I recently moved into a 3 br single wide trailer. My lady has a 10 yr old son and is pregnant with our 1st child. With that being said all bedrooms are accounted for. Any sugestions for layout space will be greatly apreciated for I miss my RR. I model in H.O. scale. Please HELP! LOL
Have you looked into joining a modular railroad club? You don’t say where on the planet you are located and depending on where you are may or may not open up some possibilities.
A module is usually a 2’ x 4’ layout section that one builds, works on and keeps at home. You then take it to the club meets and plug it in with all the other modules that the other members have brought and away you go for a few hours.
I knew a guy who built many modules and kept them on a rack on the wall in his garage. He had no room inside the house so he would set them up on his patio or driveway in nice weather to run trains. He would bring one into the house and work on it while watching TV and throw it back on the rack when done.
If you have somewhere to store one or more modules it may be a way to proceed. One thing about modular layouts, they can be incorporated into something larger if you end up in a larger home someday. Good luck.[:)]
Edit: Here is a link to a club in the area where I live. It may give you an idea of what they are all about. These types of clubs are all over the place so you might get lucky.
http://www3.telus.net/wrdixon/mmrshtml/mmrsindex.html
Brent
A club would be my first choice as well. It should be cheaper, no space required, and it gets you out of the house one or 2 times a week.
Good Luck
I first thought club as well. Then it might be the time to build a few buildings for the next layout.
If you don’t have a club near you, check with a local hobby shop or the local NMRA division to see if there are other modelers around. Often you can join a round robin group of modelers and help others buildand operate their model railroads.
For home, the modular idea is good. Another option is to build a layout on a slab of 2" foam board that you can hide under a bed or hang on the back of a closet door. I would suggest looking for “micro layouts” or small layouts on the web. British modeling sites are also handy because they tend to have similar space constraints. www.RMWeb.co.uk is a good British modeling forum.
Try Z scale.
I am in the same situation as you - no space for a permanent layout. On top of that, hardly any free cash for the hobby.
After a long search, I found a way to stay in the hobby. I am building a modular layout, consisting of simple modules, which fit on my desk. Assembling the layout takes less than 5 minutes, so I can easily dismantle it. When not in use, the modules are stored on a shelf.
Take a look at this page for info.
And an even simpler design you can see here (sorry , it is in Japanese, but just clicking through the pics will give you a lot of inspiration).
Sr. Lav - There was a post recently that showed a small layout that could fit under a bed. Sorry I can’t find the thread to link to.
Dave
I to live in a trailer & was able to build a 10x8ft layout (the size of the room) that lowers from the ceiling in my sons bedroom that we operate from a 2x6ft opening in the center. See my post on that subject, Layout to be lowered from ceiling. I did have to remove the paneling on interior wall & beef up the wall studs by putting in more as mine are only 2x3. it was a good reason to remodel the kids room. I did have to weld up a steel frame for the layout & ceiling mount so this might beyond some abilities.
You could also build a self layout around the ceiling of one of the rooms. A friend has his layout going around his 16x13ft living room on a 6in self mounted 8in below the ceiling. He uses low relief buildings & was even able to double track with the back line being raised for better veiwing then uses LED rope lighting hidden behind trim to light it. With the trim in place it looks very good & actually adds to the room, his wife even likes it.
I don’t know if this would be practical for you, but occasionaly people have built layouts in a piece of furniture. Small coffee tables are most common, using N or possibly Z scale. but I remember recently seeing an article where a small layout was built into a custom dining room table, using construction similar to what would be used in a coffee table.
Or, plan 19 in the MRR publication 102 Realistic Track Plans show an interesting concept. The plan is HO, but the concept, a folding box, could be adapted on probably any other scale.
The various mags have also had photos of small layouts built in desk drawers, briefcases, hard suitcases.
How big a layout you can fit into the trailer boils down to how what subjects and type of layout you are looking for, much space you actually have available, and not the least - how much layout and layout construction your family is willing to handle with a 10 year old and perhaps soon a newborn baby in a fairly small house.
Some small H0 scale shelf layout that could fit onto a 6 foot long and 1 foot deep shelf:
Scot Osterweil’s Highland Terminal (a variant of Linn Westcott’s "Switchman’s nightmare) : http://www.carendt.com/articles/highland/index.html
Chuck Yungkurth’s 1x6 foot Gum Stump and Snow Shoe:
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page38a/index.html
Other classic and oft imitated small switching layouts/games: Cyril Freezer’s “Minories”, John Allan’s “Timesaver”, A.R Walkleys “Inglenook Sidings”, Linn Westcott’s original “Switchman’s Nightmare” - you can see sketches of their track plans here: http://carendt.com/scrapbook/page4/
Smile,
Stein
I have a slightly different issues.My wife wont let me have the room.Thats why I settled on a HO trolley layout.
I’ve been reading the replies on this site, and I"m so discouraged I don’t know what to do. I got divorced and lost my house and layout room in the basement, remarried, and my wife owns three homes, all at least three bedrooms. She’s retired, I’m not yet. I’m not allowed a single room for a layout, she saves em in case her kids come to visit. I cannot hang a layout from the ceiling, I was going to add onto the house, materials for a six by sixteen shed would run me around four hundred bucks, then I found out city ordenances required a permit, in spections and this rus over $2,000, so I gave it up. I have a 4x8 layout in storage, a set of Ntrak modules that would make a complete oval, and a layout in the X’s house in the basement that’s 15X15 with an island. All this, and no place for a layout. I live in Arizona, in the desert of the phoenix area.
I joined a club here who run on Ntrak modules, and I went and ran my trains there, no switching, just put your stuff on the track, set the throttle and sit in a corner and let the public come in and watch. I use my equipment to make someone else happy, so I quit. So I’m in the same boat as a lot of the rest of you. I thought of getting an enclosed trailer, say 6X12 feet inside, parking it in the driveway and putting a layout in it, but the dang things cost around $2500 for a used one, which I cannot afford.
Up the creek without a paddle
I have been dreaming of a room-filling layout all my life, but was never been able to even come close to that dream. I am quite happy I can build that little modular layout, although it is far from my “dreams”. Any layout is better than none and the fun you can get out of it, has nothing to do with its size.
Why don´t you start small. Maybe your wife will see how much fun you have doing it and “allows” you to grow…
Best of luck!
This is a distinct possibility.
Although my wife gave me free rein to do what I wanted as far as trains go. She was indifferent to my hobby. However once she saw the enjoyment I got out of it, and what was involved with all aspects of the hobby she warmed up to my hobby and it comes up in conversation with all our friends and family on a regular bases.
My wife is big into the dog show scene. Every year or two a litter of puppies arrive and people come from all over the world to get a dog from her. You would not believe how many of them have model railways at home and send me pics of their layout once they get home. There are a lot closet model railroaders out there.
In short the layout is a social gathering place in our home for the many people who originally passed through for other reasons.
My wife has warmed up to it, much to my delight.[:)]
Brent
My wife got tired of my model train stuff being stored in boxes as we moved from house to house. She wanted them to be used or sold. At the time, we had 5 kids at home so there weren’t many practical options for a place for the layout. Her suggestion was to build a couple of shelves for the living room to display them (displaying them was "using " them as far as she is concerned). The only catch was that the display had to be furniture quality so that she could show the trains off to guests.
I took the idea as a license to build an operating display - a shelf layout.
To meet the furniture quality criteria was the tricky part. The layout could not be built in place - it would have to be built in the yard on saw horses and stored in a garage (1 car) corner until it was suitable to display. Despite the obstacles, I planned in detail an HOn3 version of the Gum Stump & Snowshoe. I debated building in place with a hinged cover to hide it during the construction phase.
Before I could actually start, we moved again. This time I was granted a small spare bedroom on the caveat that tow of our computer work stations, my hobby desk/workbench, and a recumbent exercise bicycle had to share a 10ft x 10ft room. After a full-size try at a 4x6 island, I realized that anything more than a shelf layout would overwhelm the room and make it unsuitable for the other purposes.
My first shelf section will be a slightly expanded version of the HO Wye River City (I have 5ft above my modeling bench).
Eventually, this will be rebuilt into my HOn3 Elk River lumber mill scene, using an extensively modified Mower Lumber Co.
The 10ft wall will get the port and log landing scenes for the Port Orford & Elk River Ry, using an expanded and modified version of the Gum Stump
Shelf layout along a wall or two at YOUR chin level- one foot wide with one thru line and industry spours – 5 feet above floor- room underneath for storage, computer, TV set, wife’s sewing machine, storage-- high enough to control access by kids and dogs.
Three homes and she won’t let you have ONE room for a train layout? You found a second wife… might be time to look for a third. [swg]
I just can not imagine getting into that situation in the first place. Not my first wife or current sweetie are into model railroading, but are still more positive about my hobbies as I am positive of theirs. Both of them and I have played lots of paintball together in the past early and mid nineties though.[:)]
Finding room for trains was a priority for me and them just for the it makes Ken happy and nice to be with.[<:o)]