As we sit indoors watching the hurricane pass by to the west, thankfully, it gives me a little time to think about a new layout design. Had a 4x8 with track laid, half the scenery done. Cut it in half to move to the new house. Now my train room is 10x9 and has to be shared with a small computer desk. As you can imagine 4x8 is pretty crowded so I was thinking about going around the walls.
Our main interest is running trains so I am thinking double track main with a crossover. On one side of the room I could come out 24 " wide to fit a yard and maybe turntable. The other 2 walls would have to be kept to 12 " wide. Also thinking 56" high to keep the duck under reasonable. Anyone been down this design road before, who could share an opinion. Almost forgot, I run in HO with DCC.
Around the walls is your best bet because you will obviously get more track footage. My room started out as 9 by 12 and thats what I did. I built 4’ by 2’ modules so I could move them if I had to. I’ve since torn down a wall and expanded.
I had a similar space, 13x10 feet so I built a round the walls layout. I started a small switching layout in the corner and then had permission to extend. The single track bridge and gate section allows for some signalling action, trains waiting etc.
The gate is a duckunder for my 15 mnth old daughter. 32" high.
NZRMac and others have done this well. I too am around a wall, but finally have a little more space. Twice I have cut a 4x8 in half to move it. In both cases I never got it back together and started over. The key for me was to decide what I wanted it to do, (Run trains and build scenery) and then decided what I could get along without (a very long list) and then a drew a simple plan. I had trains running in a month.
I have nothing to contribute here, except to tell you gents that I enjoy reading about your methods for dealing with your circumstances, and I have a great deal of faith in you.
Thanks guys for your input. I am confident around the walls will work for me too. Now all I have to do is hope Home Depot has some wood left to start my first shelf. Hey wait, now that hurricane Dennis is gone past maybe my neighbor will let me have some of that plywood covering his windows.
If I were you, I would consider something other than a duck-under. You’ll knock yourself on it often enough that you’ll curse it.
Try a lift-out, or a swing-up, or swing-away section as a means to access the centre of the layout. Having such a “pass through” will allow you to build a layout at whatever height you want.
In the late 70’s MR ran a layout planning contest for building a layout in an 8’x9’ office cubicle space. If memory serves, there was only one that had a duck-under. There were some rather good plans in the bunch. You might look in their archives for ideas — good luck! John T.
I think there has been a unanimous vote in favor of around the wall,
so i will just add, my space is a 10x10, and even that was a nightmare with a 4x8
With the desk, a 4x8 would be impossible in a 10x9 space
3 of the sides around my layout have widths between the layout and wall of .75 to 1.5 ft!!
My layout is around the walls - mostly 2 feet wide, but one section got out to 30" and another is about 8".
I think that a narrow shelf looks longer.
You are forced to look at only one part at a time.
My wife persuaded me to extend my point-to-point to a continuous run, with removable section over the stairs and laundry room door. We are now used to ducking, and the section is only removed if we have major movement of goods. You should see us duck under the track that isn’t there!
Incidently, the layout support is modular shelving (Ivar from Ikea). We have a huge book & magazine collection.
