Railway Layout Table Hight (canada)

There is no standard for table height. I have my main level at 43" and my upper level at 59". Unless you like a birds eye view of everything, 33" is very low. If I just had one level it would be about 50". With my two levels I had to lower my main level to prevent my upper level from being too high.

You might look at back issues of Model Railroader for ideas. They usually show track elevation in all their published plans.

Stuart Sabatini Palm Coast, FL

Brock wrote: I was woundring what the current standard for a model railway layout table and I was looking at this size from the ground..

33 1/2 inchies and would welcome your comments and suggestions....I'am looking at legs for my layout table which are 54 inchies which I have to cut down...I'am using large wooden shipping pallets which will work fine for what I'am doing...good free cheep wood in great condition ...

----------------------------------------------------------- Part of the height consideration should be the distance you'll need to reach to get to the most distant point from the edge. I found that at

36" high the distance for me was 36" so that's the height I selected since I wanted my layout to be 36". But I didn't take aging into consideration. As I grew older, I found that the reach was becoming more difficult.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire

in article EJUZf.8412$nf7.517@pd7tw1no, Brock Bailey at snipped-for-privacy@shaw.ca wrote on 4/8/06 1:07 PM:

I used Sievers Benchwork and their standard leg height is 40" or 48". I used

40", and with the plywood on top and theleeler on the bottom, my table is 41". I'm also using Woodland Scenics foam risers (2 1/2"), so my track roadbed starts at 43 1/2". (See pictures about a year old at my web site below).

I think 33" is a bit low: too much of a bird's eye view for my taste; YMMV. To see what you want to look at while operating, etc., try building a small diorama (maybe just a couple of feet of track on roadbed with a building or two trackside) and look at it from various heights. Pick the one which satisfies YOU; there are no actual standards, just preferences. Unless you are building a module for a club (and they will tell you what their standards are), pick what you like.

Yeah, I hate how I'm discovering that works...

My next layout is going to be 1:4 scale-- with a maximum 12" table width, and

48" wide aisles!!!

Mark Mathu replied: My next layout is going to be 1:4 scale-- with a maximum 12" table width, and

48" wide aisles!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Perfect solution!

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire

There is no standard. Whatever suits you is your standard. :-)

Best height is the one that's comfortable for you. If you will operate standing, waist high or higher will do nicely: around 42" at the rail minimum, IOW. Some people advocate eye-level, or about 62" for me, but to build at that height you'll need a low bench to stand on.

If sitting, at least high enough to get your knees under the table: the keyboard drawer for this machine sits 24" above the floor, just barely enough. To operate sitting, use a good quality adjustable office chair.)

Note that if the layout design requires a duck-under, anything less than about 48" clearance below the benchwork will be a real pain. Some people have put a cut down chair on casters to make it easier to scoot under the table.

While building, having to bend over can be very hard on the back, so take that into account too.

Modular specs (eg, Ntrak) include a standard, but only so that the modules can be joined.

If you are building a double deck layout, the lower level at around 36" to 42", and the upper at around 52" to 60" is reasonable.

HTH.

As the others have mentioned, there is no standard height for a layout. I visited one home layout where the guy (6'15" or something like that) built to his mouth height and that meant that all visitors had to move around on stepstools just to see the layout. On the other hand, I've seen small layouts built into coffee tables which are a lot lower than what you're considering. The only place that you find a standard for height is in the modular layout groups and they tend to set the height at around 50" (4' legs) and that seems to be a nice height for most people. I tend to enjoy chest height to chin height layouts most as you get to get up close to the scenery and see it more like seeing the real life scenes. Even long trains and large layouts seem to be best viewed from lower angles of only a 100' or so rather than 1000'.

-- Why do penguins walk so far to get to their nesting grounds?

Again , whatever you like. I'm 5'11" and 48-50" is what works best for me. I have no area wider than 2', most is 12 " and a few places are only 8". As some else suggested , try a small diorama and check out different heights.

Ken Day Ken Day

56.5" / 4 = 14.125" You're going to have to do narrow gauge since the standard gauge track won't fit on your table.

Have you thought about the 15" gauge Romney, Hyth and Dymchurch Railway?

The height of a layout table does depend a lot on the need to reach all parts of the layout without having to use a helicopter. If you are modelling overhead electrification, even if without the wires, with too high a layout you'll knock over a couple of masts when reaching over to re-rail that carriage over on the far track. Buildings, trees etc. will also control your effective reach and thus your layout height. Also, if you have to wear a heavy sweater or similar, you can bet that the sleeve will catch a vehicle, a tree, a structure and knock it over as you reach for something. 'Shirt sleeve order' will reduce this problem. Regards, Bill.

"Ken Day" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...