The Perfect Trainroom

[Texas Zepher]

Kegerator?

That would be one of the "cool stuff"s I was talking about in the crew lounge.   Also, book shelves, wide screen monster TV for train videos, with surround sound of course.  Fire place, and table for cards & rail games like Avilon Hill's Rail Barons, Mayfair Silverton, etc.   Computer with broadband internet connection, and rail simulators/ design software.

[csmith9474]

Kegerator?

[ndbprr]

I want a 10,000 square foot basement.  My wife wants at most an 1800 square foot house.  I said there was no problem.  We will build a pyramid. With the look I got I guess not.

[Midnight Railroader]

I want lots of windows so I can look out over the countryside in the day when I like to work on the layout and at night when I just like to run trains the room light could still be well controlled through lighting.

Wow, I specifically avoided windows in my layout room. They'd just have to be covered up.

[colvinbackshop]

I have a fairly decent Trainroom set up in a stand alone building. This was a retro / after thought and it's not perfect, but it does work pretty well....

However, a few things already mentioned and that I don't have, that I see as necessary are:

A restroom and a crew lounge / entry to the Trainroom would be huge!

[HHPATH56]

       I have always considered my detached 24'x24' garage loft, (with inside stairway along one wall), as the perfect "dedicated train room, with no obstructions". As to windows, this room has small windows on the gable ends. I use pull down shades (with scenery painted on them) so that I have continuous scenery around all four walls. Before construction of any layout I installed a suspended ceiling, with 10 double tube shop lights, evenly spaced in three rows, with transluscent panels over the lights. This, of course, prohibits light dimming. My biggest problem is that I did not provide for adequate electrical amperage. Winters in Michigan are cold! I have a DCC Digitrax SuperChief, three heaters, and ,also,"need amperage for soldering irons, ( under table "tail light" circuit breakers), etc! I often wish that I could install a bathroom and an additional (pull-out workshop) I am going to install adequate additional electrical circuits, and divide the layout into four independent "Power Districts", each of which have probe controls for 24 of the 96 total turnouts, wyes, and reverse loops. Actually, my total layout was preplanned for expansion, from a simple one wall layout to and around the room layout with two staging yards, two harbors, and plenty of spurs and run-arounds, so that 6-8 trains can run simultaneously, over 18 different routes. Most fairly large layouts seem to be "point-to-point" or double loops, with no ability for trains to change direction, or choose different routes.  My intent was to maximize the switching, choice of direction and routes, with adequate lengthy "run-arounds", for different priority trains. Bob Hahn

[PASMITH]

So what about lighting? Suggestions please. Track or pot lights? Or some other type.

We went with track lighting and it made the room HOT.  The pot lights might keep the heat up in the ceiling.  However, I would suggest something with LEDs. Save power and not create heat.

I want lots of windows so I can look out over the countryside in the day when I like to work on the layout

Yipes!  My ideal layout room has zero windows.  I might suggest a "crew lounge" with windows & cool stuff in it separate from the layout.  Then if you really want the view while working on the layout make some sort of removable backdrop that could be removed for the scenery and put in place for the layout.  

I am looking for all ideas you may have that I have not thought of. The wife has her horse barn and dog runs all figured out so now it's my turn. The sky is the limit so let's have those ideas please.

A crew bathroom.  A storage room.  A display area (non-running trains).  A workroom or shop.  Guest viewing balcony or alcove or something.

When I was looking at houses in Memphis in anticipation of our company move from New York, the first thing that I looked for was a room with the least amount of windows. My existing railroad room was in the basement and the windows were few, high and out of the way. Memphis houses have no basements and it then began to dawn on me that windows would be a problem.

Peter Smith, Memphis

[Last Chance]

Im sitting in what I know is the future train room. The total space will be about 14 by 24 with the option to widen another 10 feet or so on one side. It's enough to accomodate my needs and ideas without getting too frankenexpensive.

A family member told me once long ago, acres of land free and clear without zoning problems gives one freedom to expand in any direction. Not something you will find on a 1/4 acre or less lot squished between houses 10 yards on either side.

So, my first rule of big train rooms and expansions. Get several acres of land to live on. Get out of the subdivisions and away from the kill-joy home associations and local towns. Get away from all of that restrictive stuff.

Dont build a layout you cannot maintain if you are aged and in a wheelchair. Think about the future.

Second rule, make access to the train room easy. Walk into it swinging a 4x8 sheet of plywood and see how you do. Keep everything ISOLATED from the rest of the house. If it means installing a large door that will seal the noise, dust and whatnot inside that room away from the living spaces.

Third rule. Fire safety. You might not want windows or that outside doorway. But you will want to get out of that room rather quickly if something goes bad. Consider a fast breaker panel that you can get to and throw the switch to kill the entire room without disrupting the rest of the home.

Forth, dont build a room so big that you see your heating and cooling max out and become inadequate for the rest of the home. It's not fun trying to stay warm on a little one ton unit that is feeding a place that tripled in size suddenly.

Fifth, think about the location of that room and how easy it is for a thief to get into it or out of it. Displaying 10 thousand dollar engines pulling 3 thousand dollar trains and miles of copper wiring for all to see from the street isnt very conductive to security.

Finally but not last. Keep that room generic. So if all your train stuff disappears and nothing but empty space in there, the future buyers might see it as something THEY can use instead of just a worn out choo choo train room.

[Johnnny_reb]

The ultimate layout building?

Say 30 X 40 with a crew lounge, bathroom and a workshop along the long side.  With the workshop at one end, bathroom(s) at the other, entrance and crew lounge centered between them. large windows in the workshop and crew lounge areas, smaller ones in the layout area. 200amp electrical panel, Layout area, 30 X 30 Edit: 20 X 40 with electrical outlets every six feet, Overhead tube lights for general room lighting, LED rope lighting above the layout itself. Benchwork framing would be modular in design for easy repair/rebuilding of any section. Train control would be DCC with radio handhelds. Phones or intercoms installed aound the edge of the layout along with a phone and intercom to the house and crew lounge.

[Bikerdad]

If you want windows, then get windows.  I'm not sure if the auto-dimming feature is necessary up there in the gloomy Northwet, but you'd have a better sense of that than I.  Something I would add to EVERY room of any house I built is a Solartube or skylights.

For the windows, I'd make sure you have some way of covering them (drapes, blinds, newspaper and masking tape, whatever).  Incorporate as many "multi-use" features in the room as you can, because its probable that at some point in the future, the room will no longer be a train room.  Yer grandkids may curse you because the large salvaged boiler you put down there for "atmosphere" makes it impossible to sell the place, and too expensive to remove it.  (Just a possible fer instance, if ya know what I mean.)

When asking "how big", well, what scale are you talking about?  What sort of trackplans are you considering?  How much of your existing layout will be incorporated?  Operating sessions with a "crew", or solo layout?

I would make sure that there is a direct entry from the "utility room" (home of the utility sink) to the layout room.  Having running water and an area where you can make watery messes very close by will make life simpler for you.  Also, incorporate a dedicated vent to the outside that you can hook a paintbooth up to, if you plan on doing any airbrusing.

Make sure that you allow easy access for the building materials that will go into the layout.  That means being able to maneuver an 8' long x whatever wide chunka stuff in.

Consider varmint, dust and moisture control.  Neither varmint nor moisture control are much of a problem down here, but dust is an absolute nightmare.  Incorporate space and whatever other elements are necessary for filtration, dehumidification, etc as appropriate for your environment.

Noise.  Decide how much noise you want to allow between the train room and the rest of the house, considering both the heavy construction phase, and the quieter phases.

Electronics.  Wire for 'em.  Stereo, 'puter and 'Net, TV.

Subpanel.  If this space looks like a good contender for a future owner to use as a workshop, then put a subpanel in now.  Not only will it help your resale value, but it will also allow you to shut the entire trainroom down at once.  If you do put a subpanel in, make sure that one lighting circuit is off the main panel.  That way you can "lock out" the layout, whatever tools may be in there, etc, while still having lighting.  And if you trip the subpanel's breaker, you won't be in the dark.

Have a small wetbar in there, with a small TV.

That's all I have for now regarding the space itself.

 Good luck with it, grace and peace, BD

[loathar]

My ultimate train room would be an old restored heavy weight passenger car in the back yard.
(with money trees growing all around it!)

[cowman]

I agree with Dan, whether you go up into the room or down into it, have the stairs in the middle.  The size of the room is up to how much you want.  One large yard can serve as both ends of a point to point, if you want.  Peninsulas can extend your length of mainline without having multi-levels, or can be a mix of both. 

Sounds like you have a lot of planning, building and fun in your future.

Good luck,

[Flashwave]

Higher cielings. Especially if you want to go Mushroom or something, slopeing peakes prevent outside walkways.

Also go weith a s few support beams as possible.

[pike-62]

A friend of mine who is not a modeler has what I think is the perfect train room in his house. When we built the house we used attic trusses for the roof which have a 14' wide x 9' tall opening in them. This runs the entire 44' length of the house. When we put in the staircase for this "room" we made it come up right in the center. One could build an around the room layout up there and do a couple of levels if so desired. I planned, in my head, a 3' wide shelf layout with 60" radius curves, a couple of yards and several small towns.

 

Dan Pikulski

www.DansResinCasting.com

[Texas Zepher]

So what about lighting? Suggestions please. Track or pot lights? Or some other type.

We went with track lighting and it made the room HOT.  The pot lights might keep the heat up in the ceiling.  However, I would suggest something with LEDs. Save power and not create heat.

I want lots of windows so I can look out over the countryside in the day when I like to work on the layout

Yipes!  My ideal layout room has zero windows.  I might suggest a "crew lounge" with windows & cool stuff in it separate from the layout.  Then if you really want the view while working on the layout make some sort of removable backdrop that could be removed for the scenery view while working and put in place for the layout.  

I am looking for all ideas you may have that I have not thought of. The wife has her horse barn and dog runs all figured out so now it's my turn. The sky is the limit so let's have those ideas please.

A crew bathroom.  A storage room.  A display area (non-running trains).  A workroom or shop.  Guest viewing balcony or alcove or something.

[BATMAN]

Well the wife and I are talking about moving to a larger acreage and designing our own house. With the economy sliding we think we can finally get a good contractor at a reasonable price. So out comes the architect program and away we go. First question is how big??? What size would you make it if you could choose a room size? My current layout is 15' x 24' and upon thinking about what I have accomplished and what I would like in a layout a 30' x 30' foot room would be good. I think I could have all the things I would want in a layout in that space and not have over extended my ability to complete the layout to a reasonably finished state. ( I know we are never finished but you know what I mean) So what about lighting? Suggestions please. Track or pot lights? Or some other type. I want lots of windows so I can look out over the countryside in the day when I like to work on the layout and at night when I just like to run trains the room light could still be well controlled through lighting. We are thinking of getting those windows that use power to darken them in the day if need be. I am looking for all ideas you may have that I have not thought of. The wife has her horse barn and dog runs all figured out so now it's my turn. The sky is the limit so let's have those ideas please.

Brent