I am wondering if any of you fellow modelers have a shelf layout in a bedroom? I am looking at planning a new layout that will probably have to be a shelf layout in a spare bedroom. I’m not sure of the width I’ll be looking for. I may also try to go around the walls for continuous running. I am looking for inspiration and looking for ideas on what can and can’t be done. If you have photos, I would really like to see what can be done. Thanks for your input.
Look at page two of the thread link below. Check Jet Rock’s diagrams.
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/2/707767/ShowPost.aspx#707767
Hope this helps[;)]
I don’t have any pictures to show you but can give you a few things go consider. These are all based on personal preference and over 35 years of making the mistakes I encourage others Not to make (none repeated, just different ones [:-^]).
First, I believe you are going in the right direction with a shelf rather than a table for the simple reason, the shelf will give you more layout space without swallowing the entire room. Regardless of the room size.
Second, consider both height and depth of the layout. 2 feet is typically a good depth but you will still want to be able to reach the wall comfortably while standing at the layout. A layout too low will be a back breaker to work on unless seated (which presents it’s own problems), one too high will require that you stand on a step to reach portions of the layout (that WILL be where the problems occur). On the other hand, a layout high enough, leaves room below for other things, like a desk, workbench, or even plain furnature.
Third, and maybe most important, How will you get into the room? Duckunders are a very bad idea for a lot of reasons not the least of which, going under the layout to enter and exit the room Will get old Real fast.
Fourth, Be realistic as to what will fit. To get some initial trains running, a ‘loop’ is fine (and may continue to be, your preference) But I find the roundy-round configurations boring after awhile.
So, here’s what I suggest you do… Grab a piece of cardboard, about two feet deep, and determine at what height you can comfortably work on all sections of it without stooping or climbing. Keeping in mind that in addition to width, the layout will also have a thick edge (usually in my case, about 4 inches). There are lots of articles here on how to build the benchwork, materials, planning, etc. Use the search function to seek them out. A group of tips I often offer beginners (if that’s where you are at can be found here)…
rolleiman,
Thank you for the ideas. I have built and destroyed a 4x8 already. That is one of the reasons I wanted an around the room layout. I am also in the process of moving out of a three bedroom house and into a two bedroom apartment. My wife won’t let me use the entire second bedroom for a train room. It will probably have to serve as an office of some sorts as well. I had plans to use a 30 inch depth until my wife had a coronary. The negotiations are still in progress! I have a general idea of what I want, I just don’t know how to achieve that. I have a feeling I will have to scale down whatever I come up with until I get a new house.
My layout is a 2x8 shelf across a double window in a bedroom. It’s high as far as layouts go at 62" (5’2") but I (I’m about 5’11") can easily reach where the farthest track from the edge will run (about 20" from the edge) and with a small step stool can easily reach anywhere on the layout. My layout is so high because I wanted a realistic near eye level veiw. Most people would probably prefer a lower layout for ease of working on scenery. My layouts scenery is being made in small chunks of 1/2" foamcore and 2" foam to avoid this problem. The layout is also lifts off the shelf brackets to ease wiring and track laying. The removeable scenery sections will also help when the layout needs to be moved or incorporated into a larger layout. The front 9" is a bolt on extension section and the 15"x8’ main layout is pretty bulky but easy enough to move. I can’t help with the around the walls stuff too much. All of my layouts have been shelfs along one wall.
Chad
You mean other than the 10 x 12 contest?
I was hoping to get some ideas from that contest. Unfortunately, most of those layouts are room filling layouts. I need to find out how to not use a whole room for my ‘toys’. I was thinking that whatever I build, it will be about chest high for me. I’m 6’2", so I think having it that high will allow me to place furniture under the layout. I haven’t figured out what to do about spanning future windows, closets, and doors. I’ve looked at track plans for shelf layouts, I just haven’t seen any pictures of these layouts.
I have a 2’ by 8’ HO shelf layout against one wall in an Apartment in San Francisco. The addition of an 8" by 3’ somewhat hidden staging area added a lot to the operation. I’m scratch building structures and rolling stock and plan on having several very detailed scenes. I do the best with what is available and have a lot of fun.
Wayne
My next-to-last layout was built along two walls of a spare bedroom. One end was my “end of the railroad” module, 15x96 inches, spaced away from the wall to allow a six-inch strip of scenic flats. The other wall held an approximation of the planned mid-railroad town (temporary track, never rebuilt before being abandoned) and a cassette dock substituting for the rest of the railroad. Cassettes were stored on shelf brackets above and below the temporary town - if all of the rolling stock on them had ever been on the working part of the layout at the same time there wouldn’t have been more than a few millimeters of unoccupied track.
I developed a full schedule of operations for that layout - the same one I use today for the Tomikawa Valley Railway portion of my present layout. The trains weren’t long, but the operations (car cards, waybills and some other odd ends of my devising) were interesting and reasonably realistic.
The support system was the same slotted track and lock-in bracket system that I currently use to support bookshelves in my office and the shelf portion of my under-construction layout. In fact, they are the same tracks and brackets!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My bookshelf railroad of more than 20 years has variously resided in spare bedrooms and currently my home office. A relatively simple railroad (single run-around, 4 spurs) it is roughly an 11 x 9 L-shape. Max bench work depth is 15 inches and uses nominal 18 in radii. But combined with 40ft cars and geared locos (a Shay and a Heisler) it worked - and it used a switchlist for operations. I did use handlaid rail and like its larger brethern it features water, bridges, hills and rock castings. In this small size lots of details could be liesurely added to each scene. And oh yeah, even a small railroad like this can make the big-time as this one was featured in Jan 03 RMC.
Charles
How do you get a decent radius turn without running right next to the walls? Anyone?
I’m doing shelves and I like it, I drop the shelf down to work closeup, and just tilt the module to work undeneath. No underlayout straining. That being I intend the modules to have a high degree of detail.
I’m in a similar situation. A small bedroom, 10x10, has to have my office, my train workbench, and store any trains I keep that I am not using. Window can’t be blocked permanently.
Wife suggested building the closet into the office space. Closet was an 8ft wide, 2ft deep, with 4feet of doorway. With some shelves at the ends; lighting, wiring, and cabling; and a computer desk in the doorway, I think it will work well.
Did some measurements and mock ups and found the following:
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at 50" high, a 25" aisle was uncomfortably narrow for me. Would have difficulty moving with shoulders perpendicular to the aisle and not bumping or hitting the layout edges. 30" is a good practical minimum aisle width for me. But I need to check if aisle needs change with the layout higher on bookshelf brackets.
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sitting up straight at my computer desk, the top of my head is at 55" above the floor. I would expect similar at a train workbench. This means if the layout goes over the workbench, the base needs to be at about 60", which leaves a few inches for some lighting under the layout shelf and me not feeling I’m going to hit my head as I work on something.
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I’m 69" tall, which puts my eyeballs at about 63" without having to look up. Not a whole lot of margin in this thing. And if the layout is that high, I will definitely need a stepstool to work on it. A high layout means limited depth - I will go no deeper than 24" shelves.
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at the layout heights and depths I am looking at, mounting on walls seems a lot more practical when there is a wall to use.
some things I am learning as I am planning
Fred W
My plan is to have a 2x8 or so city area that will be one of the center pieces of my future layout. I’m trying to build a rough outline of what the entire layout will consist of so I know how to plan for the future. There is a very real possibility that I will only have the 2x8 until I can purchase another home. That will be in a minimum of two years from now. The problems I’m running into are trying to build a downtown scene while having to build in the curves that will some day connect to the other sections.
Addition: I alos don’t know if I’ll be able to attach the layout to the walls of a rental. If I do, it will have to be narrow and light weight in order to use as few support as possible.
The layout here is in a room thirteen feet square and is a shelf layout. The layout is sixteen inches deep around all four walls. There are no legs as the layout is cantilevered into the studding of the walls. There is a lift out for the doorway but since the layout is four feet off the floor I just duck under.
Can’t post photos here but E-mail me and I can send some to you.
I sent you an email. I suppose I should have sent my real email address, now that I think of it!
my layout is in n scale but the way it is built can be used in any scale. the first thing i did to the bedroom was to reverse the door so it swings out. living in an apartment may may not allow you to do this and building codes may not allow this room to be used as a bedroom. it also passes in front of a closet so i removed that door. i used double track shelf brackets screwed into the wall studs to support the modular design of the benchwork. since you may have to move it modular is probably the way to go. make each module with its own power buss so all you have to do is disconnect a jumper between modules when you decide to move. my layout is based on the n scale one track design. except for the corners it is only one foot wide.i have a 5 track double ended yard (20 cars on each track) engine service area holding 14 locos and several industry areas for switching. this is in a room that is 10’x8’. 18" to 24" would be good benchwork width for ho. i get a minimum curve radius of 15" on some of the corners with a couple at 17" to 19". 24" should be good for you. build your modules with a couple of inches of foam on top so you can carve it out for roadways or water scenes.
I’m just starting my first around the walls layout. Over the last 7 years I’ve had 3 variations of the 4x8 tabletop. The spare room is only 10x9 so I had to try something different. The space has to be shared with a computer workstation and modeling workbench which makes for tight quarters. I think things are looking good so far…time will tell. Click on my www to see some pics I have put up on webshots…
Although the room is a bit bigger, my layout is an around-the-walls layout, designed to not dominate the room (for the most part, a foot from the wall, aside from small islands.) By cutting out the middle section it could be adapted to a 10x12 size room:
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1323968/ShowPost.aspx
It’s an old idea: the January 1953 Model Railroader has an article on a “Rumpus Room Railroad” on a perimeter shelf that is mostly 12"-18" thick, 3’ from the wall at corners to allow for broad radius curves (about 72" radius for HO.)
If there is an IKEA near you (although Target carries similar things too), look for their standard lines of modular furniture: a 48" high bookshelf about a foot wide at each corner of the room would make a good stand to place the shelf layout on if your landlord would frown on mounting things to the walls. A sectional layout set on bookshelves can also be simply lifted out and moved when you move out, and put into a new place (perhaps a bigger layout room) once you relocate. I did this–moved my layout from an 8x18 foot garage to a 12x24 foot basement room.
I began building a spare bedroom three-wall shelf layout in HO but ended up using the benchwork designed for HO and switched to 2-rail O-scale and I’m very pleased with my decision.
HO will give you tons of operating and scenic capability in a given space. Note that one of my reasons for switching to O in mid-stream was that I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the layout in HO because it seemed so big even thoug it is just a shelf layout. Now that I’m in O it takes less ‘stuff’ to fill a given space and it is much less overwhelming.
In my room I mounted the layout 54" off the floor and the shelf width varies from 12" up to one section that I have access to from two sides that is 27" wide. The bulk of it is 16" to 18" wide. I have my desk w/PC, work table, file cabinets, a reading chair, dresser, bookcase, etc., below the layout so that the room can be used for things other than just trains. I do caution you to consider the width and not exceed 18" - 24" if mounted up high because it will he difficult to work on if it is much wider than 24".
I had considered continuous running and bridging the area by the window but elected not to because I didn’t want the room, which is 10 x 13, to feel smaller than it is. You’d be suprised how a good size room shrinks once you mount benchwork to the walls!
I’ll send you some photos when I get home from work tonight.
Bob