09-17-2014, 05:50 PM
Lower right is the mechanicals - water heater and furnace in there. Can't move that. But I can probably get 6 inches or so from the top of it. While investigating and taking detailed measurements, there is a 6" wide faux timber 'wall' on the outside, built on top of the wall that you see from inside of the room. I'm thinking I can rip that downa nd just drywall over the then exposed studs. Not much, but every few inches counts.
Can't extend the staging, it's already pushing it to put it in there - that's the laundry area until I have the money to do the big remodel and move the laundry upstairs - then I will have the space to use, although it doesn't open up much more in the long run - the small room in the middle left is a bathroom, which actually extends into the laundry. So even if I was able to tear out the walls around the laundry, I'd have that bathroom smack in the middle of the left wall to work around. Or through, ala Bruce Chubb's "Pottersville". Problem there is then making the turn before getting to the door to the garage - can't block that.
Keep in mind this is just the lower level, to get a truly decent run I was planning to double deck the whole thing. Staging would be stacked on top of one another. I will probably also add a cutoff for continuous run, either on the lower or upper level, or maybe both. I'm thinking the helix needs to be double tracked, so it does not become a bottleneck - can have an 'up' and a 'down' train at the same time.
Once I have the basic main line - then comes fitting in yards and industries around the place. Got a good suggestion to put the yard back along the bottom and just put the engine facilities in the upper right. That could work.
--Randy
Can't extend the staging, it's already pushing it to put it in there - that's the laundry area until I have the money to do the big remodel and move the laundry upstairs - then I will have the space to use, although it doesn't open up much more in the long run - the small room in the middle left is a bathroom, which actually extends into the laundry. So even if I was able to tear out the walls around the laundry, I'd have that bathroom smack in the middle of the left wall to work around. Or through, ala Bruce Chubb's "Pottersville". Problem there is then making the turn before getting to the door to the garage - can't block that.
Keep in mind this is just the lower level, to get a truly decent run I was planning to double deck the whole thing. Staging would be stacked on top of one another. I will probably also add a cutoff for continuous run, either on the lower or upper level, or maybe both. I'm thinking the helix needs to be double tracked, so it does not become a bottleneck - can have an 'up' and a 'down' train at the same time.
Once I have the basic main line - then comes fitting in yards and industries around the place. Got a good suggestion to put the yard back along the bottom and just put the engine facilities in the upper right. That could work.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad of the 1950's in HO
Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com
Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com