# of folks who can fit into your train room

[FJ and G]

At about 3/4 of the NMRA-sponsored train shows I attend, if more than 5 to 7 people are in the train room, it tends to get very crowded and the owner resorts to cycling visitors in by group; with the others lounging outside the train room.

Do you invite groups of people to watch your trains and if so, is there plenty of space. The average American has grown somewhat over the last few years, as well.

Dave Vergun

[FThunder11]

3 or 4 comfortably in my room.

[BaylorMax]

My room can fit 8 or so plus a couple more in the workshop area. As noted, we've all grown larger over the years!

Steve Barkley

[MAbruce]

It depends on when everyone last bathed. [xx(][:P]

[orsonroy]

My layout room can hold as many as I can squeeze into it! For public viewing and open houses, I think I'll be able to get 10 people in the room at once, without things breaking. Operating sessions will have 4-6 max.

[CP5415]

For operating possibly 3.
Unfortunately, my layout has a crawl under due to ceiling height issues so I can fit 2 in the main control area with a third cab outside the layout.
For viewing, probably 5-6 comfortably.

Gordon

[FJ and G]

Bruce,

Odiferous model railroaders? :-)

A couple of interesting tidbits:

--In the 1950s, it was a popular spectator sport to see how many people can fit inside a telephone booth or VW Beetle.

--In MR's Trackplanning 2004, an article on trackplanning discusses putting the model train dispatcher inside the low-clearance helix. I think I'd go nuts in there with trains buzzing around my head.

dav

[Jetrock]

My garage gets so cluttered sometimes *I* can't even fit into my train room!

[AggroJones]

Me, plus one other person. Its pretty tight in there.

[Anonymous]

3 or 4 operators, depending on how the layout is operated. If viewing was for a show, I'd have two operators, and maybe 4 more viewing. My layout is in a study (small bedroom).

[Noah Hofrichter]

I could fit 6 or 8 probably, but I've never had that many people see it at once.[:(]

Noah

[Anonymous]

I'd begin to feel a sense of claustrophobia if more than 2 people were in my designated train room simultaneously...and good hygiene is an absolute must! [(-D]

[joseph2]

Depends on how bad my flatulence is.Four at the max. Joe G.

[BNSFNUT]

Three very close friends. [:)]
Two peaple for yard and main and one for the branch.
Then the we have to plan meets, Not the trains the peaple.

[fmilhaupt]

I'd say 18 to 25 viewers, comfortably, in the layout room, with 6 to 10 in the crew lounge.

Our usual operating complement is between 8 and 14, and we have plenty of elbow room during sessions.

[ClinchValleySD40]

I can fit about 30 viewers, but limit it to 20 or less (need at least 15) for operations.

[RMax1]

I'd say I can get 40 in. I have a large room. probably 10 could actually view comfortably.

RMax

[Anonymous]

I could probably cram about 40-50 in. I'm basing this on the fact that my train room (which doubles as a guest room) is about twice the size of the hall of residence rooms at the university I go to, and we managed to get 25 into one of those....Hey, we were bored![:D]

[cwclark]

I can get about 10 people in my room put the isles are narrow (more room for trains) so i give everyone a warning before they go in: DO NOT BUMP THE BENCHWORK

[vsmith]

15+ at the layout in the garage, but 2's a crowd in the workshop though!

[tomwatkins]

Three or four is comfortable. There is one place where aisle space gets tight (27") and people meets need to be planned there.

Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[Fergmiester]

8 Cubs and 10 parents with room to build Kub Kars. Still a tight fit

[dano99a]

15+ But they'd all be standing...

[Javern]

5 as long as nobody has a rear end over 2 ax handles wide

[BR60103]

We had a club meeting inside my layout (the wives were all upstairs) and we had 25 to 30 in it, but it was packed. There were fewer when I was demonstrating it.
For the NMRA convention, I limited it to 8 to 10 per shift.

[Anonymous]

Wow some of you have huge rooms! My new train room could handle 2 standing visitors and 1 operator. 1 visitor could be swapped for an operator if needed but the layout is designed for just one person.. me. :-)

Besides.. i'm doing good to keep my wife amused and in the room for 5 minutes let alone operating time.

Jeff [8D]

[trainboyH16-44]

35, but that's keeping quite a few of them under the layout, and noone can move. In practicality, about 6, but that's the definite max.
Matthew

[jeffshultz]

Any more than 4 or 5, and someone isn't going to be able to see anything...

[railroadyoshi]

well, hows about 1/2
haha
no
i can fit maybe 4 people at the front of the layout
Beyond that and on the sides, its no man's land
Its a real spuezze on the other three sides, between .75 and 1.5 ft width
I dont let visitors down those three sides because there is exposed sharp metal netting
plus, why would they want to go down there?

On my new layout, some 60-70 people could fit in the room(open 40x60 basement)
But maybe 10 people could stand around the 10x20 layout comfortably

[Rotorranch]

Depends on HOW good of friends we are, and possibly gender too! [;)] The more the merrier! [:D]

Seriously, maybe 3 or 4 guests, plus the two operators.

Rotor