…I dont have any walls without either a window or a door on it. I am going to build it in my finished room over the garage, and I have 2 knee walls on either side with doors to access attic space and a window on the end wall in between, and a bathroom and entrance to the room on the other end. I really don’t want to have to struggle with ducking under to get to the doors, and a removeable piece just seems like a hassle. I could sacrafice the window ( I would rather not), but how do you build in front of it and make it look good?
Perhaps the best option is to make it freestanding in the middle of the room, But, then the room woould be useless for much else…wait a minute…who cares, its about the layout.
Anyway, I have a room, and it looks like it will be difficult to get it the way I want. If I do build it freestanding, how much clearance should I plan on to get around it? The room is 14.5’ X 14.5’. How big a layout do you think I can put in comfortably? I want to make sure I can reach most everything so what shape do you recommend? I’m thinking a kidney shape or shallow C. Comments?
Sorry about the seemingly silly questions, but I really am at an impasse as to what i should do.
I have a free-standing 5 x 12 foot layout, mounted on wheels. I did that so I could tuck it under the 45-degree sloped ceiling next to the kneewall. That’s the finished room over my garage.
You might think about using the space around the window for an aisle, with a number of peninsulas sticking out into the room, but not blocking anything. You could also build a long bridge across the window space to join two parts of the layout.
If the attic access doors are short, I would go around the walls above the doors. For the window, don’t try to hide it. Most people will block it out. Just don’t put an important scene in front of the window.
Don’t forget that the knee walls are probably about 4 feet tall and the roof then slopes up from there. 30 inches isn’t going to be enough.
I would suggest around the walls and just put a liftout (with an electrical interlock to avoid trains crashing to the floor) in front of the bathroom door. OR, do a point to point that terminates on either side of the door.
cut a piece of drywall to fit inside the window frame , just use a few screws to hold it in place so it can easily be removed if you move to a new house . you can paint the side of the drywall that will face the outside so it looks better
U shaped around the room would sure be nice in my perspective. At the knee walls, just build the scenery into the ceiling. You probably would even have room to put a loop at each end to have one continous circle if you like trains that run continuously. I do and so do the grandkids. Most visitors also like to see the train run around the layout. If the open end can be by the doors, you have a natural.
Thanks for all of the responses, I really appreciate them. My knee walls are 5.5’ high, I’m 6’2" and I don’t have any problem with banging my head into the sloped ceiling. The way the attic doors are placed (they are 4’ tall), I just cannot put any kind of layout together against the wall without ducking under or having to fabricate something removeable (not liking that anyway). So, in the middle of the room it will be.
Oh yeah, I’m DOING this in HO! No N scale this time, that is too easy, LOL. j/k, I love the look of N scale, but I really am fond of HO. N scale stuff is the same price (almost).