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Where is Your Layout ?

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  • Member since
    December 2005
  • From: Spanaway, WA
  • 787 posts
Posted by SMassey on Friday, December 9, 2011 6:26 PM

I have a little 9x9 shed that comes with my space.  It started out as pure storage, then became a model boat building shop that moonlighted as a computer repair shop then that all got torn down and not it is a model railroad with a "fix just-a-bout anything" workshop.

 

Massey

 

p.s. My landlord was shocked when she found out what I did to my shed!!

A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

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Posted by HaroldA on Friday, December 9, 2011 4:59 PM
Mine is in the basement - and it's the only thing down there so I have lots of room to grow.

There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....

  • Member since
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  • From: sharon pa
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Posted by gondola1988 on Thursday, December 8, 2011 5:02 PM

I also have the basement with a house on it, we bought it 4 years ago and when I first looked at it I couldn't believe the basement, it was dry walled ,insulated with a  drop ceiling with recessed lights all around the walls. And so after 21 sheets of plywood and 4 sheets of homasote I have my railroad empire.Jim.

  • Member since
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  • From: Washington PA
  • 106 posts
Posted by West Penn Nscale on Thursday, December 8, 2011 1:20 PM

Has anyone said "DOGHOUSE"  I guess thats only when the wife finds a new loco on the layout...lol

Rich mine is in the garage in western pa ... Alot of homes out here have the 1/2 basement ..1/2 garage...would love to have the seperate building or large shed with power....

West Penn N

 

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, December 8, 2011 4:29 AM

Here is the latest tally:

Basement - 27

Spare Room - 18

Bedroom - 11

Separate Structure - 8

Garage - 5

Attic - 1

Now up to 70 layouts accounted for.

Can we reach 100?

 

Alton Junction

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  • From: A Comfy Cave, New Zealand
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Posted by "JaBear" on Thursday, December 8, 2011 2:52 AM

Basement, have in storage an 8'x4' layout I was helping a young fellow to build, he has since left town, and I'm looking at finishing the wiring and as it has 18'' curves and a 4% grad using it as a test track for my locos and rolling stock.

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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Posted by pastorbob on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 10:48 PM

Nice finished basement (Including a full bath and closet) with a furnace/air room.  Leaves me a modeling space of 30ft by 34ft, for a three deck layout.

Bob

Bob Miller http://www.atsfmodelrailroads.com/
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  • From: US
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Posted by jmbjmb on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 10:42 PM

A lot of folks have also given sizes for their layouts.  Just looking at the room choices, it would seem the "typical" layout is a lot smaller than the average bandied about (the really large ones would skew the average).    There might just be more useful information about the typical railroad in this thread than in previous official survey.

  • Member since
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  • From: Australia
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Where is Your Layout ?
Posted by Lady of the Rails on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 10:16 PM

My layout is in our Garage suspended above our car!

The only place available Laugh

The layout size is just over 4' X8'

Progress is slow but I am still enjoying the process.

Tracy - Lady who loves the Rails both model size & Real Life!

Building a model railroad (which lives above my Car) in the Land Down Under, Australia.

Computer My Railways blog about my Model Railroad adventures

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  • From: Brisbane Australia
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Posted by Alantrains on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 3:41 PM

I could start a 3rd layout..........Hmmm come to think of it , there's an old portable layout at my Dad's place that Mum wants to get rid of.....

Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)

 

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Posted by Annonymous on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 12:14 PM

Content removed due to a completely frak'ed up and incompetent Kalmbach customer service.

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  • From: New Mexico
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Posted by johncpo on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 10:14 AM

Greetings all

I recently purchased a "Weatherking" brand out building, one of many that is built under that name, (not to advertise) this one is a 10x20ft lofted barn and comes with a 6ft wide double opening front door centereds on one side as well as two 6x10ft lofts one on either end. Storage of anything extra in our house is provided very nicely. Additionally I have a workbench at one end, all of my 1/35th scale military dioramas and 1/48th scale aircraft under the one building roof, not to mention the 16ft HO shelf type layout with a return loop at each end. (All photos on my FB page) As this worked out to be a perfect building for just about everything hobby related it also serves as a workshop as the room is still quite workable with everthing extra in the lofts. I would recommend a building such as these to anyone that has extra outdoor room and they are constucted in such a way one can insulate, supply 110 power and place paneling and other finishing products on the inside to dress it up a bit. My barn was around 3k but worth the investment. Now all I have to do is heat the darn thing as the temps in SW New Mexico have hit below freezing and low 40s in the daytime.

The best,

johncpo 

  • Member since
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  • From: northeast ohio
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Posted by 0-6-0 on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 9:38 AM

Hello I am kinda suprised to see I am the only one with a attic layout. 

Richhotrain if you are sending out checks? My little girl she is 8 and would like to know is this counts as a basement layout Smile, Wink & Grin

if so then send 2 checks please. Have nice day Frank

  • Member since
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  • From: Culpeper, Va
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Posted by IRONROOSTER on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 8:56 AM

My layout is S scale so shouldn't I get a larger check - $1360?  Smile, Wink & Grin

Paul

If you're having fun, you're doing it the right way.
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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 6:27 AM

Alantrains

Did I mention that I have a second layout in a coffee table? ($2000) Wink

That second check is in the mail.

You don't by chance have a third layout, do you?

 

Alton Junction

  • Member since
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  • From: Brisbane Australia
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Posted by Alantrains on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 6:23 AM

Did I mention that I have a second layout in a coffee table? ($2000) Wink

Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)

 

  • Member since
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Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 6:10 AM

Here is the latest tally:

Basement - 25

Spare Room - 18

Bedroom - 11

Separate Structure - 7

Garage - 4

Attic - 1

So, we have 66 layouts accounted for.

Each of you who has responded will receive your $1,000 Participation Check in the mail shortly.   Laugh

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by jmbjmb on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 10:50 PM

Mine is in the dining room (few houses with basements in the South) since nobody uses the dining room to eat in anymore.  Room is 11x11 with layout along three walls.  In fact the room size and door/window location is almost a perfect match for the spare room layouts MRP had as a theme several years ago.  Working in that size and shape room has taught me:

a.  Small square rooms are less than ideal -- longer/narrow rooms give length for a reasonable town between corner curves.

b.  After hours of measuring, cutting, fitting, laying track, pulling up track, relaying track, I have come to the conclusion that less is more.   Even though my original plan was simple, pulling up some switches and track led to better operations and better appearance.  Not counting the staging yard, I'm down to just seven switches on the layout from the 15 I started with.

c.  As has been mentioned before, published plans are often way to optimistic about how much track will fit in a given space and don't allow enough room for switches, curves and the fact that actual track is wider than a pencil line.  Most of the layouts in those MRP plans I mentioned above try to cram way too much in the available space. 

d.  No matter how hard I try, I cannot always fit prototype track arrangements into the available space.  I spent a lot of effort trying to fit a realistic, selectively compressed version of a prototype town in there.  It took several years of attempts to realize I was better off modeling the "feel" rather than the actual towns, leading me toward a proto-freelance rather pure prototype.  From years of track planning, I probably need about twice the room size to fit a prototype in a satisfying way.

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 5:56 PM

Well, it is about time, mobilman44.  We have been waiting on you.    Laugh

 

Alton Junction

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Posted by ollevon on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 5:53 PM

I also have mine in the basement. Trying to talk the boss into building an addition onto the two car garage so I can cut a little hole in the wall and run the trains into the garage. The addition would be another two car garage.

  Sam

  • Member since
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  • From: Southeast Texas
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Posted by mobilman44 on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 5:46 PM

Yikes, I've just reviewed all the postings and realized I have yet to participate!

Mine is in the largest of 4 upstairs bedrooms - 11 1/2 x 15 ft. 

The other 3 rooms are my hobby/PC room, the Wife's hobby/PC room, and a legitimate guest bedroom.

Having the use of a spare bedroom is excellent, but the minus is that all your stuff has to go thru the house before it hits the layout room.  Thus, extra care must be taken to not mess up the hallway or stairs.

 

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

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Posted by groundeffects on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 5:19 PM

Mine is in the living room.  Its a coffee table layout 2' x 4' and is N scale. The layout has a glass top plus plexiglass sides (it's a Ikea coffee table) so it is relatively dustproof and cat-proof!

Jeff B

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Posted by TheRock on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:54 PM

Basement for me; it takes up a majority of a 33' by 24' space.

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:53 PM

TA462

I've seen one in a guitar case once that I thought was incredible.  So much detail in such a small case.  

You're not just stringing us along, are you?   LaughLaughLaugh

 

Alton Junction

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:48 PM

BroadwayLion

 

Where did you put mine... I did not see "Spare Classroom" mentioned ☺

richhotrain no want to offend King of Beasts.  Him place Lion's layout in spare room category.  Him now fearful that room was wrongly CATegorized. If LION be mad at HIM, richhotrain be willing to change location immediately.   Black Eye

 

Alton Junction

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:44 PM

leighant

Nobody said suitcase or cardboard packing carton?

Is that where yours is located?

Alton Junction

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Posted by BroadwayLion on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:37 PM

richhotrain

In what is now universally accepted as The Greatest and Most Important Model Railroading Survey in the History of Mankind, here is the tally so far:

Basement - 23

Spare Room - 15

Bedroom - 11

Separate Structure - 7

Garage - 4

Attic - 1

So, we have 61 layouts accounted for.

Rich

 

 

Where did you put mine... I did not see "Spare Classroom" mentioned ☺

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 leighant on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:36 PM

Nobody said suitcase or cardboard packing carton?

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:34 PM

nssd70m

I also know some model railroaders who don't have a layout.

...................and, no offense to those who don't have a layout at the present time.  Just curious where yours is located if, indeed, you have one currently.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
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  • From: Dearborn Station
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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, December 6, 2011 3:29 PM

In what is now universally accepted as The Greatest and Most Important Model Railroading Survey in the History of Mankind, here is the tally so far:

Basement - 23

Spare Room - 15

Bedroom - 11

Separate Structure - 7

Garage - 4

Attic - 1

So, we have 61 layouts accounted for.

Rich

 

Alton Junction

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