Train Room

The contractors just poured the concrete for my new "train room" connected to my house. My imagination is now going wild with the new possibilities of layout design. It has been a long time coming. The lighting will be natural light. The room when finished will have glass on three sides so will have plenty of illumination during the day. I haven't decided what I will do for lighting at night. Any suggestions on the kind of light to use?s John in the Indian Nations

Reply to
NICHE541
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On 6/12/2009 9:49 PM NICHE541 spake thus:

May you rot in hell (just kidding).

I think this is what they call a "gloat".

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Sounds great. RE: all that natural light! It will fade the colors on nearly everything, strong stuff sunlight. Might want to design in some sort of indirect lighting and UV filtering.

Jim

Reply to
Jim

On 6/13/2009 11:57 AM Jim spake thus:

I wouldn't worry about it unless you get direct sunlight in the windows, which, it's true, will fade stuff.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Weathering ...

Reply to
LD

NICHE541 wrote in news:111e00b6-7ce8-4461-a94f- snipped-for-privacy@f19g2000yqo.googlegroups.com:

White LEDs for the locomotive headlights, and streetlights, lots of streetlights. Add in a few building lights here and there (maybe a porch light or two also), and you've got yourself a really cool looking night time layout.

For general lighting, many people seem to prefer either hidden or directional lights. Conventional incandescant bulbs will be easier to dim, but flourescent bulbs will run much cooler and use less energy.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Windows in a "trainroom " ?

All that space and windows that will be blocked by backdrops ?

Tsk tsk tsk, most model railroaders close in all the windows.

By the way, what size is the room ?

Reply to
the OTHER Mike

There will be curtains that will cut out all daylight if wanted. There is also installed UV filtering on the double paned windows. Plenty of room for back drop as the room is 20x22. This is not gloating just 30 years of planning. The Mrs has been deceased for 11 years so no problems there. HO scale at a desk top elivation and O Scale on the floor for the grandsons. This is how I shall end my days. John in the Indian Nations

Reply to
NICHE541

On 6/17/2009 10:25 AM NICHE541 spake thus:

A 20x22 train room and you're not gloating?

Don't worry--you're entitled to it. Any of us would in your place.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

On Jun 17, 12:54=EF=BF=BDpm, David Nebenzahl wrote= :

128 x 24 with NO windows.
Reply to
the OTHER Mike

On 6/17/2009 11:02 PM the OTHER Mike spake thus:

I get it--you're in a club, right?

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

I am a retired physics professor with a love for model railroading and a love for wildlife,flora and fauna. The windows allow observation during the day as well as at night when I choose. No I am not a club member, I was once but now I live out in the wilderness and it is not practical to travel to the city. I am amazed by the negative response by some people in this group. Some people spend their money on new cars etc. I choose to drive a 1987 ford pickup and spend the money I would spend on a new vehicle on a new room.. I have no debts nor credit cards. Someone ask the size so I told them. If that sounds like gloating then it is their problem not mine. I hope everyone here can build a bigger one before the end of their life. If you can conceive a goal and believe it you can achieve it. You can do anything you want to do in this country . It is up to you. Work Hard and save your money. John in the Indian Nations

Reply to
NICHE541

John-

My train room is a former 18x30' fiberglass and steel frame greenhouse.

The ceiling needed to be replaced since the filon panels leaked. It's now a series of aluminum/styrofoam sandwich panels.

The crushed rock floor was replaced with a concrete slab and the evaporative cooler was replaced with a window air conditioner supplemented by a portable.

I still use the overhead gas heater I used when it was a greenhouse.

I opted to cover most of the walls with 4x8 plastic sandwich panels with insulation wedged between the panels and the fiberglass. This was done primarily for two reasons. The first was that of trying to get some control over temperature. The second was to provide a surface for backdrops.

Most folks will warn you against fluorescent lighting. I use it. However, I only have the stock currently in use actually on the layout. The balance is stored in a series of utility carts which slide under the layout.

I can't really discuss scale related issues since it's my understanding that your primary layout is HO. Mine is 3 rail O with an emphasis on 1/4 scale.

I only run TMCC command and don't run conventional. So, the power comes from a series of Lionel Track Power Controllers (TPC's) and 180w Lionel power packs.

Although I have a control panel, I don't use it very much. Such things as switching are now also controlled using Lionel SC-2 switch controllers. About the only thing I still use the control panel for is uncoupling. I haven't rigged them for TMCC control. Might someday.

I use AtlasO track and switches.

My response is probably a bit of overkill to your basic lighting question.

Structure and vehicle lighting are 12VDC warm whites. I have a separate power supply for this function. I use LED's from Evan Designs (

formatting link
). I also like their Model Builder software package for such things as making scale signs. Their import function is quite handy for making unique signs and you can select the desired scale.

Hope this helps.

Reply to
Carl Heinz

On 6/18/2009 12:11 PM NICHE541 spake thus:

I think you misunderstand.

You don't get it; gloating is a *good* thing. I'd do it if I was building a train room that size. (It's all meant in fun.)

Me too.

Reply to
David Nebenzahl

Yes, figured I would never have anything larger then maybe 24 x 24 ( in my dreams ). My trainroom as a kid was 24 x 8 with a 5' ceiling ( was a storage room over the garage). When I found the club I figured why try to do anything at home. I live maybe 20 blocks from the club and have 24 hour access..............I'm BLESSED. If it were not for the founding members ( who started as kids in the 50's) buying the building in 73, I would not have what we have now.

NOT gloating, just very BLESSED and apprectiave of how fortunate I am.

Reply to
the OTHER Mike

Sorry if I came off negative, it's just strange ( to me ) to have windows in a train room. I believe in lineal layouts with backdrops. Don't worry about anyone thinking you are gloating, maybe they are just jealous.

Reply to
the OTHER Mike

NICHE541 wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@t11g2000vbc.googlegroups.com:

*snip*

Mind a random physics related question? In a 0-G environment (such as space is often portrayed), wouldn't things tend to stay exactly where they were rather than all of a sudden float up?

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Um, do you mean "suddenly float up" as in what they might do if/when acceleration suddenly ceased?

Depends. Could happen several way.

(A) Big rockets such as space vehicles shake like *crazy* while they're thrusting, and inertia keeps the ship vibrating like a tuning fork for a second or two after the engines shut down, so this motion would tend to push anything that wasn't anchored down away from whatever it was touching.

(B) If the object in question had any "spring" to it (and many things do) the sudden cessation of acceleration would cause that compressed potential energy to unload and "spring" the object away from it's contact point.

(C) When acceleration ceases, some things in the cabin of a space vehicle keep moving. Things such as the air, which is circulated with fans so that stagnant spots of Co2 don't develop. Since weight goes away with acceleration, but mass doesn't, anything loose in the spacecraft's cabin will be blown about: relatively massive objects such as astronauts will take a while to begin moving, but objects of very low mass -such as dust or pieces of paper- will promptly begin drifting around in the air currents. (And this is why spacecraft are assembled in "clean rooms".)

All of the above probably explain why space vehicles and the things that go into them are so throughly equipped with velcro surfaces, zippers, latching drawers, and the like.

You pick up the strangest things when you teach at a college and hang out in the Physics department...

~Pete

Reply to
Twibil

Twibil wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@x31g2000prc.googlegroups.com:

What brought the question up was a small segment I caught of 2001: A Space Odyssey. A man had a food tray on his lap, and let go of it to talk to another one. The tray then started floating up on its own like a helium balloon. If really in 0-G, I would have though it'd stay in place, or if it did start moving it'd just creep.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

Niche541,

When I finished our "bonus room" over our new garage, I used trac lighting. I had the contractor assist with two separate circuits in the room. The advantages are that as the layout changes or I work on different areas, I can move & swivel lights to provide plenty of light for working areas. I can also use spots to highlight special areas like my 85' high (scale of course) curved wooden trestle. I also like the "warm" look of incandescents in available light photos.

Obviously if you have a double deck for the HO layout, you will need something under the upper deck to light the lower one and trac probably wouldn't work there. The same might be true for your O scale stuff at floor level.

Keep in mind that asking a question of ten modelers will get you at least 11 answers cause at least one of them has two opinions!

Don't take most of the responses here as being negative. While there are a couple of people who don't like to "play nice," the rest of us will have some good natured fun at others' expense from time to time. And yes, anyone with a new, "dedicated" train room (myself included) is fair game for obvious, envious remarks. : )

Your needs & desires may vary but that's what I did.

dlm

Reply to
Dan Merkel

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