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Good stuff. I just got trains running in my new trainroom a couple of months ago. It was the down stairs bed guest room/bed room and I wanted to allow for occasional guests, so I did a rather narrow around the room layout. Bench work was 1/2" plywood panels with 3/4" pine frames around the edges, and 2 inch foam on top. It is completely self supporting, hung on wall brackets. I made the wall brackets up from 2*4 and plywood, held to the studs with sheet rock screws. On the outside cinder block walls, bracket spacing is as wide as four feet, but the layout feels solid and doesn't wobble. It's probably strong enough to stand on, but only probably. Being narrow, a foot stool on the floor gives me access everywhere in the room.
The three doors (bathroom, closet, and hall) are crossed with lift out sections. Lifting out and fitting back is tedious enough that I tend to leave them in place, resulting in a layout entered by a duck under. Not ideal, but I have no better suggestions. Layout height is 42" largely to clear a couple of pieces of furniture.
For track planning, I relied heavily upon the classic "Track Planning for Realistic Operation " by John Armstrong. It has marvelous ideas, practical methods of estimating what will fit, and graphs and tables for easements of curves, turnouts, and clearances.
I located turnout controls and block toggle switches on the fascia for walk around operation. Ther is no central control panel. I will buy or build a walk around throttle one of these days. Right now I just hold an ordinary wired MRC power pack in one hand.
Road bed is home made 1/4 inch pine. I resawed ordinary 3/4" pine down to 1/4" on a bandsaw and beveled the edges with a router. It holds track nails beautifully and will permit hand laying should I get that fancy. Right now the entire layout is Code 100 flextrack, all used, picked up at train shows and yard sales. I just finished brush painting all the rail with Floquil rust to kill the nickel silver gleam. Scenery and ballasting come next.
Good luck on your effort.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Loco wrote: I am very excited. It's heated/cooled with the rest of the house as the stair case opens from the downstairs living room.Now I just have to figure out the track plan.... That's going to be a huge undertaking for me. I'm really going to need some input from ya all. Never done it. Heck, maybe run a contest! LOL, can you tell I'm just a big kid in a candy store. I've waited so long, been collecting and then just packing the stuff in blue bins.And please, no worries on anyone who may have comments. But like I mentioned, I'll get some more details posted up here soon.
I am very excited. It's heated/cooled with the rest of the house as the stair case opens from the downstairs living room.
Now I just have to figure out the track plan.... That's going to be a huge undertaking for me. I'm really going to need some input from ya all. Never done it. Heck, maybe run a contest! LOL, can you tell I'm just a big kid in a candy store. I've waited so long, been collecting and then just packing the stuff in blue bins.
And please, no worries on anyone who may have comments. But like I mentioned, I'll get some more details posted up here soon.
Welcome to our world. Don't admit it to your wife, but we're all really big kids.
You've got a nice space that has lots of possibilites. What sacel are you going to be model railroading in?
I'm in N-Scale abd have been since 1978 or 1979. Unfortunately I hadn't done anything in it since 1987 until last May. Since then I've dismatled what used to be my layout and started a new one. Just finished the painting the walls and and about to strat putting the clouds on them.
All of us are looking forward to reading your posts.
Irv
Loco wrote:Ok, hope this was not to big for everyone to down load. Might upload smaller photos to Bucket next time. And of course I'll be taking ALL SORTS tips, ideas, thoughts you all might have. I'll try to get the flooring done here and then I'll post up some starting given's and druthers.
Awesome train room! It's always thrilling to have a brand new space and begin planning :)
Can you give us just a sneak peak of your druthers? What scale, what era, what locale and railroad?
Oh man, if I had a room like that you'd never see me again. Still trying to convince the wife thatt I need to basement family room(when it's complete) to do an around the walls layout like that. So far it's a no go, but I have time to work on her.
Congrats on the room, looks like it's very spacious and well ventilated. good luck and keep us posted.
Been a while since I last posted up. Been moving, and moving, and yes, moving. Got most things somewhat unboxed. Still have a ways to go, but this weekend I started on my NEW TRAIN ROOM. It's been a bit over 20 years since I had a room to set anything up. But now the time is here. I took a few photos and even got on the computer to draw out the room with a small free cad program. I hope you all can get an idea of the room as it's got some "features" that I'll need some help planning around. I'm excited as all get out!!
1. This is a diagram of the overall room. It's an upstairs room (271" by 171") with a small alcove (37" x 100") the ceiling is a bit sloped in on the sides with stair case going down. I used XTakCad and then exported a bitmap. ((Big learning curve this weekend))
2. This is a photo with my daughter, she was a big help putting in the flooring. Which, BTW is a laminate hardwood 12mm with a 3mm foam/rubber backing over the 3/4 plywood. Yes, it's a bit spendy and I would have been just as happy to leave the plywood, but the wife wanted a finished look. So who am I to argue! Besides, it will give a pro-looking finished (hope my modeling can match!). And naturally I'll just have to be a bit more tidy with painting and such. But that's cool too.
3. This next one is looking into the room from the stairs and my daughter is no longer in the upper left corrner. You can see the slop of the ceiling on each side.
4. Next we rotate a bit more to the right and see the alcove and the window.
5. Next is a shot of the stairs going down and the banisters. I figuter I can run track above the staircase and just do a slight duck as you come up into the room. (Notice the set of Trix Box Cars and a few other goodies in the corrner?)
6. And last we have a photo of the stairs going down.
Ok, hope this was not to big for everyone to down load. Might upload smaller photos to Bucket next time. And of course I'll be taking ALL SORTS tips, ideas, thoughts you all might have. I'll try to get the flooring done here and then I'll post up some starting given's and druthers.
Thanks