-train-set-like-this question from the kids, point to various items on the layout and tell the kids about how old I was when I got such-and-such an item.  Once the introduction was over I would start a single train on its looping journey,  after a couple of turns I would start the second and, depending on the track plan follow these with the gradual start up of the third.  Once all were rolling I would start turning on things - first the lights in the houses, then the block signals, then the crossing gates, then the gateman, etc.  With everything going full throttle I would then bring down the lights and let the trains roll in the dark.  After running for awhile in the dark I would bring up the lights, bring some of the trains to a halt on one branch of a passing siding, and let the other trains journey around the layout for awhile.  After letting all of the "through" trains run I would bring most or all of them to a halt, and turn #1615 loose and let her shuffle operating cars around to the places where they could operate.  Once in position I would load/unload or do whatever it was that the cars and accessories did, make up a small train with the switcher,  switch some cars into the sidings, and then start all of the trains rolling again.  The whole process took anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.

  Paul came over that evening and, after putting their coats in the hall closet, the three of us walked into the living room.  Paul gave a sharp intake of breath and quickly reached down and clamped his huge arms around his son, effectively immobilizing his arms and legs.  I sat down, looked his son in the eye, and pointed to the train on the outermost loop and started it rolling.  Paul picked his son up and cradled him so that his head was down close to the train so his son could get the sensation of having it rush by.  Before I started up the second one I again pointed to it and then started it rolling.  Paul mentioned that, for the first time ever, his son wasn't squirming.  I told him that, if he thought everything was ok, we could try just letting his son sit next to me.  Paul set his son next to me and positioned himself so that he could grab him if need be - his son didn't move a muscle.

  When I reached the point in the "show" where I turned on the gateman (it was just out of the picture on the lower left side) , I pointed to the house just before the train brought him out.  Paul's son was completely entranced at the sight of the man popping out of the shack.  I think it is safe to say that never before or since has that accessory had a more appreciative audience. Every time the train would approach he would lean over just a little and watch intently and every time the gateman popped out, he would give it a little smile.

  We ran trains for a little more than an hour.  I finished the "show' and invited Paul and his son into the kitchen for some Christmas cookies and some punch.  I was just reaching for the cookies when Paul's son reached up and took me by the hand and gently led me back to the living room.  He stood for a second and then made a sweeping gesture with his free hand and looked me in the eye.  I nodded and sat down in front of the transformers.  Paul's son immediately sat down next to me and gestured once again to the layout.  I started everything up and we ran trains. At the end of 3 hours Paul signed to his son that it was time to go.  He got up, put on his coat, and, just before he left,  he walked back to the living room and gave the Carpet Central a long last look. We never did get to those cookies and punch.

[AF53]

Mersenne6 - Thanks for your story, it made my day!

Ray