I have started all over in building my layout because my room got bigger. I wanted to know how close your tracks run to the edge. And is it different from straight and turns. Im modeling Ho scale if that makes a difference.
Do you feel lucky, and do you have a guardrail? Those are two paramount questions in my opinion. With a guardrail I may get within an inch to an inch and a half where it is not on the front line. Most places I will have a lot more for looks.
3 inches would be the bare minimum and 5 inches is safe. Anything less and you are asking to have your favorite loco do a swan dive.
I prefer 5" IF possible if not:
I have no qualms about 1-2" from the edge.
I to have about 6 inches between the track and the front edge. It leaves room for some scenery, and protection against any errant rolling stock hitting the floor.
Nick
There are good reasons to have 4 or 5 inches, BUT, I have most of mine right up to the edge. I have had more problems reaching over the top, than brushing things off the edge.
Since all my layouts have been small, I typically use 2" from track center to edge as a minimum. On my first layout (a 4x6), the clearance got down to 1.5 inches - not good enough for me. As long as I have good trackwork and run at slow to reasonable (prototypical) speeds, the 2" clearance has not caused any floor strikes. What is much more hazardous to the health of my models is the Richter magnitude 9 scale earthquakes created when some clumsy oaf (that would be me!) bumps the table. Invariably, a favorite train is in an area of my open grid layout without scenery, and reverts to the first law of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics when the earthquake strikes.
Appearance is another issue. While I like watching the trains roll on the track close up occasionally, a steady diet of it gets old. So I almost always angle the track along the sides of a table layout rather than run it parallel to the edge. That way some of the track is at the minimum, but other places have room for intervening scenery, structures, and other details. Much better looking IMHO.
yours in appearances
Fred W
My outer loop is pretty close (2"-3") but I have back drops on 3 sides and I will be putting plexiglass on the front to get things from hitting the floor.
What did you feed your room that it grew so much?[:)]
We did A major house renovation and we moved the stairs to the basement so I got the spot where the stairs were along with what I had. I took some pics of the layout but I cant find the cord to download them.
I hade on the other layout my tracks close to the edge and lost five coal cars of the side, It wreck them all.
Is there a way I can leave them close and protech them from the flour. If I use plexiglass I wont be able to reach over it because my layout is 48" of the flour. The reasone I built it so high is 'm 6’4" and I hade A hard time working on it because I found it to low at 36", And made my back sour.
I found the cord for my camera,or I men my oldest girl did. I’t was the new skipping rope for here doll. LOL
The pic below shows were the stairs used to be at the top of the photo.
Saterday morning this was full of junk and built all of that since then
On my layout extension the track runs right at the edge and at one point even overhangs a little. At the front of the layout proper it’s 2 1/2 inches and along the walls an inch and a half.
Well, one of my new spur where a grain elevator is is almost right against the edge. I didn’t really want that but it’s due to space constraint and I didn’t want to leave it out so…
Anyway, it also unfortunately right near an edge of high traffic area so I am planning to put some clear perpex along the edge may be just about 4-6 inches high just so your coat (during winter) or kids don’t destroy the expensive grain hoppers unknowingly.
I dont mind a few inches away from the edge on straight track. But with curves and grades I would prefer 6 inches or more so that the cars can tumble off and not make the big drop to the floor.
Ive learned also it is easier to shoot a video of a train that is further back from the edge of the table. It helps the credibility of the shoot.
Plexi doesn’t have to be that tall to keep a loco off the floor. A piece 4" or 5" above the layout surface will keep your rolling stock safe, and at 6’4" you should still be able to reach![8D]
The industrial track serving my brewery complex is right next to the edge. I always have my fascia installed so its top edge is about one inch above the roadbed as is the case in this photo. If I have a derailment, no cars or locomotives will drop to the floor.
Happy Model Railroading
A bigger danger than a derailment occurs when one has to reach into the layout and then pull their arm back. When Mr. Loco meets Mr. Elbow, Mr. Loco usually loses. Often we (me anyway) forget we have a prized loco parked on the foreground track and it is easy enough to knock it off the track when pulling your arm back. As long as you have a good clearance between the track and the edge of the layout, this should result in nothing more serious than a big hook rerailment.
Well, I feel safe with about 3, but if you need to 1-2 is fine, with HO (what I model), corners shouldn’t be any bigger in my opinion, I have yet to run a loco so fast it tips on a turn (like i used to do alot with my old lionel set). If your the only person running on the layout, or anyone else who is operating is a desent engineer (or really bad but useing their own loco and rolling stock lol) then derailments because of speed on corners shouldnt be a big deal. But accidents do happen, so like I say alot but sometimes for get to take into account, better be safe then sorry, maybe a inch seems ok but when your brand new brass model hits the floor you will wish you put 3 or 4. Mike
Im past worrying if a 1500 dollar brass engine hits the floor. One of two things will happen. I will pass on and not live to type about it here or it will get replaced with another engine while the parts of the dead one gets stripped into the parts box. It will be my engine that runs off the track, not anyone else because if you break another person’s engine while running it I would think to be ready to replace it.
It’s been my experience that in most derailments on curves, the loco and cars fall to the inside of the curve, not the outside. Also if one of my neighbors kids is operating the trains and they get them going too fast, I just put a quarter on the track and that problem is solved.
For all who use plexi glass How have you attached it to your layout withou making it too ugly and make it easy to remove to work on it?
I’m dangerously close to the edge in a number of spots, but I’ve yet to have a problem. I’ve been very careful with my trackwork, and I don’t have derailments caused by the track. The front of the layout has only one small spot where the track runs close, so reaching over doesn’t have much potential for problems.
On one side edge where I came within a couple of inches, I built up a “scenic berm” of foam so the track runs in a “valley”. It’s only a half-inch or so high, but that’s enough to keep a train from tumbling off the track and on to the floor.
There’s a siding along the back edge (my layout is an island) where I’ll probably put a chain-link fence because the track is right up to the edge. I’m thinking of another siding back there, but that will be protected by a flat warehouse “structure” right at the edge.