Does anyone have experience using 12" wide vinyl coated steel shelving for shelf layout? It would seem that you could cover the steel wire shelves with glued on pink foam and have a relatively easy and quick support for track on long runs. What are the problems with it? Also could use the wall brackets as background holders for backdrops.
Who says model railroaders aren’t innovative? At first glance it sounds like it would work okay. I’m not familiar with the shelving, other than having seen it in stores, but my only concern would be how securely it is attached to its wall brackets. Would there be any chance of it moving if it were bumped from below? It would certainly hold the weight of a foam layout. The wiring would be run under the shelving, so you would want some sort of fascia to hide the wiring. How does the cost compare with the more traditional methods?
I can recommend the use of shelf brackets for supporting a layout. I have just finished installing the benchwork for an around-the-walls N scale shelf layout. Twenty-inch shelf brackets were used to support the layout sections. Each section, consisting of a two-inch thick foam board on a plywood base, was two feet wide and either six or seven feet long. Three brackets were used to support each section. The shelf brackets were attached to the wall studs using lag screws. Although the sections have been up for only a couple of months, they look good and no problems have arisen.
Good luck,
Paul
The costs seems to be very close as far as the shelf material compared to the wood if you were using boards rather than plywood. A little more if you compared it to plywood. Less sophisticated tools necessary with the steel shelves.
I am building an around the walls (3) layout and have used the two rail (tabs) brackets. I have the 24" brackets and it holds the 2" foam base directly. I am planning on putingup the photo backdrops with thin stick-on magnets and attaching them to the shelf rail above the brackets as you mention. It was a little pricey as mentioned. I put mine on every stud since I am not using wood underneath the foam on purpose. The brackets and shelf rails are white - very clean attractive appearance.
If you use the wire me***ype shelf material that Home Depot and Lowe’s and others sell, you wouldn’t need to put the supports on every stud but could do every other stud placement. Could then glue your foam to the shelf material and would be able to wire the track by just dropping the wire through the shelf material. Also could lower a section in order to place a bridge or other support for the track to create interest.
Its quite possible to do, just make sure that you use the double tab system, not single tab. Remember, weight isn’t going to be a factor, as these systems support lotsa books and stuff.
The closet shelf components I’d be wary of using for a railroad. It makes great shelving when properly installed (or fixed in the case of what I had to do to the stuff installed by the previous owner of the house…), but even properly installed it gives quite a bit when pushed from below at all - and that would be potentially damaging to a model railroad.
The type of shelving with the sheet metal brackets that go into the vertical standards works quite well. I manages an L-shaped layout using the single slot type just fine, with a shelf above the layout for my MR and book collection, which it supported just fine. But this was only an 18" wide layout. If you want to have wider areas, the double slot type are capable of supporting wider shelves and heavier weight.
–Randy
I’m only going to use the shelf as part of my total layout. I will have a yard and mountains on another part and will use a 12" shelf down a 22 foot wall in N-scale with a down,turn-around and back. I will have to turn around with a wider area but the go back on the same 12" shelf to the main part. The main part is a 4’ x 2.5’ and a 6’8" x 28" part.