N Scale in a Suticase - Some Advise Needed

Hello all, first the layout details,

We have very little room where we live and my son loves "little trains" as he calls them. I've had a small shelf I'm building on and off but placement of it has never worked out. I found a hard sided case with square flat sides 20" x 12" X 7" interior dimensions. I'm building a layout inside it and am going to give it to him for his birthday.

I've made the base on pick foam insulation and layed the track after some testing of various locos on tight curves. A Lifelike 0-6-0 steam loco runs great on it. The curve is very tight, as the flex track has a 10 inch curve to it, but it still runs without derailing. I have Atlas accumate couplers and trucks on all my rolling stock. Other than I've had to remove the coupler from the trucks and mount then to the car body for this layout all have run great for hours now. I'm going for an old west theme, "Pine Gultch RR" and scenery and structures(free paper ones I've gleaned from the web and scaled down) are progressing nicely. I'll be posting photos soon.

Now for some help,

If you do a search online for some small suitcase layouts, you'll see a few videos where when you open the lid of the suitcase the layout automatically raises up, kind of like trays in a jewelry box would. What hardware-hinge is needed to do this and where would I buy it? I don't have to go this route but would really like to.

After photos are posted any and all advise or comments for improvement would be appreciated but the lifting the layout on some kind of hinge is the one I really would like.

Thanks all.

 

Something in the old brain finally jarred loose. I think you are looking for what is called a scissors hinge in some circles.

 

Photos now uploaded as attachments. I think you hit the nail on the head John, I did a search on Scissors Hinges and it looks like what I need. Home Depot sells some so I'll see what I can fine there first. Thanks!

 

More photos The lift device didn't work out but I found a good way to do it using magnets in the layout and mounted metal strips on the inside of the suitcase.
Any comments and advise appreciated.

 

That is cool never seen one that small and those buildings are similar to the ones I want to find for my layout I'm starting.

Thanks Chris

 

Thanks, Chris. Since I found the buildings online and they were listed as free, PM me your info and I'll send you the base buildings if you want. I had to resize them to N scale and cut, recolor and reposition things in photoshop to get different looks and sizes that I wanted.

Here is more layout progress. Still a lot to do and the Nov. 1st deadline is looming.

 

You are doing a very nice job on that little layout. Good work.

 

The layout is finished! It turned out pretty good. I may do another one in a lager suitcase in the future. Space is a premium where I live and a micro layout I can easily setup and store away fits the bill.

Note the storage for a loco and some cars at the top of the case lid.

 

A Video of the working layout on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzdOc1JBKY8&feature=youtu.be

 

what a nice looking layout !!

 

I'm really into good looking paper buildings, myself. And those are nice. Any chance you could provide the link to where they are?

By the way... the layout turned out top-notch.

 

Here are a few I found and used elements from some.
http://www.erichotz.com/wwc_free1.html
http://www.ecardmodels.com/index.php/free-models/30mm-coach-house-paper-model.html
http://www.scalescenes.com/products/R002
http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/freebuilding.html
The main sets I used were links from an war gaming site blog and even then the site it linked to was defunct and I had to pull the photo files from Google cache. I cannot find them even looking again tonight but have the JPGs if you want them posted.

 

Thats just really cool !!! ^5

Just a thought...if it will...slow the train down...it will make the layout 'seem' bigger the longer it takes to make a lap...JMO YMMV...:closedmouth: