Put-awayable layout

Darren, I remember seeing a layout in RM several years ago where the whole thing was suspended by pulleys from the ceiling! Outlandish, but may solve your problem in the lad's bedroom. Mike in BC

Well, there's space and there's space.

a) island/table layout: dimensions of the island plus 2 - 3 feet on at least three sides. Thus, a 4'6' layout requires 8'8' minimum, better would be 6'x9'. That's about the size of a garden shed. If you want a

4'x8' layout, with access all round, you'll need 8'x12' minimum space - That's gettting to be the about the size of a bedroom.

b) round the wall (shelf) layout. 1 foot minimum width, a little wider in the corners. In a 10'x12' bedroom, you will have an 8'x10' space left in the middle. If the layout is built high enough, one end of the bed can go under it. The space underneath the layout is an excellent space for storage cupboards and shelves - and you can never have enough storage. :-)

So, why not consider a round-the-wall shelf layout? Where the layout crosses the door, you will have to build a lift-out bridging section. Sounds difficult, but not much more than building the shelves.

If you don't want to build all the way around the room, build along two walls, and add a (re)movable board for the return loops to permit continuous running. These need not be more than suitably sized pieces of ply with folding legs at one end. A lip plus a couple of pins on the permament part of the layout will hold them in alignment.

HTH&GL

Interesting idea. The boy's bedroom is too small for that, but maybe another room. I can possibly see a room reassignment coming on!

In message , Darren J Longhorn writes

A lot depends on how much scenery he wants on the layout, and whether he's happy to put it out and pack it away again. As a young lad I had a 6'x4' layout built on two 6'x2' pieces of chipboard which clipped together. When not in use, it was stored flat up against a wall. The trackplan was a double track oval with a crossover, a couple of sidings for an engine shed, a long siding parallel to the oval to serve as the third platform of a station, and a couple of goods sidings. Unfortunately permanent scenery had to be limited to just painting/scattering the baseboard (which in fact I never got around to), with platforms/buildings/tunnels stored in a separate box and put out as needed.

When I outgrew it I donated it to my school model railway club, but sadly after I left it got chucked when the school had a clearout. :-(

Of course, if you can convince his mother, the other options to consider are the loft (if you have one) or the garden. The latter can provide a lot of entertainment with long continuous runs and scale length trains but is of course only good for fine weather.

He wants hills, so he can have a tunnel, especially after he saw the layouts at the Leeds Exhibition yesterday!

I don't think setting out buildings and such like would be a problem - he seems to enjoy that. His typical usage is to set everything out, then play with it solidly for several days, tapering off until we need the space back. It's just that the carpet is a bit limiting.

Shame.

Unfortunately, we live in an old stone terraced house. The attic is part of the living space (with only a very tiny space remaining). The garden is too small, and is not really enclosed so would risk attracting unwanted attention. We have a basement, but it is damp and generally full of bicycles and cats.

More then the size of his!

I see your point.

It's not doable in his room. But even something that drops down from the wall won't fit in his room anyway, so we'll have to swap rooms or something. I do like the idea of round-the-wall! As you have shown above, it's the logical way to make best use of the room.

I have just completed a layout for my sons. It consists of 3 main pieces each 1200mm x 600mm and a 4th piece which is 1200mm x 145mm. The 3 main pieces a arranged in a U shape with the 4 piece closing the gap. The result is a rectangle 2400mm x 1200mm overall with a substantial hole (1200mm x 455mm) for the operators. The hole means that it does NOT require access around the sides. The main pieces are bolted together and legs also bolted on. The track consists of a double loop made up of nearly 10 yards of Peco flexible track, plus a couple of sidings in Hornby set track. The Peco flexible track is pinned down to the baseboard (Sundeala), but the sidings just sit in position and thus can be easily modified. The 1200mm x 145mm piece is barely wide enough for the 2 tracks and road which it carries --- in planning I was only thinking of trains and forgotten the need for a road as well.

Currently this is all set up at one end of our dining room. The scenery (a tunnel and a bridge so far) just sits on the board and thus can be easily packed away. The tunnel and bridge were constructed using modeling rock which results in a strong lightweight structure. While Sundeala is considerably lighter than ply or mdf, the three boards still add up to a significant weight. A foam board would probably be much lighter but may also require the track to be glued down rather merely pinned. I prefer using track pins as it is easier to change if I discover that the layout needs updating.

Depending on the age of your son, you may need to design the board to withstand his weight as well as that of the track and trains. I have two son's and the younger one (5) frequently puts his entire weight on the edge of the board when he gets excited.

I could post some photographs of the construction and 'final' result if anyone is interested.

Regards, Mark Thornton

Here are a few plans that might inspire you. The first one I am building as an N gauge model, the others are ones that I have designed over the years. They are all designed with setrack in mind and will fit a 6'x4' baseboard. If this is your first layout I would recommend building one of the simpler plans just to get something up and running.

Fred X

The layout can be seen here:

Have you considered using a Cabin bed? That way you can stick the layout underneath and still have exactly the same space available in the bedroom as previous.

Pete

I certainly would, but he shares his room and they already have bunk beds. Maybe two cabin beds!

Thanks for those. We had in mind something on two levels, but there are some good ideas there for us to think about. I will have to keep the old imagination in check though, as it will be the first layout I've built since my teens, some mumble mumble years ago.

I like the idea of the bridging piece.

I recall that my old layout was primarily plywood which was heavy and very noisy.

He's 9 but they still get excited. I like the idea of building on top of storage, that should help with the strength.

Yes, thanks for that.

I seem to recall reading something like those when I was a teen. I'll check the local library! Otherwise, I'm sure I can find a copy of Railway Modeller.

Noise is not a problem with the Sundeala.

Mark Thornton

Exactly! Any idea how much it costs?

Nice use of a made-up word. Did you see "They Think Its All Over" last night with Bouncebackable.

Kevin

Thank you. I'm afraid I didn't.