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
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.
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.
. 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.
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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
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
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?
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
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
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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
Alton Junction
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.
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.
That first pic in your post is awesome! All I could say when I first saw it was WOW!
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.
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
Sturgeon-Phish This is neat Jim
This is neat
Jim
Ditto
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
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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.
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
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
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
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?
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
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.
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.
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
SPMan
CONGA RT, now get them rains runnin!
laz57
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.
Now that is a concept. An inlaid track design. Interesting.
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.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Looking good RT!
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
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
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
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.
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