As I make some track modifications I noted that I’m making lots of trips up (and down) the stairs to the garage from the upstairs layout. I have lots of items upstairs, with a closet available for some storage, plus a desktop for light duty workspace. But some items of course are normally in the garage so there’s quite a few trips involved. I made 4 trips to the grinder to slightly trip a piece of rail to just the right length.
Another justification (rationalization) for the hobby, at 18 steps up per trip. Those with basement layouts get the same benefit. I can’t see changing homes if you have a 1-story home on a slab; that’s a bit extreme.
They say climbing stairs is a good, heart healthy exercise. Most of our trains don’t go fast enough to consider following them exercise. Good justification for not having things too close. Also, keeping your wood shop (dusty) away from the layout isn’t a bad idea.
Whether your layout is upstairs, downstairs, at the opposite end of the house or even in another building, each of us can come up with justifications for keeping them seperated or having them closer at hand. If you are doing benchwork, yes it’s nicer to have the wood shop closer. If you are scenicking and operating, you don’t really want the shop dust around.
Just a matter of preferences and abilities. I suppose as we grow older, it’s nice to have things closer together, but then again we might be better off with a little exercise. Also, what we’ve got is what we’ve got, if the shop is a long way away, is the disruption or expense of getting them closer together worth it?
I agree that going up and down stairs is good exercise. But as we get older our joints and muscles aren’t cooperating as they use to.
I am 69 now and use to have my layout upstairs. Now we are building a new house and the layout room is going to be in the house on the same level with the model work shop next to it. I am looking forward to this, but at the same time realize that I won’t be getting enough exercise.
Eh? The layout of the LION is on the third floor (walk up) of the library building. The shops are in the power house on the other side of the church building. LION must go down two long flights of stairs, and then up a short flight of stairs to get out of the building. Then him must cut through the slype (another two sets of doors) and then across the parking lot to the power house. His office is in the basement of the monastery building.
LIONS get lots of exercise, but they do not get any thinner. BTW: Did I mention that they cooked three turkeys for dinner this afternoon? Fortunately the LION had help eating the turkeys, but no help when it came to washing the dishes.
Oh well, now the LION has a few hours to work on the layout, maybe some pictures will be forthcoming.
Nothing is ever convenient, even if they shop and the layout were next to each other, there would still be “trips” for whatever. Next time you’re fitting a piece of rail, take a hand file with you. When I’m fitting rail, I use a permanent pen to mark the spot. Then I use rail nippers to trim to the mark and file until it fits in place.
Good news, my layout room is an entire 11x15 former bedroom, with a door that opens and shuts, a nice storage closet, carpet, extra lighting, and so on.
The not so good news… Its on the second floor, and after going down the stairs one walks thru the dining room and kitchen to get to the garage / driveway, where all the major fitting/cutting was done.
The other piece of news… Well, I better not mess up the hall or stairwell or dining room or kitchen during my trips to and from…
Given some of the basements that I have seen, it is a good and healthy thing to have a phobia of them.
Most of our basements are fully or at least mostly finished (even the crypt is not a bad space, but it is full of machinery not layouts) What you must be wary of is the tunnels UNDER the basements. (There are MONSTERS down there) as well as hot steam pipes heavy sewer pipes and every sort of insect that weaves a web. We have caverns branching off of tunnels, we have tunnels with sand floors that go on and on. And I had to go down there to string computer network cables, and even then had to install a switch half way to boost the signal.
And did I tell you that I build SUBWAY TRAINS… maybe LIONS just like their tunnels.
Well the layout is in the basement. I have a flat walkout basement with sliding glass patio doors and 2 regular windows. So it’s not the hole in the ground that a lot of basements are. But my RAS and Bandsaw are up flight of stairs in the garage. While I have work space next to the layout my main hobby bench is on the main floor and shares space in my office.
Given some of the basements that I have seen, it is a good and healthy thing to have a phobia of them.
Lion,3 of those basements was finished and usable with washer and dryer hookups,plenty of electrical outlets and one had a jim dandy wooden workbench with plenty of room for a layout…
Some of us can only dream about having a basement…
Ooh the possibilities… Big around the room triple-decker with all the space to build whatever I want…
On the other hand, I should grateful for the space I have now. (I hear this said back to me every time I complain about not having enough room) Soon enough I will take over the entire room… either that or we move and I get my basement… A guy can dream can’t he?
To get to my attic layout and bedroom, I have to climb 14 stairs. I AM 69 also, I don’t have any problem with that. My problem lies in the fact that, when I have to go in the garage, where all the big tool toys are! I walk in the door and can’t remember what I WENT IN THERE FOR, LOL…
Well I must have it made in the shade! I built an addition (24’ x 26’ train room) on to my house right off the master bathroom with a full basement. The door to the trainroom is in the master bathroom where the window used to be. The basement is below the trainroom and has a full woodworking shop with dust collection system. I make many triips up and down to the workshop and trainroom, traversing about 15 steps. I made my steps 6 feet wide and have a landing halfway up to the outside door (where I can bring 4x8 sheet stock in). The really good thing is that when I get ready for bed I just walk out of the trainroom, into the master bathroom, and then into the master bedroom!
Just today I was looking at a large, empty corner in my office and thinking “What a great place for a layout”. It’s two flights of steps from the basement and garage, though. Still, I could make it work… except that it is also directly next to the television “nest” and I would be constantly interrupted by my lovely wife, or I would be agitating her asthma with some of the strange odors that come with this hobby (nothing to do with eating chili while switching industries. Honest!).
Up the stairs that aren’t there? A low, sloping space cluttered with roof trusses which, since it’s above the insulation, is hot enough to melt plastic for several months of the year. Did I mention a 20mm accumulation of dust???
Down the stairs that aren’t there? Solidly compacted caleche under the sand under the slab - a challenge for six-legged excavators (aka ants.) Nothing short of a TBM could open a space for modeling, and the neighborhood association would object…
So I use the semi-attached garage - structurally attached, but with no internal door. I avoid making big messes by building with steel instead of wood. Little messes are no challenge for the Shop-Vac. The nicest part? No conflict with the other half of my family. The garage is MINE! (So’s the responsibility of keeping it clean and relatively uncluttered, but you can’t have everything.)
Layout in the loft so trips up there mean two sets of stairs. I cut up everything in the garage, so up 2 sets of stairs, meaure and mark and down two sets of stairs out the garage. Need square! So, out the garage, up the two sets of stairs, forget what you came up here for. Start down on set of stairs, remember you came up for the square. Go up one flight of stairs, get square, come down two stes of stairs to garage. Cut. Go back from garage, up two flights of stairs…
Who needs a marathon?
The most annoying part is when I am in either place, upstairs, downstairs, anywhere, there is definitely someone who keeps hiding anything I’m working with! Including my glasses!