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Where is Your Layout ?

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  • Member since
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  • From: Dearborn Station
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Where is Your Layout ?
Posted by richhotrain on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:24 AM

Mine is in my basement.

I assume yours is in a garage, a spare bedroom, or some other room in your house.

Anyone use an attic for his layout?

What I really wonder is whether anyone has a separate structure or outbuilding where the layout is maintained.

So, where is your layout?

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by Alantrains on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:25 AM

Spare room, so you were right in my case.

No basements in Queensland.

Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)

 

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Posted by richhotrain on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:27 AM

Alantrains

Spare room, so you were right in my case.

No basements in Queensland.

Which spare room?    Bedroom, den, living room?

Alton Junction

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Posted by tstage on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:51 AM

Basement.

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by rrinker on Friday, December 2, 2011 6:53 AM

 Larger of the two bedrooms in my apartment.

              --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:05 AM

We added a garage some years back, with a train room as the second floor.  It came out too nice, and became a family room with a section for the trains.  Now that my daughter has gone to college, I'm slowly re-claiming territory.  It's a great space - large, well lit, carpeted floor, heat and air conditioning.  I still share it with the large family TV and some couches.  That lets me work on the layout and watch football on Sundays at the same time.  I get a lot of ballasting done that way.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:09 AM

Here in the Mid Atlantic most people have basements, so that is were most of the other modelers I know have their layouts.

But I live in a 110 year old house, and the basement is not really suitable for model trains - even after we did a lot of work to it. It has a low ceiling, lots of ductwork, heating pipes, boiler, oil tanks, well pump and tank, water conditioner, A/C air handler, support posts, electric panels, etc, etc. 

So my layout space is in a room above my detached garage. The garage is 32' x 40' with a 12/12 pitch roof to match the house.

This provides a 22' x 40' room, with angled upper walls like an attic, for my train room. It is fully insulated, it has osb sheathing on the walls rather than drywall to allow easy attchment of the layout structure. It is fully heated and cooled by a propane furness and A/C unit in the "attic" space above the the layout room.

I designed the building specifily for all the purposes it serves and supervised its constructiion.

It only has two windows, one front, one back, set pretty high off the floor, nearly 5 feet.

The lower level of the garage houses our two cars, garden tractor and my workshop.

My model train workshop area is in the house, in the basement.

My layout was originally screwed in place, built attached to the walls/floor. But currently I am rebuilding it into moveable modules because we do not plan to retire here - so the layout needs to be able to go with me. I have past the point in this hobby were I have any desire to start over - I will not tear down and throw out any more layouts.

So, I may "complete" a new version before we move, or I might not - but in any case whatever modeling I do get completed will travel to the new retirement house and it will be selected or custom built to have a suitable space for the layout.

That may be a basement, or another custom building such as I have now.

Sheldon

    

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Posted by UncBob on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:10 AM

In my basement separated by a wall and doorway  from my cabinet making workshop

 

51% share holder in the ME&O ( Wife owns the other 49% )

ME&O

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Posted by Phoebe Vet on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:19 AM

Two car attached garage.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

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Posted by secondhandmodeler on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:57 AM

Mine is in the extra living room.  I have half of a 22x14 room with 18 foot ceilings.  It's not your typical layout room! 

Corey
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Posted by colesdad on Friday, December 2, 2011 7:59 AM

Mine is on the second floor of my house, in a living room that we don't use, "as a living room". Our house, before we bought it, was built in three phases, you see. The first was original structure. The second, out the back, was two story, with a family/dining room on the first floor, and the master bedroom/bathroom on the second. The third phase, out the front, was a two car garage on the ground level, and two bedrooms, full bath, laundry room, closet, and TV/family room. We are not much of a TV family, as we limit what our 8 year old son watches on TV. We also spend much of our evening in our master bedroom. My sons bedroom is on the "other side" we call it, because, as i stated one expansion out the back, and one out the front.

So, I'm slowly building an around the walls shelf style layout in the "TV" room. It's on the second floor, inside, heat and air conditioning, hardwood/laminate flooring. The only bad thing right now, is the lighting is not good for a layout space. This can all be worked out at some point though. Just not a necessitiy at this time.

Learn something new everyday!
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Posted by galaxy on Friday, December 2, 2011 8:06 AM

Spare bedroom that is also affectionately called the "junk room" as it is where we store what we don't have space for elsewhere.

Since trailers don't have basements, neither the layout nor the "extra schtuff" has anywhere else to be.

We also have a 42" square layout in the Living ROom for the Christmas time layout.

Geeked

-G .

Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.

 HO and N Scale.

After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.

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Posted by dknelson on Friday, December 2, 2011 8:18 AM

The disappointing part of my layout is in the basement.

The nice part of the layout is still in my brain.

Dave Nelson

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Posted by jpmorrison on Friday, December 2, 2011 8:20 AM

mine is in a building in the backyard  24 x 54

 

jeff

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Posted by secondhandmodeler on Friday, December 2, 2011 8:31 AM

dknelson

The disappointing part of my layout is in the basement.

The nice part of the layout is still in my brain.

Dave Nelson

That's hilarious!Laugh

Corey
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Posted by BRVRR on Friday, December 2, 2011 9:18 AM

My 4' X 10' layout is in a spare 10' 6" X  9'6" bedroom which also serves as a computer room.

Remember its your railroad

Allan

  Track to the BRVRR Website:  http://www.brvrr.com/

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Friday, December 2, 2011 9:19 AM

Basement...

Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry

I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...

http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/

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Posted by gandydancer19 on Friday, December 2, 2011 9:24 AM

In a separate finished room in our finished off (insulated, dry-walled, and painted) detached garage.

Elmer.

The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.

(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:03 AM

I've got the family room (see my post on the first page) but I did offer my wife the family room for her crafts and stuff in exchange for the basement.  I was actually surprised she turned me down.  I think she realized that the trains are actually a lot more attractive upstairs than all her clutter would have been, and she doesn't have to straighten things up for company!

I'm glad it worked out this way.  My train room is bigger.  Still, every now and then I look at the basement and think about how I would have arranged a layout there.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by blownout cylinder on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:05 AM

My basement layout also shares a certain amount of space with my recording studio....which can get a little hectic here.

 

Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry

I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...

http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/

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Posted by Texas Zepher on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:09 AM

richhotrain
So, where is your layout?

At the moment it is in my head.    However, I do have a separate building that I purchased for it.   Making the two meet is the hard part.  I've been three years now just trying to get the building ready (like no leaks in the roof, properly running water, sewer etc.).

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Posted by Heartland Division CB&Q on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:21 AM

Our house is on a hillside, and it has a lower level (some call it a walk out basement). It includes a 64' long room dedicated to the layout. There is also a separate woodworking shop in the lower level with various power tools. The layout room is along the "uphill" side of the lower level, and it is against foundation walls covered with drywall. There are interior walls to separate the layout room and the workshop from the other rooms in the lower level. 

GARRY

HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR

EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU

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Posted by E-L man tom on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:25 AM

My small switching layout shares space with my office in the second bedroom of my apartment. The layout is L-shaped. 9 feet long by 2 feet wide along one wall and 5 feet long by 1 foot wide along the adjoining wall. I also have a planned 2 1/2 foot long cassette attachment to go on the end of th3 5' x 1' side for "staging"

And, like any apartments, they do not like holes in the drywall, so, to stabilize the narrow L-girder constructed benchwork, it is attached to the wall using "outriggers", which are attached to the base boards with drywall screws.

Tom Modeling the free-lanced Toledo Erie Central switching layout.
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Posted by BroadwayLion on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:42 AM

The LION built his railroad in a Classroom! ☺ It is a second (or third floor--depending on how you count them) floor above the library.

 

The rest of my layout is outdoors:

 

The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.

Here there be cats.                                LIONS with CAMERAS

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Posted by richhotrain on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:49 AM

BroadwayLion

The LION built his railroad in a Classroom! ☺ It is a second (or third floor--depending on how you count them) floor above the library.

How do we know that you're not LION to us?    Laugh

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by BATMAN on Friday, December 2, 2011 10:59 AM

In 1997 at age Forty I finely found someone that could tolerate my weird sense of humour and married her. Sold my average size house on my average size lot in North Vancouver and bought a Mcmansion in the country. 1.25 acres with a near new 5000 Sq. ft house all for the same price as my little house in the city. Can you say "Train Room"It was always in the back of my mind to get a house big enough to have a decent Train Room. The only down side was trading in the hot sports car for a Honda Civic for the commute. I rode my bike the 11Kms. each way at the old place.

My layout is in what the Real estate Agent called the guest suit. I hope my guest trains have a happy stay.

The down side of the room is a big window, three doors and a six foot wide entry way into the room. The upside is a fireplace, Bar and full bathroom. One of the bedrooms is my model building/repair room.

We are now looking to move further East as the developers are knocking at the door. When I bought the house the closest bus stop was 12 Km. away, it is now 8Km. away. That's close enough to smell the new Walmart. We are probably going to have a house built for us that will have the things that my wife's hobby needs and 400 Sq. FT. Trainroom. That's about the right size for this Lone Wolf.

Bar with Lazyboy.

Office/repair room.

I feel pretty lucky having the space I want.

                          BrentCowboy

Brent

"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."

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Posted by richhotrain on Friday, December 2, 2011 11:07 AM

Texas Zepher

 richhotrain:
So, where is your layout?
At the moment it is in my head.    However, I do have a separate building that I purchased for it.   Making the two meet is the hard part.  I've been three years now just trying to get the building ready (like no leaks in the roof, properly running water, sewer etc.).

http://www.walkersquawker.net/images/schoolgymfrontsummer.JPG

Wow, how big is that space?

Alton Junction

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Posted by twhite on Friday, December 2, 2011 11:34 AM

Mine is in a typical "California Basement"--AKA the 2-car garage.  Nobody out around these parts parks their cars in their garages, garages around here are for storage and 'guy stuff'.  The Yuba River Sub is my 'guy stuff', LOL!

Tom Big Smile

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, December 2, 2011 11:51 AM

Mine is right now occupying the better half of my desk, leaving just enough room for a stack of MR copies, the notebook I am typing this on, and a telephone. My wife has already started to be a little grouchy about this mess, so I will have to finally put op the racks & rails for the planned shelf, on which my mini-modular N scale layout will find its final position.

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Posted by tgindy on Friday, December 2, 2011 12:26 PM

Room dimensions are 9'x9' with an in-the-open offset hallway adjacent to the furnace room for its anti-Jack Frost hobby room winter feature.

In a split-entry home, the basement is not a basement, but half of the lower level is finished, with a hobby room for a 100 year-old library bookcase plus an organ along the wall -- With a 5'x9' layout space.  Now, why would CR&T be N Scale?

Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956

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