I dont know if you have considered this issue, but climate control is important. Depending on where you live, an air conditiioner and/or a heating duct connected to your central heating may be in order.
I think I need to clarify a bit the SIW is located in a spare bedroom so it is climate controlled and not near any major water source. However had I known about waterproof laminate before the remodel I would have used it.
If you go with LED strip lights, get 5050 or larger. When I started they only had smaller ones available and they didn’t put out enough light, even though my backdrop is only 20" high.
For lighting, I used hanging LED light fixtures from Home Depot. I discovered that placement was critical to avoid shadows. If they are too far back from the front track, the train on the front track can have a strong shadow that is very ugly. I wound up hanging my lights just above the front track so there are no shadows on the viewing side. The trains toward the back side may have shadows but the hadows are on opposite side of the viewer.
So many good comments!
I think I would not put any carpeting in the room. It collects dust, smells, and small parts. And can re-release the first two.
I would have a smooth cleanable floor. Wood. Linoleum. PAINTED concrete. We actually have porcelain tile on our main floor. No, not little 4" white squares.
If you want/need foot cushioning, those rubber mats sound real good. That’s why you see them in work places. They’ll still collect “dust” (just observe one when you pick it up), so you have to be a bit careful when you remove them for a good vacuuming. Which, by the way, you would ideally do with a LONG hose, and the vacuum exhaust outside the room. Actually, one of those whole-house vacuuming systems would be PERFECT for a train room.
Ed
Lighting, I used 3 track light fixtures each having 4 LED floodlights and wired them to a dimmer switch. Looking back, I should have wired each track light fixture to indiviual dimmers. Someday I might get enough energy to get into the wall and change that.
Thank you all for your advice and opinions! Alot of information here to stew over and I appreicate it.
We will be breaking ground on the two story garage in the first week of June and I hope to be starting benchwork sometime early this fall. I have to finish the inside of the garage first.
Thanks again for the info!!
I’m building a dedicaed train room too.
For flooring, I’m going with an engineered vinyl that looks like wood. Its very durable and is stain and scratch resistant. I’ll use throw rugs on the floor when layout construction is done.
For a backdrop, I’m undecided on whether to put it on the walls or go with a tempered hardboard, which I have done on my previous layouts.
For lighting, I will definitely go with LED strip lighting. Not sure how I will connect/control them yet, but they will have dimmer capability. I definitely would not put the lighting in the same foot print as the layout, as was previously mentioned, if you want to change the layout you’re stuck with the old pattern.
Construction on my new layout room is a couple of months away. completion will probably be done by mid to late summer. Hopefully I can get the benchwork built before the weather gets nasty this fall.
Throw rugs are a trip hazard for someone that is distracted by something like a cool model train passing through nice scenery.
Never mind the potential for injury, you don’t want some clumsy old dude crashing down on your layout.
If you use LED Strip Lighting, how will you mount them, and how far above the layout will they be mounted? I can see them being really useful to light lower decks, but if you mount them on a 96" ceiling and your layout is at 50", that seems pretty far away for the strips.
My intention was to use LED recessed can lights in a suspended ceiling in a pattern to match the layout footprint. But, a few good points were made about what happens when I decide to change up the track plan. If I light the room for just being a room, then add a valance and valance lighting to light the upper deck of the layout, it seems to me to be overkill, but I do understand the idea behind it. Oh well, lots more thinking and planning to do!! Of course, sometimes, that is part of the fun!!
Thanks!
Those interlocking rubber mats build up a lot of static electricity (esp in dry climates)-take this from personal experience. This can be a problem with delicate electronic devices, such as DCC.
Whatever you do for your backdrop, take the time to get it done, and done RIGHT, before you proceed with the rest of the project. Reaching over a layout in any stage of progress to work on backdrops is a major pain, one that I am currently going through as I type, cuz it turns out I didn’t like my original work.
Dan
I want to use rugs that are large enough to be contiguous enough to cover a traffic area without having a seam. Also will use throw rugs that won’t fold and bunch.
Also, a correction to my previous post: the flooring IS wood, but again, quite durable and a “finish” on it that resists stain. A good feature for a klutz like me, who has a tendency to be spill-prone.
Lighting will be behind a valance, in a “shadow box” attached to the stanchions (or wall pilasters) that hold the backdrop up.
My basement floor is poured concrete. Once the existing ratty carpet is removed, along with all the other stuff, I intend to use one of the epoxy products to cover it. Where the layout goes will otherwise be the bare (now epoxy coated) floor. Where people stand and walk, I plan on using carpet tiles. They are cheap (especially if you doon;t care if they are all the exact same color - a mixed effect can be quite nice), and if any get messed up because scenery materials dripped on them, you can just lift out the dirty one and put a new one in place. Anything but standing on bare cement.
Layout lighting will be LED strips. Room lighting will be LED panels in the drop ceiling. The planned layout is double decked, so the upper deck will form the lighting valence for the lower deck, and then I will have a valence over the top deck. The layout lighting alone should be enough to run trains, the room lighting will be for construction adn moving about in the basement, I need to get the layout plan fairly finalized before installing the room lighting so I only place lighting panels over aisle and other open areads - with a double deck plus top valence, even though my ceilings are fairly high, a light right over the middle of a benchwork section won’t be of much use.
–Randy
Are there any drop ceiling LED lighting panels that are fairly economical that can be suggested?
Very good advise. I did this and I am sure glad I did.
Where appropriate, “stall mats” are great for standing on. I recently hit some old muddy ones we had with the pressure washer and they are like brand new. I put them in my workshop to stand on and my feet and back have not stopped thanking me.
Go back and check out Brunton’s thread on Room Lighting, in the layout forum, and also his current thread, he shows some lighting panels he ordered.
I remember the LED ceiling lights were discussed in the Room Lighting thread.
Mike.
Dave Jones at EEVBlog put soome in his lab, although he’s in Australia and who knows if you cna get the same ones he did in the US. First one I looked up, a 2x3 panel is $49, and a 2x4 panel is $95, both are dimmable as well. Found another site with 2x4 units priced from a low of $65 to a high of $100.
–Randy