Hello all…I found this forum doing some googling…My wife and I are considering putting a model railroad setup in our boy’s room as he’s taken a Shine to the railroad at the Wegman’s here in Cockeysville, MD. I am a Model RR neophyte in every sense of the word, so I was hoping to get a sense of what might be involved in creating a wall mount or suspended setup for my son’s room. I think a simple circumference setup would work well…I haven’t measured but we’re in the ballpart of a 15*12 room. Once I know what scale and and systems or materials I can use to build the track or base for the track I guess then I would need to know what type of stuff I need to get to pull something like this off. I am reasonably skilled with a saw so a wood platform using some finish grade plank might be a good wall option…could mount that to the wall using triangle cut supports with countersunk screws at the studs… Anyway…any help you can provide would be great…
Welcome aboard. What you’re describing pretty much fits the “around the wall” layout concept, very popular here because it makes effective use of space. For a young boy, though, it’s probably desireable to have what we call “continuous running,” where you can just start up a train and let it go around in a loop. In your case, that would probably involve some sort of bridge across the door to the room. It really helps if the door opens out, too.
How old is he? That’s an important factor. For a very small child (just beyond the Thomas the Tank Engine stage) larger trains are going to be better, although a lot of modellers report that even their younger ones learn great respect for their quality HO models.
A lot of people still use plywood for a base, but many of us have switched over to 2-inch insulation foam - the pink or blue stuff that goes in walls. It’s very lightweight, very stiff and even costs a bit less than the traditional 3/4-inch plywood. It’s also easy to work with. It does need a frame of some sort, but plywood does too.
I have not seen this discussed in some years but at one time the Sunday newspaper and Popular Science handy-man articles would suggest a “train table” that was mounted to the wall on hinges and could be pulled down sort of like a Murphy Bed. Obviously everything would have to be glued down really well. A 4x8 would be rather big for this but a 4x6 woudl probably work ok if it was counterbalanced (so the kid does not bop him or herself on the head when lowering it). Maybe a Murphy Bed mechanism would be just the thing.
Model Railroader used to have a booklet for beginners that showed this.
If you can find (used, since it is out of print) John Armstrong’s Creative Layout design there was a layout called “Murphy Bed and Credenza”. I think it was N scale, which might not suit this purpose, but the Murphy bed idea was there. Are you thinking a diplay only type of thing, or actually being able to “play” with the trains?
I built a small ‘fold-down’ layout as a Christmas present, for my grandson’s bedroom when he was 6-years old. The frame is 1" x 3" clear pine, supporting a 3/8-inch plywood deck. It is mounted to the wall with hinges and folds up when not in use. The whole thing measures about 38" x 48". One of the short sides is attached to the wall so he can reach all areas of the layout. I put folding legs under the outer edge to hold it up when deployed.
The layout is ‘HO-scale’ and powered with a small ‘train set’ DC power pack. It is a simple loop with 18-inch radius curves with one 9-inch straight between the curves. The track has built-in plastic roadbed. He runs an HO scale Thomas The Tank Engine, many varieties of small, and not so small, Bachmann steamers and 4-axle diesels on the layout. Most of his trains do not exceed 4-6 cars in length.
All of the train components, buildings and scenery pieces have to be removed before it can be folded up. The buildings are of painted wood block constuction and only approximate in scale. Trees, bushes, people and signs are simple wood cut outs similar to those provided with Thomas The Tank Engine sets. He often added autos, people figures and buildings from other sources when he played with his trains.
Now that he is 10, he wants something a little more sophisticated. I’m working on the design for a larger fold-up layout with a few sidings, a passing track, permanently attatched scale buildings and more realistic detail. It might keep him busy and away from my BRVRR layout, though I doubt it.
Welcome to the forum. You have chosen a wonderful, if not complicated project.
You will get some excellent advice here, BUT, you need to get some books and magazines and visit a couple of hobby shops that have trains to get a better feel for things.
Picking a scale is first.
Choosing level of complexity comes early
Deciding on running trains or having scenery or building models are early decisions. Take some time and learn what you want. Then we can be even more helpful as you learn how to do it.
I know this isn’t what you’ve asked for, but I had a child’s bedroom situation as well. I solved it with a bunk bed scenario. The bed we had was a full on the bottom and a twin on the top. In our case, I made a twin side layout designed specifically to fit in the top bunk space. The child sleeps under it on the full. But nothing says that couldn’t be reversed with the layout in the bottom and the child sleeping over it. That would be easier to play with, but also easier to get broken by the child climbing on it rather than the ladder.
For budding rail fans keep it simple and as trouble free as possible. You may want to consider one that fits under the bed on rollers. Plug in and go. My grand kids prefer playing on their circle /oval than my big layout.
Jim