Was interested to see if there’s anybody out there running trains on the floor. I build and rebuild on the floor as I don’t have the space for a permanent layout. often I get 4 or 5 trains running on seperate loops, and a trolley going back and forth, lights, an accessory or two - makes me feel like a kid again.
Paul Wilson
Painting my life away…
I know the feeling, though I haven’t done it in years, I still remember. I even used furniture as tunnels. But as soon as you can get up to a table, do it. Your trains and your knees will thank you.
P.S. this is my 350th post.[:)]
Paul, you might want to consider doing a door layout or something a little bigger that is built in modules or sections. I know doing a layout by section does offer it’s own problems. As do hollow core doors. But I’ve built several door layouts. They do offer a convenient size that is lightweight and easily moveable. I’m in the same boat as far as available space, which is why I use 027 track and have gotten good at designing small layouts. You won’t be running multiple trains on a door, but it might offer an option to have something a little less temporary than a floor layout.
BUT, you’re doing what works for you. That’s also what the hobby is about. Better to run trains on the floor than leave them sitting on a shelf!
Yep, I admit it - I am a floor runner. I’m running up to 4 trains on a semi-perminate layout unit I can build a layout. Now that I’ve switched to Fastrack and I’m running on Pergo wood floors its so freakin loud that sometimes I can only run one train at a time just to hear Railsounds! I feel like I’m 8 years old all over again.
I am a elevated floor runner.Use a 30x48 table,like at train shows.centered 4x8 x1/2 particle board and screwed it to the table.Placed green carpet as a cover.Run a MTH realtrax 42 " curves with 50" stright and have 1 switch with spur track.Not very fancy but the trains run and i enjoy it.Being disabled if I got on the floor I’d need the rescue squad to get me up.“keep um going on an oval and have fun”
The largest Christmas floor layout my bro and I put together was 5x18 with 5 trains on 3 levels. My sis-in-law said no more so he used the felt (green and white) in his display cabinet. We’ve run 6 but never matched the size again.
I run on the floor too. I have plans to build a simple 8’ x 16’ layout, but every time I think I’m going to do it, something else comes up. So until that time I can build it, I’m going to keep running on the floor.
There’s a small over and under figure eight on the living room floor at the moment. I saw a web site with a lot of info. on floor running. Anyhow, if I decide to tear down the half finshed HO layout in the family room I could get off the floor… But I do have a lot of pleasant memories running trains around table legs in a house on the west side of Cleveland in the '50’s [:D]
Willow,
Right now I’ve got a H.O. over under figure 8 on my basement floor! My Lionels are back on the shelves for the time being. The Bachman e-z track works great on the floor.
Paul the Painter
Well being a carpenter you would think i would have a nice permenent layout or at least nice benchwork? Nope. I run my AF on the floor from time to time and my daughters run their Lionel train on fast track on the floor fast track is nice to keep off the floor dirt, dust and pet hair. Space is very limited. A good Idea I got from my father, he did on my first layout was to build to enable it to pull out from under a bed on casters. Trundle train! I would do it for my girls if theirs didn’t already have a bed under the bed. Some time in the next year my AF will go around my office. Unfortunatly it wuill be to high for my girls to enjoy without a ladder.
Carpenter matt
I am. Actually, I’m a semi-no-runner because my track is in boxes except for an oval I used at Christmas–I am embarking on building my new dream layout.
For many years I have been a floor runner. I started with a figure-8 which came in the starter set. Then I expanded to an oval with a siding. Then I moved the trains into a 12x16 room, and at the zenith of this layout their was an oval around the room, another oval on an elevated trestle set from Lionel, both of which were connected by a Lionel graduated trestle set. It also had a wye, and a turntable, which had to be disconnected because it drew too much power. Things went downhill from their–the seven switches were a pain to manage, trains kept falling off the upper oval, and cleaning the track was next to impossible.
But it was fun, although the oval of track around the Christmas tree is easier to manage!
Sincerely,
Daniel
I’m a member in good standing of the Broadloom Conspiracy - (people who run trains on the living room rug but sort of keep it to themselves) for most of the reasons listed in the other posts. To me there is one additional attraction of running trains on the floor that just doesn’t seem to translate to table top - trainwatching by lying on the floor with the top of your head as close to the outside rail as possible. When that train (any train!) booms past the smell of hot oil and ozone and the sensation of something big roaring by simply can’t be equalled with a table layout. I watched my first train roll past in that fashion when I was 4. It’s a whole lot of years later and I still enjoy watching them go by in this manner.
im a floor runner until i get the table built…
Does it count if I run on track set up on a raised crawlspace against the basement? No benchwork for me - I piled flattened cardboard boxes over the rocks that fill the crawlspace, then put down pink foam board and laid out the tracks on top. Since there’s no ‘under’ the layout, the wires run right out in the open too.
If you want some ideas for floor runs, check out the “Train Runners” article i nthe O/O27 section of my website, the All Gauge Page. Some intewresting ideas…
yeh same here[:p], just have to wait to when (if) we move. THEN i can bulid the layout. JUSTCAN’T WAIT[:(!][}:)]
I’ve got the space but not the time nor energy to use it. My layout is currently three loops of Lionel O tinplate track interconnected by switches in a 11 x 14 foot space on top of indoor/outdoor green carpeting. It doesn’t get much more toy traini***han that :).
I have a permanent layout on bench work , but the kids MAKE me set up a giant figure 8 on the floor . It’s a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon .
johnnyc
We are a demo group for MTH’s DCS system. We always set up a floor layout with two loops of O gauge and two loops of Standard Gauge. The floor is the best place to run trains!
I have a 14x15 permanent layout with a 4x15 ext. planned. My son still pulls out track at Christmas and sets up a floor layout, I still enjoy that best !
Keith