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The Average-Sized Layout is 225 Sq Ft

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The Average-Sized Layout is 225 Sq Ft
Posted by SpaceMouse on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:10 PM

That is the figure put forth in the MAR 07 MR. That is a 15 x 15 room.

I don't know if that is room size or the layout square footage. Either way it seems on the large size to me. 

Is yours bigger or smaller.

My current layout is 40 sq ft. The one I'm just starting is room size: 88 sq ft--add staging and it is 106 sq ft. Actual Benchwork sq ft. 44 sq ft--with staging  56 sq ft.

 

Chip

Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.

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Posted by Robby P. on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:22 PM
I only have a 4 x 8.  I have alot of catching up to do.  I have a BIG basement but I dont think the wife will like it if I take it all. Sigh [sigh]

 "Rust, whats not to love?"      

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Posted by NS2591 on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:25 PM
I have just less than 10x12 feet for a layout, and the layout occupies all that except for 3 foot aisles.
Jay Norfolk Southern Forever!!
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Posted by dwhitetop2 on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:30 PM
That does seem fairly large. My room size is 12 by 24 my layout is 8 by 20 around the walls with a 2 by 6 yard. By the way its HO.      Dave
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Posted by HEdward on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:34 PM
120 square feet for me.  Then again, there will be the two foot deep Dept 56 diorama with the Marx O under the HO layout so we could say 160 sq ft.  I'm still well under average.  I feel so inadequite.Sigh [sigh]
Proud to be DD-2itized! 1:1 scale is too unrealistic. Twins are twice as nice!
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Posted by oldno9 on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:38 PM
only 70 sqft of garage-based nscale bliss for me.  The statistics prove it, time for a new house!
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Posted by HEdward on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:42 PM

 Robby P. wrote:
I only have a 4 x 8.  I have alot of catching up to do.  I have a BIG basement but I dont think the wife will like it if I take it all. Sigh [sigh]

 

My wife gave me the entire basement.  That means that even tho the utilities and laundry room take a quarter of it, and the bar and pool table area and the lounge area and the mini office and the game table area.  Well, I still have a 12x24 foot space.  Since I neede access to the storage under the layout(s)I split it up unevenly.  Two feet aisle along the wall.  Four feet from the laundryroom door and from the aisle down the center of the basement.  No space from the sofa in the lounge.  Leaves me 6x20.  Simple.  Now if I can only get this moving at a visible rate of progress

(hey, you changed your avatar!)

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Posted by galaxy on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:46 PM

For HO I have 16 square feet.

There is a small upper level on it that is 8.4 square feet.

I hope to add a hinged fiddle/staging yard that will be about 3 square feet- 3.8 square feet.

So I hope to have a total of 28 square feet.

It is all the space I can use right now, and I am thrilled to be back in the hobby and have that much!!!

I should sell condos....

-G .

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

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Posted by Robby P. on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:48 PM
After you said something about it, I said hey, it doesnt look right blue.  This avatar is alot better.

 "Rust, whats not to love?"      

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Posted by HEdward on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:55 PM

 Robby P. wrote:
After you said something about it, I said hey, it doesnt look right blue.  This avatar is alot better.

There's another thread mentioning NS and their black and white design.  I thought you were campaigning for a change.

I get to see a few NS trains in my travels.  Blue and white reminded me of the BTHS model railroad club from back in the 1970s.

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Posted by IRONROOSTER on Saturday, March 3, 2007 6:57 PM

My current layout is in a room 11'4" x 18'8" or about 210 sq ft - the actual bechwork occupies 114 sq ft, but I am going to replace it with one that expands into more of the basement.  Actual benchwork will be about 190 sq ft in a basement area that is about 800 sq ft.

Enjoy

Paul 

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Posted by cacole on Saturday, March 3, 2007 7:19 PM

And just where does MR get the data upon which they based their statement?  They must be going solely on the average size of the monster layouts that they feature in their magazine and not the average size that most of us have.  I don't recall their ever conducting a poll of their readers to see what size layouts we have.  If they did, I certainly missed seeing it.  The 15 x 15 foot figure would mean that the entire room is nothing but layout, with no open space to move around in, so the actual room would have to be much larger than that.

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Posted by Don Z on Saturday, March 3, 2007 7:27 PM

Well, I'm average! Big Smile [:D] My layout room is 15' x 15' exactly.

Don Z.

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Posted by HEdward on Saturday, March 3, 2007 7:28 PM
I would say the readers have larger layouts than the overall hobby.  A smaller layout owner may not be as deeply involved as larger layout owners would be and therefore not subscribe.  If I wasn't doing the storage and dept 56 diorama I'd have a helix and two levels bringing my layout to 240 sq ft.
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Posted by Pathfinder on Saturday, March 3, 2007 7:48 PM

My room size is 9x13 (117 sq ft).  The layout is around-the-walls, with a 2' depth for the most part so actual layout sq ft is much lower (and no second level to make up for it).

I am so below average  Cool [8D]

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Posted by jon grant on Saturday, March 3, 2007 7:53 PM

Sweeyhome Chicago is only 34 square feet, little more than a piece of 4 by 8. Shucks!!

One way

 

 

The other way

 

 

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Posted by selector on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:02 PM
My benchtop surface area is about 101 ft sq, while the area occupied by the benchwork is 124 ft sq.  The differential is in the operating pit.
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Posted by lvanhen on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:07 PM
I'm undersize too!!!  4x8=32SF  Someday I'll move into that larger retirement home!!Big Smile [:D]
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Posted by GAPPLEG on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:08 PM
Mine is 12x16 so that comes out to be 192 sq. ft.
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:36 PM

My layout room is only about 100 sq ft.  Subtracting the aisles and counting the various layers ( 2 - 4 layers) gives me about 350 sq feet of actual layout.  I have 300' of track and 34 turnouts in that area.

 

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Posted by tstage on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:40 PM

As I mentioned in a similar thread a couple of weeks ago, I'm WAY below average at 32 sq. ft.  Can I be graded on a curve?  (No!...Wait!...That's way too steep of a grade.  14% to be exact.)

Anyhow, as far as the future is concerned, it doesn't look like I'll be joining the MRR "Mensa Club" any time soon.  I'll manage to have fun somehow...

Tom

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Posted by jrbernier on Saturday, March 3, 2007 8:54 PM

  My calculator says I have about 400 sq ft of available space, and the actual layout takes up about 165 sq ft - Gotta have room to move around!

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

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Posted by tigerstripe on Saturday, March 3, 2007 10:11 PM

Room is 12 X 13, 156 sq ft.

Layout is around the walls, approx 100 sq ft.

Like the price of houses 9 are $150,000, the 10th is 1.3 million;

that will throw the average way up but is not a true representation.

I think the same is true with layouts, from previous posts it appears

most are confined to the garage or extra bedroom.

But some are lucky enough to have entire use of a 3000 sq ft basement.

So 225 might be the average but perhaps we should be looking at the

mean or median number. I forget the proper math term but you get what I mean.

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Posted by SpaceMouse on Saturday, March 3, 2007 10:15 PM

Just a thought. We are mostly HO and N Scalers. I bet if the S-ers and O-ers were to vote the size would jump a bit.

For the person that asked, the MR survey took place several years ago. They did not define several.

Chip

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Posted by RedGrey62 on Saturday, March 3, 2007 10:32 PM

The layout I am building right now is 8 square feet, 2 X 4 freemo module.  However, it looks like we will close on a new house in August and my wife has promised a room in the basement, 14 X 28.  She said I had 3 years from the time I move back in (sounds bad doesn't it!?), military stationed away from her, to get a layout started or she is claiming eminent domain!  No worries, she just said started, not finished, whew!

Rick

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Posted by RMax1 on Saturday, March 3, 2007 10:38 PM

My room is 22x18 for 396sqft.  The layout is 13x9 for 117sqft/  I guess that would make the average layout about right.  MRR shows layouts that are 4 to 5 times the size of mine. 4x117 = 468 + 117 / 2 = 292.5  So what is average anyway!

 

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Saturday, March 3, 2007 10:52 PM

As a former working statistician, this kind of statistic comes under the general heading 'meaningless.'  Kind of like saying the average woman wears a size 8 shoe.  The woman you're looking at may be a pixie-sized gymnast or a bodybuilding amazon.  What shoe size does SHE wear?

Whatever layout I had at any given time was average - FOR ME.  Sizes ranged from 16 x 96 inches, to 3 x 6, to spare bedroom, to (finally) double garage.  As for whether Joe Jones had an N-trak module or a layout big enough to model the state of Rhode Island, I kneweth not - nor did I care.

As I once posted about the ubiquitous 4 x 8, it can be anything from a cramped O scale engine terminal to a Z scale empire.  It's not how big the space is, it's what is done with it and how satisfying it is to the owner.  One size does NOT fit all!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a 2-car garage)

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Posted by ezielinski on Sunday, March 4, 2007 12:45 AM
My HO layout is 8x18 at it's widest points - roughly 136 sq. feet.
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Posted by pkeppers on Sunday, March 4, 2007 12:58 AM

I think 225 is probably a good median number.

My layout is 22 X 28 with 2 visible levels and another partial level for staging.

That 22 X 28 includes the basement stairs, furnace and water heater.  The washer and dryer are under the workbench.

I consider my layout to be at about the 70th percentile of the ones I have been to meaning that 70% are smaller and 30% are bigger. 

 

 

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Posted by gp30 on Sunday, March 4, 2007 11:59 AM

 HI I have a 10x11Ft room 110sqft still working on a plan

August

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