Perhaps this has been asked before in a variety of other posts. If so, forgive me. I’m somewhat new to the forum.
? Question ? If you could construct your own basement (i.e. size, location of utiliites, furnace, and water heaters, etc.) for a new layout, how big and what shape would your basement be?
Ideas: Would it be perfectly square or rectangular? Would it be divided into two or more rooms? Accessiblitily?
The reason for asking. I went house hunting a few years ago with my wife. We looked at a ranch with a somewhat unusual 1st floor plan. The kitchen was the wrong shape so we weren’t particularly interested in it.
The basement however, I wish I could have folded up and taken it with me. It went the full length of the house with only one support post right smack in the middle. Clean and dry with ample lighting. I’m guessing it was probably 24 X 48’. My mouth hit the floor. (The furnace and water heater were in the middle with the support post.)
Anyway, I’ve thought how much of a layout could I have had in that space. I’m not complaining. My 4 x 8 table is bringing me much enjoyment at the moment.
I was able to design my new basement 5 years ago. It was 25 x 75ft. I had the contractors add an extra row of blocks (13 rows) which gave me over 8 ft ceilings. There were no windows and no utilities. The water tank and furnace were upstairs.
There was an office/lounge (12x28) off this basement area where the water softener and stairs came down. So this left me with just the support columns and Bilco emergency exit doorway to deal with. The panelbox was set high on the one wall close to a corner.
Since then I have added a complete drop ceiling, 20 8ft 4 tube fluoresent lights, switched outlets along the walls and a layout.
The layout has, at this time about 2600ft of HO track and we run Digitrax Radio DCC.
Although the scenery is only about 10% done we have more fun operating every other Thursday night.
I lost a bid on a 10 year old ranch a few years ago while househunting. The basement was a basically empty 30x70 dream. The stairs came down the center, naturally creating two rooms. All the utilities were under the stairs, as was a half bath, and the washer/dryer/mud sink were upstairs! The basement was perfectly layout-ready (meaning it was just a concrete box!), with no posts.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get that house. I actually ended up with a much nicer 100+ year old Craftsman foursquare which is much more suited to our lifestyles and tastes. Unfortunately, it only has a 32x32 basement divided into four rooms. I knocked down one wall to create my current 14x32 layout room.
To me, the “perfect basement” would be one which would allow me to have a 10-15 scale mile long mainline that would support TT/TO operations. It’d have a bathroom and crew lounge, as well as a decent workshop area (at least 10x10) and a dispatcher’s office. Lighting, insulation, drywall and carpeting would give the entire space a comfortable, hospitable atmosphere. Oh, and a well-stocked mini fridge full of frosty barley pop would be mandatory!
I designed and built a home with 4450 square foot footprint. That many squaer feet upstairs for living, and a basement to match. The train room is almost 2000 square feet, but the area for the layout is only 38 x 46. The finished ceiling will be just over 8’. I have 3 support columns in the middle, but they are no bother. I also designed in a door to my garage / workshop which allows me to bring in materials for construstion.
For me, the bigger the better with the stairs coming down away from the walls and minimal support columns. High ceilings would also be nice because I’d be tempted to build a mushroom style layout. I’d like it to be large enough to do a humongous walk around style of layout similar to Rick Rideout’s L&N or Dave Barrow’s Cat Mountain & Santa Fe, rather than a spaghetti bowl configuration because my area isn’t large enough. I also want a very large area just to give some walking distance between towns.
My daughter just bought a new house and I told her I lust for her basement. It meets all the criteria listed above as it’s something like 30 plus by 60 plus feet and has a 9 foot ceiling! The stairs come down in the middle of the area, there’s only three posts, and the furnace and HW heater are also in the center area underneath the stairs. Man, could I build a great layout there!
A friend of mine built a house that had a basement that was approximately 32’ Wide by 60’ long. The best part was that he used floor trusses, so he had no poles in the basement, just open space. Now that’s how I’d want my basement. Also, all the mechanicals were in a separate space.
I don’t know about designing a basement from scratch, but we recently acquired a clean and dry one that’s 34’ x 24’ and is essentially one big room divided by a stairway (there’s also an outside entrance that doesn’t intrude into the space). There are 3 steel support posts that are easily worked around. I would consider it absolutely perfect for my purposes if only the builder had reoriented the boiler (we have baseboard hot water heat and the boiler supplies hot water as well) 90 degrees to the right (when facing the rear wall). This would have put the boiler under the st
The ideal basement for a train room isn’t even a basement at all. LOL It would a seperate building unto itself (say 30’ x 100’). Naturally, most of us can’t afford to do that, nor can I at this point, so I’m just dreaming. Further, since I live in southern California and basements are unheard of here, even a basement would be a dream (and I envy you guys in other parts of the US and Canada, or anywhere where you have basements.) I suppose I could move outta state. …naaah.
For model railroaders, a basement is something like a boat. A boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money. The only difference is that (for a model railroader) the hole is in the ground. The general effect is identical
Prefectly square with nothing but strairs coming out of the middle and a layout that went around the outside, there would be a section in the middle to do work and store my trains
There doesn’t seem to be many or any(?) basements here in Arizona either. I had one back east but not here. I ended up with a 10 x 20 seperate building. It’s not bad except on 100 degree days. ( and that is even with air conditioning.)
My friend Charlie Comstock (see the 2004 Model Railroad Planning for an article with his basement and track plan described) just built a new basement and put a house on top.
Charlie did several things to prepare the basement since it was built specifically to house a layout.
No utilities or stairs in the basement layout space at all.
Nearby operator’s lounge, with bathroom and fridge.
No windows in the layout room.
No supports in the layout room.
Outlets in the ceiling every few feet to support layout lighting using drop chords (mimimal code issues that way, since the lights “plug in”). Also outlets around the room in the usual spot near the floor.
All outlets switchable via light switches at the door.
Walls painted sky blue, with extra matching blue paint left by the contractor.
Charlie coved the corners of the room from about 48" to the ceiling and painted it matching blue using the paint left by the contractor.
And now his room’s all ready to go, and he’s adding benchwork steadily.
40’x80’ rectangle. One place where the, water heater, furnace, and washer/dryer set are grouped together, not spread far apart.
Painted sheetrock walls, with a concrete floor that can be carpeted later on.
Big wide doors to make moving material in and out easier.
High ceilings with drop tiles in place. So as too keep dust down.
Flourescent lighting already in place.
One airplane bathroom in one corner.
Mini-fridge nearby.
For years,I planned to use part of my lower level 48x28 split level ranch. Over the years, the little woman had me build bedrooms for the kids on the lower level as well as a family room. They are classified as “untouchable” now. But “alas!!!” there was an answer looming on the horizon, the wife and I wanted to add a room off the house for a large, windowed, family room ( big family now with grandkids ). So I cleverly told her that we might as well do a full excavation because we had to go down beyond the frost line anyways, and that is 4 feet in New England, so why not go the distance for a full basement? I now have a 28x28 space thats MINE !!!
Here is an interesting idea. You build in the basement and build in the attic and connect both layouts with a very high helix. This way if there is a flood you move all traffic to the attic but if their is a tornado than you move all traffic to the basement.
Andre…GET A GOAT, or some SHEEP. But on 2nd thought, then you would have to worry about Coyotes and Wolves. We use Lamas down here in central Mass hills to guard the sheep, they chase the Coyotes away…wolves? That’s another story!!
I just got my first basement after having moved away from the nest in the mid '60s. A long wait and I’m going to do justice to this one. Since my woodworking business is in my home - more specifically in the 2000 sq ft basement, I have had to carve out a suitable space for the shop and the layout, plus a work room / spare bedroom w/ plenty of built-in storage. Since I’m not contemplating ever selling this house - I’m making some long-term improvements that will mean that it will be awhile before any track gets laid. In the long run, the wait will be worth it. Although the basement is completely dry - even during torrential rain storms, I have ensured that all the drainage around the home is correctly done, and that all gutters are functioning correctly and diverting roof water away from the foundation. Plumbing within the basement ceiling and on any walls has been double checked for leaks or sweating pipes. Insulated HVAC ducts are used and located within the floor joists and not perpendicular to them. Flush ceiling outlets will be installed, w/ individual dampers in each run to balance the air flow. A whole house surround system is being expanded to include the basement, and both CATV and phone lines are being installed.
I am framing a dedicated 24 X 32 foot railroad room, w/ an additional 7 X 8 foot space at one end, w/ an acoustical tile drop ceiling w/ flush mounted lighting, drywalled & insulated walls all around including exterior walls, and will eventually have a wooden subfloor w/ vinyl on top of it for cleanliness and ‘easy to stand’ on for long periods of time. The walls are 2X4s on 16" centers w/ built in blocking to support cantilevred supports to minimize table/bench work legs. All the wiring will be in the wall w/ numerous elec outlets, and will be on a separate circuit than the lighting, for it’s difficult to work on the wiring in the dark. I may install a sub-panel for both the shop and the layout room, although the 200 amp panel is proba
