im moving to a house and the bedroom i will be setting up my lay out is 9X12 but theres a 2x4 closet in the room i dont know whether to go with a L shaped or a diffrent design
Hello Tempo, We need a bit more information. Could you sketch up a floor plan including doors and windows? Over all a "U" or "L" is preferred to an "I" but each situation is different. It would also help to know the scale and your interests.
I don't know enough about room, prototype likes or dislikes, favorite era, operating style etc to suggest a layout shape. But for this room, I would suggest a layout HEIGHT of 4 to 5 feet to allow use of under-layout space for head of bed, chest of drawers, TV set, etc if the room must be used also as a bedroom. Same thing if strictly a trainroom, with under-layout for books, magazines. And height would be eye level for standing and/or high stool.
im going with ho i,ve got a layout where were at now its a 5x8 only thats all i could fit in there .my wife got a beter look at the room and said the one side was 7' because of the closet and the other side was 9' and was 12'long i think theres only one window and the door opens into the room i havnt got a good look at the room yet the closet is 4'long and 2'w i was thinkin the u shape myself .
Ouch! Turnback curves in HO are enormous in a room that size. As noted, get a good look at the room, measure it, and draw up a plan. Be sure to note which way doors open, and how high the windows are.
Go N scale, Im an HOer and im converting to N because of space limitations. You will be much happier, if you dont want to make the switch, keep it simple work on detail instead of complex operations. It has been one let down after another because of a lack of planning on my 4 X6 layout and trying to make my layout complex.
Well, I wont suggest you go N scale as it appears you are already established in HO but yes more railroad / scenery can accomplished in smaller scales. I will echo what has already been said, measure the room, create a diagram from that and ues that as a starting point. I will however add that you may be able to reclaim room real estate if you are able to rehanng the door to open out of the room instead of into the room. Of course I have not seen your house and this may not be an option In the meantime......here are some questions to chew on - What kind of layout do you have now? - How do you run your trains on your current layout? - What would you want to change? - What do you want to stay the same? Keep us posted...by the way. Congrats on the house.
this is kinda what im thinking of doing unfortunetly i cant take down any doors cause were renting the house and it has to be a least 6" from the walls i hope the pic showed up
You can't reach the back of a 4' wide layout against a wall, or 6" from the wall. (Why do they have to be 6" off the walls, anyway?)
Trilex brings up a valid point, that would be a 48" reach on the modules. I know I have problems with 30" reach and I am very ape like I assume that the "6 inch" rule is because of the house being a rental and to not cause damage to the wall. However, I am sure there are benchwork techniques that you could use to bring the layout much closer the wall without damage. I am not a benchwork guru...(should see mine) but I am sure someone will chime in with some good benchwork advice
Tempo: I've rented and owned a half-dozen train spaces over a number of years. I've made most of my layouts free-standing, although almost all have been around the outside of the room like yours...within an inch of but only rarely secured to the walls. Since Linn Westcott wrote his book on making model RRing benchwork (in the 1970s, I think), I've used modified L-girder construction for supporting my layouts. Get a copy at your local hobby shop, on e-bay, or at a model train show...it is definitely a valuable layout designing resource. For the surface of my layout (supported by the stringers which rest on the L-girders), I personally like using a 1/2 inch OSB panel and 1/2 inch homasote panel secured together, but other TBers have had a lot of success with plywood alone (thickness varying from 1/4 to 1 full inch), homasote alone, hollow core doors, and layers of foam alone. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, and a search of the Layout Design forum threads or the Inspection Pit threads with keywords such as plywood, foam, and hollow core door will retrieve dozens of threads to explore. You might also want to search under modular design, cookie cutter design, and frame construction or open-frame construction. Although it is sometimes tedious to plow through lots of threads, I'd encourage you to become familiar with what others have said...for and against...the various benchwork and layout surface methods. What is an advantage from one modeler's perspective may be a disadvantage from another's point of view. I like how homasote holds nails and scenicing, and is strong yet workable. I don't expect to move in the next few years (and I prefer tearing out everything back to plain boards whenever I do move), and since homasote is available in my part of the country (it's an insulating paper product that is much less available--and thus more expensive-- in some climates), the extra weight is not a liability to me; but someone who expects to move several times in the next few years may want to use foam for easier transportation, or a modular design or hollow core door domino design for easier breaking down and setting up. Think about what you need or want for your own layout, and how each approach might make it easier or harder to accomplish it.
I would have to agree with the 4' problem. There is an unwritten rule that says derailment's will happen in the worst possible place, just outside of your reach. This includes tunnels too. Don't forget that the track will need to be cleaned from time to time, so you will need to be able to reach all your track for that too. For a room size layout HO is at a bit of a disadvantage. The 4' width that it take for the turnaround is just to deep for an along the wall layout. You may consider big "blobs" on the ends for the turns and narrower through the middle to allow for better reach access. A little more dog bone like.
ive come up with a couple more ideas first pic is just a 5x12 and the 2nd pic is (2)2.5x8 (2)2x7 shaped as a square with a center walkway
A 5x12 like that will not be practical. The other is at least all reachable. In fact, it's a good basic configuration if you can accept the duckunder. I still don't know what you want in this layout.
You may want to ckeck-out this site http://www.hogrr.com/ and there is a discussion group for this layout here http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOGRR/
