lol, yeah, I have a nephew or niece on the way in a few months so I think I’m going to raise what I already have to at least 4 ft. If the kid wants to see it when he or she gets older, I won’t mind lifting them up for a better view, but thats about as much access as I am willing to provide! [8D]
I went with a very low height to most. A mere 39 inches. My reasons were twofold:
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I found that the planned 46 inches was too tall. Originally, there was a projection that a section could span over the TV. This allowed the TV heigh plus a few inches clearance before the benchwork frame. But the height produced a negative space all around the room I did not like at all.
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Being 6’ the 39" height does produce the so-called helicopter view. But I didn’t take this as a negative because of where the layout is set. Its in a deep, narrow channel that was once the site of a river in geologically ancient times. This is not uncommon in Pittsburgh. You spend a lot of time looking down at trains, as all the roads and buildings are up on the hills and the small amount of flat land got used for the railroads. It felt more right to me than eye level, and not “staring down from 200’ feet up on the Bloomfield Bridge.”
Plus its a good height if I’m lazy and want to sit in a chair. And the stumps of the 4’ 1x3s used for legs make nice risers for roadbed and brackets for the turnout controls.
Almost 20 years ago, my Kalmbach book on layout design started with these words:
“Model railroads are always built by people, so the should always be built for people.”
That led to a discussion of access and introduced the concept of ergonomics for layout design. Briefly, the ideal height for a layout is from the bottom of an elbow bent at a right angle up to underarm (armpit) height. Further, the lower limit of ergonomically acceptable layout height is the resting hand height (roughly, the lower point of the hips). Heights above shoulder level are best accessed by stools or steps, and even lower heights may need stools if a long enough reach is involved.
Nothing much has changed since that time except access widths. Aisles have to be larger because the average US male has put on 30 or so pounds around the waist in the intervening years.
Don Mitchell
I recall seeing in MR or one of their publications a formula to figure out what the correct layout heihgt should be in relation to your height. Obviously the ideal height for someone 5’-2" is not going to be the same as someone who is 6’-4" tall. It has also been said trains are best viewed when looking straight at them as opposed to looking down on them from above. That strictly objective in my O/P if you like the aerial view then thats your choice no big deal. I fell the more pertinent question is what should be the minimum bench work height. First things first, duck unders are a bad idea no matter what height their at. If you have no other choice then well you have to use them thats all there is to it.
I feel 48" is the ideal minimal height for bench work, my reason is as I have stated many times is you can sit on a bench, rolling stool, or low back office chair my personal choice and work under your layout in comfort. working on wiring,switch machines, bench work what ever. Spend time on your knees or twisting up working with your arms over head for any length of time and it caches up to you in a bad way real quick.
There is a very large club layout not too far from me where they took this concept to the extreme. Their layout building is actually two floor and one can stand up on the first floor and reach up to the bench work above and wrok on the entire layout with out the visiting public ever knowing they are there. Really cool stuff.
Layout height depends upon the height of you and your operators. I’ve always found about 42 inches for my 6 foot height, which works well from a bar stool as well. Wheelchair bound or children operators would likely need it a bit lower.
Reach width is important… I “max” mine at 20 inches…which work well. This necessitates wider widths at the ends in a “dogbone” configuration, but I always include a hinged “liftout” in the middle, so I can reach everything from there. Structures, etc covering the hatch are secured to the hatch, so they do not have to be removed when lifting it from underneath, and the hatch is secured by a light chain, to hold the lift out just barely over 90 degrees.
Aisle width is another that is tailored to fit for you and your operators. A “skinny” guy can go with narrower aisles…but if you’re a “chubby”, you’d best expand the aisle to allow you to turn around, and/or pass another operator without doing damage to the layout, and the fascia mounted hardware.
Trainman
Because of a peninsula that I built as part of my layout, I only have 26 inches of clearance at one point. My wife let me use a chair that she “inherited” from her parents estate. It is a swivel chair on wheels and the wheel base is 24 inches at the widest point. When I get lazy, I just sit in the chair and move it around the layout by using my feet to “walk” the chair around the basement floor. It barely fits through the 26 inch clearance space, but it works.
The height of a layout depends on the height of the layout owner. Generally speaking, the higher the benchwork, the easier it is to get under the layout through duckunders. Barring those (and I avoid them as much as possible), it is recommended to have the layout closer to eye level so a more realistic view of the trains can be had. This makes for better modeling as well since you look at the layout like you do the real world.
The downside to this is your reach over the benchwork is more limited and equipment runs a greater risk of breaking if it should accidentally fall to the floor. Properly built and maintained and running smoothly, you should be able to enjoy your layout for a long time.
There is no right or wrong answer to the question but should be more dependent on your own comfort and ideas.
Wow, plenty of information on this one. I’m N-Scale and noticed HOers give 2 cents worth so I"ll only give a pennys worth. Since boyhood I’ve have layouts and most were in the 40’ to 48" hight. I just started a new N-cale layout which is 31"deep and 43" high x 5’ benches. This fits my 6’ body comfortably. Reason for the hight is so grandchildern do’nt need benchs to stand on ( therefor saving the edge of the layout from disaster).
Srrngeorge
My last layout was built to enjoy with my 5-year old grandson who fell in love with Thomas the Train. So I built it with a bench height of about 30" so he could see and operate the trains. It only took a little while for him to learn how to treat the equipment with respect… In fact he scolds me often about running the trains too fast.
The height of the benchwork was high enough that I could crawl under it without banging my head (as long as I kept it down) and lay on my back on the floor and reach any wiring or tortoise engines that needed to be worked on.
Operations for me was enjoyable while sitting on an old resurected office chair and the grandson loved to stand on a chair to watch the trains especially on the far side of the layout.
My next layout will be a little taller, and if need be I’ll build some pull-out steps for the grandson to view and operate the trains.
Bottom line… build yours to suit to make it easy to build and to suit your projected operators to make it easy to see and enjoy. As they say, “Your milage (or in this case, height) may vary.”
Geoff