New to this site. I’ve a finished basement with a 9 ft height.
I’m looking to do a dual track ceiling shelf around the perimiter.
Boxed in beams give me 11 in of height to work with. Does anyone have suggestions on
shelves size, mounting, source for plans, etc.?
What gauge do you plan to use? That’s a fairly high ceiling. Consider the viewing angle. The edge of the shelf may block the viewer from even seeing the second track, particularly in the smaller gauges.
HO gauge. Room is 26’ x26’. I plan on using rope lighting in back corner where shelf meets the wall and using city, landscape diorama wall paper on back wall (when I find source).
Trying to save space in my son’s 10’ by 14’ bedroom, I built an around the ceiling HO layout at a height just above the door casements (about 6’-10"). The layout was double tracked with the inside track center only 2" from the layout shelf fascia. The outside track center was 2 1/2" from the inside track. I even built a small yard along one wall to store extra rolling stock. Though the layout operated quite well, it was difficult for a standing adult to view the trains, let alone an eight year old boy. Unless you stood on the far side of the room, you could not see trains on the outside track very well. I toyed with the idea of placing long mirrors above the yard but decided to abandon the whole project as my son quickly lost interest in something he could not see. In its place, I built a small layout and suspended it from the ceiling of the same room using an electric winch to quickly raise and lower the layout. This layout was far more successful, though I eventually gave it away to a young newbie when I started making plans for a much larger layout in my garage.
Hi, and Welcome!
I agree with a previous poster that your ceiling is too high to get a proper viewing of HO scale trains. I would urge you to go with the large scale trains if you are set on having the tracks at that height.
Also, and I hate to say this because I am an avid HO guy, the larger scale trains would probably serve you better over time if you do a lot of continuous running.
Sure would like to see some pictures of your progress!
Mobilman44
Never one to pass up a bargain, when I found some G scale trains at a great price, I bought them. (I’m in N scale, by the way.) My original thought was to use the G scale around the base of the Christmas tree. There was a lot of track included in the purchase which gave me the idea of building a shelf around the walls of my trainroom (a former bedroom). I built the shelf from simple pine lumber from Home Depot.
During construction, I found another locomotive at a bargain price. This necessitated a siding to store one train on while the other train did laps. Of course, I had to buy two turnouts to make the siding! LOL)
Here is an under-construction photo showing the shelf section that holds the siding. At the bottom of the picture is a corner of my N scale layout and on the wall below the shelf are the display cabinets I built just before I started the shelf construction.
This photo shows one corner of the room and how the shelf was constructed of 6" wide pine boards. The corners had to be cut at angles (11.5 degrees) to accomodate the radius of the track. If you look carefully you can see the 3" angle brackets that I used to attach the shelf to studs in the walls.
I have some HO trains that are packed away. I didn’t consider using them because of their size. I thought they would be difficult to see on the shelf which is about 14" below the ceiling. The G scale trains seem to be the perfect size for a shelf layout close to the ceiling. I have made no attempt to decorate the shelf in any way, although I have experimented with printing out sections of landscapes to us