Coming in from the cold

[deckroid]

Hey everyone

I need some input on a small room layout. I am getting older and my hands don't work as well in the cold as they once did. That being the case, I have been 'given' a room in our house instead of the garage. The catch is I have to build a Murphy Bed as the room I am taking is the former "Guest Room". Actually the real reason my wife gave up the space was because we had a full sized bed in there and it was a bit tight for the guests, so I get it. Anything to come in from the cold garage... especially now since snow is forecast for this weekend.

I had a 9 x 11 layout started at our other house and it didn't make the move a year ago very well. Last fall, I put it back together again but then the cold weather hit and the trains sat unused at home until the late spring. Oh, they ran at the club... but there is something about running trains at your own place...

I have been given the smallest room in the house save for the laundry alcove. it is 9 x 12. The room is in the basement and has one window, but that won't come into play as it is so dang high. But there are two doors to the room. One main entry and the other is to a Jack and Jill bathroom. I did a quick and ugly drawing to show you what I have to work with.



I know I want a continuous run and two trains at once would be very nice. (Having a pal over every so often to run is fun) If I took my 9 x 11 and cut out 2 feet per side to make it square, it wouldn't be the end of the world. But that could seriously cut into my industries I wanted. I don't think I need to use the bathroom door, as I can exit the room and cut thru my 5 yr old's room... but in a few years, she might not like that.

I can think of about 5 or 6 layouts that are continuous loops with enough space for me and someone else to sit on bar stools and do some minor switching and watching trains roll. As if all this weren't enough to ponder, a friend gave me a 90ft turn table and a 3 bay round house and I would love to use it, but I just cannot figure a way to do so with so limited a space and keep what I want.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

George

[Gary S]

George, i'm not much on layout design, but exactly what are your "givens and druthers"?

[deckroid]

Hey Gary

I would say that my Givens are as follows:

9x9 square with a slight bit added on the side wall that has the closet. I took the folding doors off the closet and put in shelving floor to ceiling. I wanted as much shelf space in the closet for bits and things I don't want to store under the layout. I want to reserve under the layout for my work space. I have a small desk that works well.

I have an over abundance of blue foam and lumber from my last layout so I can have mountains and what not. And I have about ~100 feet of track, wyes, turn outs 4 and 6 both left and right (Mostly Atlas, but some Peco)

22" or 24" turns. I don't run many 85 footers, so I dont need the 30".

That's about it for Givens.

My Druthers .... oooooooh... my Druthers....

Use the walter's 90 turntable and 3 bay roundhouse.
Some light industrial switching. Not heavy, but enough to make it a challenge.
Double track... I really enjoy watching trains running in opposite directions.

If I sold my kids to the gypsies I could have the entire basement to myself... hmmm... no, the wife might notice they were gone and start asking sticky questions.

I guess if I want continuous running I will have to go with the duck under/lift out type of modified donut. That doesn't bother me, mind you, but my wife hates it. She is on the less than tall side and I am on the over and above short side so I like to have my layouts above 48". It makes tree planting and ballasting not so back breaking.

I know roughly what I am going to do, but I really hope to get the same great feed back I have come to expect from everyone here.

Thanks!

[deckroid]

Here is an update on the new Train Room.

While I have a general idea of what I want my layout to look like, I have yet to set it to stone. I need to know what I have to work with, so with that in mind, I started out by heading off to that big box store whose name starts with the letter Lowes. They were out of 18 inch brackets for the rails I wanted, so I got the 14 inch ones. Before anyone chastises me, I knew I was going to use some legs for at least one side of the layout... the pics will give a better example.

While there, I also picked up 2 8 foot 1x4s. Or 1x3s, as some call them. After taking apart my layout from the garage and reusing the wood, I realized that while this layout will be a bit smaller, I wanted to keep the 1x4s as long as I could. As I was going through the many warped and wowed pieces of lumber, my 5 year old daughter stated in front of a group of employees, "Dad, there isn't a straight piece of wood in this whole place!". Which was true. Nonetheless, I grabbed the two best and high tailed it out.

Got home and did the following work.









Now that the three sides are up and screwed in place, I simply can't believe how immovable that thing is. It doesn't shimmy or shake (much). If I really horse on it, it will move but not much.

I am trying to reuse as much of the original material as I can. However, since I destroyed 60% of my blue foam when trying to remove structures and get to the L-Girders, I went over to where they are putting up the new state run Affordable Housing and found some 1 inch blue foam in the dumpster. Yes, I am not above diving for foam or 2x4s. I figure, its about 4 bucks for a 2ft x 4ft piece of that blue gold and these guys where tossing it out anyway...

The fourth side to this layout has yet to be built. I have some 2 inch foam that I hadn't gotten around to using yet and I am thinking of stacking it up and have the duck under be a high spanning bridge. It wouldn't need to be 2 feet wide that way. I am currently looking for some double tracked plans/kits for spans of about 24 - 32 inches long.

More to come. I wish I had a scanner, then I could show what plans I am doodling on paper. Maybe my camera could do the job... ?

George

[mountaingoatgreg]

George,

Looks like you are off to a good start on the benchwork, I have found that sometimes it is best to just start building with some idea in mind and let the rest fall into place.
Here are a few questions to help me understand what you are looking for.
I see you are using the NP as your avatar are you focusing on the NP in your modeling or just like the logo?
Do you have an area of the country you would like represented in you modeling?
I know you stated you would like to have double track but could you live with a mainline and a branchline/ logging line?
What type of trains would you like to model and what lenght?
What type of power system are you going to use DC/DCC?

That is it for now, I have a few idead to send your way if you are modeling the NP and may be able to help if you are modeling somewhere else.

[e-paw]

looks like that bench work goes up rather quickly. Good luck with it.

[deckroid]

Hi Greg

I really enjoy modeling in NP. I would say that 98% of my rolling stock and engines are NP. The other 2% are SP&S and Milwaukee Road. I grew up in Eastern Washington, so that is what I am trying for. What's nice about that is I can make a desert and logging on the same layout. Mountains on one side, fruit/meat packing on the other.

Double track is on my druthers list, as I would like to have it, but it's not a requirement. Having fun is. And moving freight around the layout while doing a lap or two is fun for me. I have a Walthers 22 inch bridge from my last layout, and if I incorporate an Atlas steel bridge on either side, it gets me my length for the 4th side.

As for the length of my trains, I run early diesel and steam. Also I have a RDC that I like to run around too. I think the longest I have is my 2-6-6-2 and it comes in at almost 13 inches. It's just a bit too long for the 90' turn table my friend gave me. But I don't usually run that engine at my home layout. I save it for the club with out long drawn out curves.

I am running DCC. I generally like to have my base unit (Zephyr) in a corner and then use my hand held unit as I throw switches and what not. That little hand held unit fits nicely in a shirt pocket.

Thanks!

George

[deckroid]

looks like that bench work goes up rather quickly. Good luck with it.

The most time consuming thing so far was measuring for the brackets. I have a laser level and stud finder, but it still took 2 hours. I wanted to make DANG sure that it was as level as I could make it. On a friends layout, if you are not paying attention to your cars after dropping them off in one yard, they can roll down hill and jump the track. He tells me the earth isn't a pane of glass so why should his layout be...

The actual wood cutting and putting together went smooth and relatively quickly despite having my 3 year old helper. He really REALLY wants dad's trains to run again.

George

[mountaingoatgreg]

George,

How about a model of Pasco on one side and the Eastern Washington countryside on the other. Pasco of course would be very compresed but you could put the turntable and roundhouse in the corner nearest the closet and possibly have a track sneak behing the facility to some staging on a shelf in the closet. Also for your open gap between the two sections you could do a compressed version of the large bridge going to Kenniwick. when it gets back onto the other side of the lake a nice tall forest will diguise the two ends.

Once it emerges from there you could have another small town with station and some industries, maybe a connecting branch/logging line. Again along the wall with the window another grouping of tall trees and maybe a lake in the foreground then back into Pasco. I know Pasco had a neat passenger station and also lots of

You probably have seen this but this from the joint GN-NP Archieves

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[deckroid]

Greg,

You know, I was thinking Pasco by the closet with Yakima on the corner by the window leading into to Cle Elum on the other corner and then Easton and logging with the forest side. Cross the bridge and be back in Pasco.

I like the idea of staging in the closet, but my issue is there is a 6 inch wall before the closet starts... and cutting holes has been prohibited by the CFO of my railroad. She said do what you want but no cutting into walls and no shooting bolts into the concrete floor.

Thanks for the input.

George

[mountaingoatgreg]

George,

You could hide the hole with the Roundhouse...it probably will be a good three four weeks before she finds out and makes you sleep outside. I do understand about keeping the CFO happy, I was told that I was to under no circumstance cut holes in the wall.

Not sure if you can swing it but maybe a building a cassette that can removed from the layout and placed in the closet when you want to change trains.

You could also just buid a switch after the roundhouse that squeaks past the 6 inch wall and gets you into the closet.

[Russ Bellinis]

You said something in your original post about a Murphy bed. Is that still the plan and where does it fit? If you have a Murphy bed in there, how tight will it be to the layout, when folded down for use? Presuming the layout bench work is 2 feet wide, that 9 foot room becomes a 5 foot room when the layout is installed.

[tetters]

Always nice to see bench work going up.

[tomustang]

I know it's a bit late but how difficult was it to get heat into the garage?

[ocalicreek]

Looks great - I have some very similar benchwork in my bonus room (see thread) minus the foam.

So what exactly did you want input on?

Galen