I should add that I model in ho scale. I think that painting the exposed floor joists white would lighten the room but won’t I have dust issues without a finished ceiling?
You will have major dust issues without a finished ceiling. One of my friends was faced with the same problem. He streched and stapled painters drop sheets across the ceiling until he was ready to finish it. The drop sheets took care of the dust problem.
So what sort of plans have you been dabbling with? HO 12x12 covers a lot of ground. Where are the doors / windows located? Are you going to bridge the door, what sort of equipment do you want to run. We need some crumbs of information before we can even beging to think about a track plan.
texas zepher I guess I need to be more specific. Period modelled is 60’s to early seventies, with mostly canadian roads. I would like to have a minimum 22 in. radius for the mainline. The room has a small window in center of one of the walls. This window can be closed over but wouldn’t it be wise to have the extra light? The door I figured would be placed at the bottom of the stairs which is along one of the inside walls but i suppose it could be centered on the other inside wall. Trains of 10 to 15 car lengths would be pretty much the max. I realize that 12’ is not a big space but I feel for what I want it’s workable. Let me know if I can be of more help. Kirk
Have you thought about sealing over the window and using all artificial light? The window will only mean you get a very strong one direction light which you will have to compensate for with room lighting anyway. Sunlight will also fade your scenery quicker. For your plan have a look in old MR’s or trackplan books, look for scenes you like or even a whole plan and then adapt it to fit your room. By changing the scenery you can make a plan that you know works look different. Scan plans of scenes you like and lay them out on a scale drawing of your room to fit them in and join them up to fill in the gaps.
You could have a circular run round the outside with a shortline into the middle or a point to point, look at joe fugates sites for mushroom layout plans to maximise your length of run, follow the links off his scenery clinic.
Good luck Paul
Thats good you don’t have the modern monster locomotives to deal with.
That should be easy enough in your available space.
That might be the limiting design feature. That is going to be some seriously long passing sidings for a layout this size.
Have you taken a look at some of the other threads designing layouts of this size by committee? Here is one.
The start:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=40786
The change of rooms and evolution:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=58895
The Result:
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=67502
Check out Linn Wescotts 101 track plans, I forget the plan number but the name is the Adirondack (sp?) Plan 58 maybe? Anyway, in HO, It’s a plan for a 12x12 space. It has a through yard is a walk-in design and has a fair mainline run with a shortline and several industries. Not knowing the room particulars, it’s a start.
It depends too on your skill set - you may not want to fill that 12x12 space if you’re just starting out…