Here we go again,just wondering what your layout height is & why you chose that height,by the way mine is 39 inches & I wish it was higher cause Im 6ft.
It's been a long time since I measured, but I think the rails would be about 48" above the floor. I'm 6' tall.
Mine is 42". The rationale--that's the height of the bottom of the light switch.
Richard
Great answers now all I have to do is figure out how to raise my around the room layout without hurting the completed scenery...
I think optimal height is around 48 to 50 inches. I built my staging at 42 and the main yard at 50 inches. I don't care for viewing trains much below that - it's like viewing trains from a helecopter. It's better to view them more from the sides like real life. Get close to 50 inches, at least for someone near 6 feet tall, and thats a good compromise between accessibility and viewing angle. I have a step stool for working on it though such as track laying or other work.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have built layouts up around 46" high, two of them, and one down at 24". All of them were very enjoyable. I found the height to be largely irrelevant except in the case of imagery; the camera must be down close to the 'ground' level. Otherwise, I can honestly enjoy kids' Thomas layouts down at 16" or ones where I almost need a step-stool.
It happens that storage is important for me. I have to be able to store stuff under the layout, so this means I will be building my new garage layout up around 46-52" (not sure yet...have to think about it a bit more). This has the happy collateral advantage of not having to stoop to retrieve items or to place a camera, or even just to appreciate a more natural placement of my eyes when watching the trains move.
My current layout is 50" high. I had a 58" high layout a few years ago and while the viewing angle was great for the first track, I had trouble seeing behind the train. Less than 50" seems too low. This is for S scale and I'm 5'11". If I were doing it in HO I'd probably go to 54". For N scale 56".
I highly suggest you do some mockups with running trains before picking a height.
Good luck
Paul
Around 34". It is great to work on and when seated on a roll around, give you that close to eye level look.
My rails are 38 1/2 inches above the floor. I'm 5'10". It's uncomfortably low to work on from below, but it makes it easier to reach over from above. If I were to do it again, I'd go higher.
But, my train room has a 45-degree angled roofline on two sides, so every inch I raise the layout reduces the room's width by 2 inches. That's the compromise I had to make.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My layout is 50" to the top of the plywood. I'm 5'6" SHORT so this is fine as my depth on top is 30" Lower level staging is 38".
I can reach it all (Okay, I may have to stand on tip toes and the corners with a step stool).
Neal
42" legs, because that's half of the length of the beams I bought. When I sit in a chair, it's at eye level. Plywood, foam, and trackbed put it at about 44"
Julian
Modeling Pre-WP merger UP (1974-81)
Hi!
Always a good question.......... My HO layout is 41 inches high, and I'm 5'9.5".
I chose 41" as I have a lower level staging and need the height to utilize a 2 percent incline between levels.
If I had a single level, I would likely do 40 inches.
But of course this is all a personal situation. Some like to look up at a layout, or be at eye level, or have an airplane view down to it - or somewhere in between.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
My layout height is about 53" which provides an eye-level view for adults. This is a great eight me at 5'8". I don't like having people look down at the layout. My little kids can either get held up or stand on a chair.
My layout is one level and it is 52" high.
At my club, the layout height varies from 40" to 51" off the floor. And where it's 51" and where there's a yard, we have a 10" plywood platform on the floor for the yard operators to stand on.
The reasoning is that while higher tracks makes the trains look better, lower tracks makes the layout operate better because you can see the car numbers on tracks 2, 3, 4, etc.
If you just want to run trains in circles, then you'd probably like running at 50"+ to give you that railfan experience. If you need to read car numbers, than the low forty inch level is probably more suited for you.
Paul A. Cutler III
42 inches. Chosen arbitrarily. My work table slides under it nicely and I have a lot of stuff stored under it.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
To be perfectly honest I took the easy way out which coincidently gave a good height to the layout. I simply cut the the 2X4's used for legs in half making the top 48" high and with plywood and foam the top is approximately 51". Worked for me and saved a lot of sawing.
Just my Worth
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Mine is 50" high. I am very happy with it As I like the viewing angle. I wouldn't like having it either higher or lower.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
I'm 6'-4" and the ceiling in my basement is only an inch or two above my head. 42" made my 4 x 8 layout viewable but still accessible to work on; both on the top and bottom sides of the layout. Had the layout been any higher it would have felt like I was modeling in the top bunk of a bunk bed.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Roughly 20". It's an end table I'm making specificly for running trains on. There's a top level about 30" high, but that's mostly for magazines :p
Mine is about 45" at the lowest levels, which looks about right to me.
Here is something to think about: Sure, the closer to eye level, the better it looks when you are right next to it, but at those higher levels it can detract from the overall presence when you enter the room. That "Wow" factor when visitors walk in, and of course kids too.
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
My N scale layout is 48" to the top surface.When I mount the Z layout it will also be at 48".If I live long enough to build my HO switching layout,it to will be at 48".
Why 48"? Because I can set my chair to a height that allows eye level viewing when all I want to do is watch trains run.
This is a great thread. It is very informative to see what others are doing and why.
After much debating I have decided on 36" for the main level and 12" for the staging.
My reasoning is that I have both back pain when standing and neuropathy in my lower legs so I'm planning on being able to sit on a rolling office chair most of the time. I want the staging low enough to clear a valley on the main level that will be about 18" deep. Access to the staging has to run under the valley.
In case you are wondering, I will build the staging in sections which can be laid in place after the main level is fully wired. I will use the main level sub roadbed as a workbench to build the staging sections before any of the main level work is done. Since both levels are essentially the same shape I should be able to test the staging while it is still on the main level. At least, that's the theory. We shall see.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
50" to the railhead and 45-1/2" to the bottom of the benchwork framing. The primary determinant was to have at least 44" clear under the benchwork for a relatively high duck-under. The actual construction details produced the final dimension.
The basic plan is a doughnut with a maximum benchwork width of 24". I am 5'-9"; these dimensions work okay except I use a low step stool if I have to work on the staging area behind the view block.
Dante
45" from the garage floor. That's 0" elevation (terminal and yards) on the railroad, which gradually rises through 2-2.2% grades to about 70" at its highest elevation. It's an around the wall with one "Island", so being 6'1" myself, I have no problems reaching anywhere on the layout.
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
My track is between 60" and 66" high. The layout varies from under 60" up to 84" mountain peaks. I am 72" tall. My trains are in your face. The tops of buildings are over your eye line and the tops of mountains are over your head. And that is the way I like it. I've had shorter layouts but I prefer taller layouts so you can see the details better.