I noticed Kalmbach has a new book out by Tony Koester called “How to Build Multi-Deck Model Railroads”. I was wondering, has anyone ever tried building a Multi-Deck Hi-Rail Layout. If you did, what kind of luck did you have? Did you like it?
George
I’m in the process of building a multi-deck hi-rail layout, I have an upper deck with 2 passenger mainlines, spurs, on a continous loop around the walls, 29 feet long, 11 feet wide. The woodwork extends out from the walls approx. 3 feet, with approx. 2 feet wide, devoted to the upper level as described, the lower level, approx. 1 foot wide, a one track freight line with return loops on either end, the space between upper & lower, approx. 3" high is presently open so I can electrify buildings, etc, etc. Once all is in place then I’ll fill in with landscape, probably a paper-mache type of material that I can easily slice into if I have an electric wire problem.
Tracks for lower freight line are not in place at this time, still working on the upper level, all three lines will operate independent of each other, keeping operations and wiring simple, not interconnected! I’ts a work in progress. Good luck with your layout!
Phil
I have built a second level on my O gauge layout and find that it is very difficult to get to stuff under neath the upper level even though it is 18 inches above the other level. My thoughts on building a multi-level layout are to put a few access holes into your layout so that you can get to a derailed train. Even with the best of planning you can have a derailment in a hard to get to place, so think about an access hole where it will be extremely hard to get at.
Another thing that I have done is to add an upper level train that runs around near the ceiling, you will need to add a two or three wire cable to supply power drops around the ceiling layout and place the wire behind the track so it is near the wall. My track is over 25 feet long around the ceiling and I have a CTC lockon every three four sections of track, using 027 track.
Lee F.
I am in the process of building a two deck Hi-Rail layout. I have posted about it a few times on this forum. I love it! I have a huge main line, many industries to switch and a few differant running options. I will post more pics of it soon. I was advised by a few on this forum that it would be a futile effort at best when I tried to describe what I was planning but will now say that it was worth all the hard work! I would not go back to a single decked layout unless I had a room the size of a house to build it in!
I went to a second level when I ran out of room on the lower level.
Robert
This is what I had in mind when he asked about multi-decked…:
Rob
You WILL run into challenges you didn’t think of but you will be getting more out of your room. My bedroom is 11x13 with a 2nd level just on one side next to the bed. It will be much easier if you finish the lowest level first otherwise its much harder to work on when another level is on top of it.