For the last two months I have been researching and reading everything I could find, and I have developed an interest in something that I have not seen much about. I want to take over the walls of my guest room and run a loop around the walls. Here are my questions:
Has anybody done or seen anything like this? I have been looking for pictures or something that could help me picture what I need to do but haven’t found anything.
What is a good depth to use? I imagine most of the portion being 6" so I can run two tracks with scenery, or maybe three tracks, and maybe going to 18" for the switching areas.
Is it ok to use Atlas code 80 track without going to the trouble of putting down a bunch of cork? It seems like I could maybe build the shelves out of wood and use some small nails to hold down the track, mostly in the corners.
Any other advice before I start putting holes in the wall.
Darn this sucks, I had spent half a hour typing a reply to your questions Josh, then went to my rail planner program and lost all I typed! [banghead]
Well I will answer the question about what sizes turn will on the 18 inch wide shelf. I was able to fit a 34 inch turn on a 18 shelf with no problem and still had some room left. If you are going to have two track going around the turn I would use 30 and 32 inch turns. If you like a picture let me know.
I would not go smaller than 18 inch. If well laid most bigger 6 wheel diesels and good sizes steam will handle a 18 inch turn. I know because I have done it. You may find it to look odd, but it will work! But, if I was doing it over I would stay above 22 inch, you can pull more cars that way.
I will reanswer the coupler question next year if I am not beat to it.
If what you want is a narrow shelf, 6", with two or three loops of track and a little scenery, that is fairly easy. The biggest problem is with the doorway. You can put it high enough to walk under. You can make a duckunder. You can make a swingout. You can make a tipup. All take some doing. I have made shelf layouts with the large metal shelf hangers srewed to the wall with three sturdy screws and then a piece of 2in foam glued to the shelf hangers. I just instaled one using a left over hollowcore closet door. I will put a staging yard on that. There are many variations of this. What you don’t get is much scenery. My shelf protions are 18’ and are on legs when I have scenery.
I’m using John Sterling shelving components from the local ‘big box’ store. A nice thing about their system is you can have multiple shelves - have one below the layout for storage, one above to connect lights to. I’m using 16" wide shelves, but I think they make them down to 8". In 16" you can get five tracks lined up (like in a yard) using no.6 turnouts and still have room in the back for some low-relief buildings or flats.
HI AND HAPPY NEW YEAR: Am old geezer; in HO on/off 50 years. One of the things I learned in this hobby is experimenting! You learn what will/ will not work. AND, finding model railroaders in your area. Maybe a club or someone with home layout, so you make new friend or two who share the same love of the Hobby as you do. I even put ad in local paper when planning to start that small modular club and we ended up with 11 members; club lasted 6 years and we had FUN!. Am about to start small, a-t-r, narrow shelf layout. Plan to use Homasote subroadbed, atop BIRCH plywood [lightweight, easy to cut, a pleasure to work with]. Use Peco Code 100 flex and turnouts[because I have a lot already and love the stuff]. My shelf will be approx. 15 to 18" deep so I can reach anywhere and don’t have to spend too much $ on scenery materials. Homasote allows flex to be fastened right on it with track nails. Never bother with cork or any other roadbed, as I model branchline switching RR in transition era. These almost never had well ballasted trackage so I save $ for other HO stuff. My two cents. TTFN & GOOD LUCK…papasmurf
I appologize I should have mentioned I am going to model in N scale. I like the idea of using the shelving units that I have seen at the big box stores. Seems simple and fairly inexpensive. I am planning on going above the door. My question is how can I go from a high route down to a lower one where I can do the switching/etc. I have seen a parking garage type setup but I am not sure what they are called or if there is a better way. I know at a 3% limit to rise or fall, my 10 foot wall could only have 4 inches of height change. That won’t be enough at all. Does any one have pictures of their layout. Not trying to copy exactly, just trying to picture everything in my head. Thanks again.
You have a lot of options. Bub Lutz if I recall did a whole series of articles on bookshelf railroads in MR in the 70s using normal shelf components. While I was in the AF I built a series of bookshelf modules that I carried for several moves. Did the around the room thing while stationed in CA in a spare bedroom (N scale).
A similar concept is the domino design concept. You might take a look at that.
One thing to consider is to put a layer or two of foamboard on top of the shelf board. Gives you a chance to shape the terrain. Woodland scenics also has some foam based components you can use.
There are many around the room layouts. If you go to SHOP above then Books/Track Plans and Layout Planning, you will find a book on building shelf layouts.
First, I would not try to go over the door, way too high to see anything and the incline to get there would be very steep. I would make a liftout gate since it is in the guest room. This would allow you to remove the gate when using it as a guest room. You can either duck under or lift it out for your own personal use. There are swing up/down/in/out gates, but in your case something removeable and storable would work best.
Height depends some on your height and obsticles in the room. “Best” viewing angle is concidered about chest height. 42"-50" are common heights I have seen listed for single layer layouts.
Width depends on layout height, your height and reach. You want to be able to reach the back track areas without damaging scenery at the front. 30" is concidered a good reach, but as I said that depends on many factors. Since 2" foam comes in 2’ wide sheets and I have scrounged a bunch of them, that will be my basic width, shave a little off here and add a little there to break up the straight line syndrome.
You can hitch your track directly to your shelf, but I would use a very thin layer of latex caulk rather than nails. If you need to change things a soak with some wet water or alchol, then take a putty knife to lift the track off. Much easier than trying to pull all those little nails. DO NOT put caulk under your turnouts in case of malfunction, you want to be able to lift them out easily. As long as all approach tracks are held down the turnout will stay put.
As for putting cork under the track, I’d recommend it. It looks much more realistic to have the track slightly raised. I also recommend a layer of at least 1" (N scale) foam if not 2" so you can have below track grade scenery, overpa
I (who is very much not an excellent modeler) have a simple around the walls style H0 scale layout in a room too small for a 4x8 layout (including aisles), and it works fine for me:
A picture taken from the door:
Lift-out cassette across door in front - a plank, two brackets, some track bed and some flex track.
I have to admit that looking at some of these pictures is intimidating. It makes me feel like I am getting in over my head trying to do what I want to do. It seems that the “shelf” layout just means that it is not a 4x8 piece of plywood, but may not necessarily mean something like a book shelf around the room. I do understand the comments about putting in a lift up gate or somethign similar, the problem is that for what I want to do I would have to go across an 8’ closet, a 36" door and a 4’ window. It seems the only way to do that would be to go above all of that. I am also considering using see through plastic for maybe half the shelf, that way it may be possible to see the train better. I am still working on that idea. It is impressive seeing all the layouts, if I had a room that I could have just to set up a model train that would be awesome. My inspirations is coming from a store I used to go to as a kid, they had a train running around the store near the cieling. I always that it was really a cool thing. The biggest issue I am having in my mind is getting from 54" or so to 72-80". It seems that a helix is the way to go, I just am not sure how to make it look good and make it the size I need. I am starting to look those up now.
I use “domino” construction. This layout which is 12’ x 22’ (18" wide sections) was constructed using a 14v trim saw and a drill, in an apartment. I had the local lumber yard cut 3/4" plywood into 1"x4" lumber, and cut the 1/2" plywood tops. I assembled the parts in my apartment with drywall screws and yellow glue. The layout is free standing (2"x2" pocket legs). The layout used Atlas code 83 track, glued to cork road bed with latex caulk. The track plan was a double oval, with 42" min radius, a small yard, some industries, and two passing sidings.
The layout ran the perimiter of my apartment living/dining room. The picture below shows the layout reassembled in my new basement. In the basement I operated outside the layout, in the apartment I operated inside the layout. When the layout was not in use I removed one of the sections so you would not have to duck under the layout to enter the room. The layout is high (48"), so the rooms could continue to be used as living space.
This layout was constructed more than ten years ago. I have recently dismanteled the layout and I am using the sections in my new basement layout.
I think I understand a little more about why I am having a hard time finding similar layouts to what I want to do, and it is because there are some things that are hard or don’t make a lot of sense. I put together a sketch and I would need a helix with a 16" radius (for a 2" clearance) and 15 levels of that. Also, at the heigh I want to run, it would be difficult to see 3 or even 2 tracks. I might need to rework my plan a little…
In N scale a 15"R curve is fairly broad and will allow you to run anything, but you can get by with 11"R or even sharper if you have to. You might want to consider something more like a “dogbone” layout. Rather than go all the way around the room, have the layout on a shelf but have it widen out enough to allow a “blob” - a wide enough section to allow trains to loop around and change direction.
First question is: Is this to still be a guest room or is ot going to be your room to paly in only? In a guest room, you will ahve to consider placement of the bed. and a 6 inch shelf high enough from the tops of the pillows sounds great.
Bullet 1} while I haven;t done it, many have used shelf boards on an around the walls layout, using shelf brackets underneath. I did a thorough google search that I hoped would show shelf layouts in N scale, but to no avail. Lots of forums talks like this one, but no pics. What you need to do: get some shelf boards in the depth you want and in a good length. You can either use the wall hanging slotted brackets or the under shelf L-shaped brackets. Then i would use a piece of connector flat steel piece with holes on each end and screw the shelves together{it could be a wood piece screwed in to hod the shleves together and level to one another}. Keep in mind the longer the shelf boar
Ok I started taking some measurements and thought I would take a picture and try and show what I was thinking of doing. The first picture is the NE corner where I would have the switching at 54" and the helix up to 84". The second picture is of the SE corner where I would have to go above the door and closet.
First of all yes, all of the posts have been a huge help. I am truly trying to decide whether what I want to do is logical or doable, and if not what my options are. What I am thinking is that it takes someone with a lot of experience to do this right, or someone who will do whatever it takes to make it work.
In the previous post I put up some pictures, maybe it will help explain what I am thinking and what my constraints are. Basically I am looking at a 54" high switching area, about 30" deep, and then a loop around the room at 84" with a 30" helix to get up to it. I still am not sure if it shoudl just be a single loop around the room or maybe 2 or 3 tracks worth.
I have decided that I should go with cork or something similiar, if nothing else to reduce the noise.
I am still working through the shelf issue, At this point I still am not sure.
