Posted: 6/2/2004 7:40:11 PM EDT
I just bought a new house and want to put a model railroad in my sons room on a shelf that would go around the whole room. (Something that I always wanted but I told my wife that it's for my son  )Does anyone have any experiance with this? |
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My layout pics Look at the pics in the center of the page. This is how mine looks. The upper deck is mounted on those little metal shelf brackets every 16 inches, and the shelf itself is made of 3 pieces of 1/2 inch extruded styrofoam sheets, which are laminated laminated together. Have had very little settling or drooping. It is pretty darn sturdy, but I'd be leery of doing this down low, where people can lean on it, as it would be easy to break. I used Elmer's glue to make everything stick together. I'd be curious what scale? |
One time at bandcamp.... I went to a party at a guys house once, he had one downstairs. Maybe a foot from the ceiling, too high to really enjoy, but also too high for anyone to fondle. It went all the way around the room. He had all kinds of crossings and other working display stuff. Controlled from behind the bar. Obviously a lot of work. Obviously very cool. |
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You need to go over to www.trainorders.com to the Model Railroading Forum and ask there. Also www.modelrailroader.com The challenge is going around the door. It's probably going to be a fairly simple arrangement so you won't need DCC. DCC - Digital Command Control allows much simpler wiring on complex layouts and independent control of engines regardless of location, and you can "consist" several engines together and control as one engine. But it isn't cheap for all but the least capable systems. But you should look at it and consider if you may eventually go that way. The low end systems are almost all capable of expanding so ??? If you want independent control and simple wiring you may want to bite the bullet and go for it. Frankly if I was to bet most engines are going to come with it in the future. Most engines are coming with easy conversion built in now. Simple decoders run as low as $20, more complex up to $40 and adding sound is another $40 or so. You might want to get this book locally and decide what benchwork you want to go with. store.yahoo.com/kalmbachcatalog/12175.html You probably don't need to get too complex as long as you are willing to drill into the studs. It seems to be easier to build your sections modularly and then attach to the wall, rather than build out. A lot of guys are using insulating foam laminated to thin plywood on skeleton framework. Unless the kids will climb on it or you use it to hang things from that should be good enough |
M4 is 100% right...put that sucker all over the house...your the man of the house...the KING of the castle...its time to show the wife who runs the show there  ....ahhhhh, you better hurry up and get startred on this before she has you doing some honeydo's for her
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Another expensive hobby.....Really though, Model RR offers a lot for differnet modellers. You'll learn planning, plastic/brass/wood model skills, electronics, wood working, scenery, history, operations...and on and on. Some model RRers concentrate on certain aspects of the hobby over others. Wholesome fun. I hope to have my "retirement" layout built fin time for my future grand kids so we have things to do between GI Joes and shooting!
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They had it running agianst the wall with dowls every 6 inches about the height of the train. with a thin cable running through top of dowelit sat on strips of plywood.
I'd love it to go through out the house, but I would probably be divorced afterwards. Model RR is cheaper than alimony! Anyway, I can't have it too expensive. I still need money for ammo! |
I haven't decided yet. I need something big enough for my son to see it but not too big that it won't fit between the top of the door frame and celing. My son loves trains and we saw something like this at a restraunt. We are doing his room with a train theme anyway and I thought that something like this would be cool. |
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For a ceiling level type track I would recommend at least an "S" scale, and an "O" or "G" (also called "large") would be better. Your best prices are with K-Line for "O" and Lionel for "G" (which lionel calls "Large"). Track in O is made by many people right now, and different speciality stores sell the platforms and supports you will need. Buy a few issues of "O Gauge" and "Classic Toy Trains" magazines for suppliers and current prices. |
| I did this once long ago. Just make a section that is removable where the door is. Wire it with a couple of small plugs. Just make sure the track on the removeable section is lined up well with the track at each end on the approaches. Close door, insert section, plug in, and go! It also helps if you flip the door so it opens up to the outside of the room instead of the inside, then you don't have to worry about the door position. |
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N scale is the way to go! More realistic distance in the average room. Atlas, Kato, and Lifelike all have good looking and good running locos at reasonable prices. Atlas, Microtrains, Walthers, all have nice rolling stock. Also look at MRC's entry level DCC system. MicroTrains couplers, or MT compatible. The stock Rapido couplers that come with a lot of N stuff are terrible crap. Do not wait until you have a gazillion cars to switch over. You are better off having a few with the right equipment. Pick a theme for your RR and build the RR first. Don't buy a lot of cars and stuff because they are cute. OPERATING the RR is a lot more fun than collecting cars that sit in drawers. Look around you, model real things... a small industry, business, etc that uses RR. Model that, even if in a simplified way. Then decide what buildings, sidings, and such you need to do this. A few good quality locos that run really well are better than a lot that don't. This does not mean you have to spend a lot. OK, once you have a theme picked, an area to model, THEN pick your equipment to match. For example, you have decided to model a modern yard which will handle containers, transfer those containers to trucks. You need a crane, or other container handling equipment. Truck rigs, room to park them, stack containers, fence, hiway, which can run parallel to the RR in some areas. You will then need a variety of rolling stock that hold containers. There are multi-unit "cars" but these are difficult to handle on a small model railroad... buy the separate individual cars. You may have warehouses with loading docks that will need boxcars to service them. You may have a grain elevator or cement plant that needs covered hoppers to service it. You may have a mill of some sort that requires ore cars or open hoppers to bring it ore, coal, etc. A fuel depot or chemical plant will need not only tank cars, but tank trucks in the yard. Make these decisions BEFORE you buy cars, or lay track. Make the layout of the tracks flow with buildings, roads, industries, which usually will grow up beside a railroad. Don't mix locos in an unrealistic manner just because they have cute paint jobs. More likely than not, there will be locos in a "consist" of two or more of all the same railroad, or neighboring lines, subsidiaries, etc. For example, you might find in the not so distant past, a Southern Pacific GP-40 hooked up to a Cotton Belt (SP subsidiary) GP-38, or even UP or Santa FE. But you are not likely to see a NYC PA-1 hooked up with a BNSF Dash 9. Give geography and era careful consideration. In town, you will likely see older brick and mortar buildings. On the outskirts of town you will see modern metal warehouses and buildings. Build your layout to simulate the things you see in real life. It is not practical to perfectly model a real scene, at times, but you should attempt to capture the flavor of something real. Then when you run your railroad, you can do so in a manner which simulates real rail traffic, and possibly have a lot more fun. And with all this, you and your kids will learn something about real industries. |
I am in to 3d art, I made a 3d water tower in a program I use, do any of you want to see it? It will be a big pic |
You run whatever you want. You're in charge. If you are primarily going to mostly roundy roundy running DCC is extra expense at no benefit. IF you are going to do much operating/switching, then DCC is probably worth it. If you intend to expand, you might want to wait. DCC is a relatively new technology and the prices are still dropping. In other words waiting my be the most cost effective for you. To put it in perspective, my layout is/will be modular and once I get the kitchen cabinet boxes (delivered almost a month ahead of schedule) out of the garage, the tables will get reconnected and the first track laid. I have purchased several decoders and will be installing them in about half my engines. I run sometimes with a few clubs, modular and permanent and neither is DCC yet. I expect the modular will go DCC soon as the wiring is very compatible already . Just a matter of changing the throttles and adding decoders. In fact they could run both. The permanent club will never change. They would have to totally replace the wiring. Now I have to decide my system, apparently around here most people are running Digitrax and like id. However my son and his friends swear by NCE and swear at Digitrax. I think to begin with I am going to go MRC. I have several A-B-B-A sets and tend to run big passenger and freight trains. The Digi Zephyr likely can't handle the power draw. |
By all means. When I get a second, I'll upload pics of the engine I created in CAD for Microsoft Train Simulator. |
Well here it is, I took me three days to put it all together, one part at a time. The chain took the longest . It was done in a program called TrueSpace 5, good program for 3d art and CGI for movies.I got the idea from a web site for model trains, www.trainweb.org/lgbofozclub/tank.html 
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I started this a long time ago, and got about 90% finished and got burnt out. It sat for a year or so, without progress. Along the way, I made some friends, who are finishing it up now. You'll notice it needs valve gear, still. I just gave them all the files recently, as I didn't want my effort to be wasted. I have some better pics at home, I'll upload later. If you aren't familiar, this is for a simulator, like Flight Sim, so the engine "moves" and operates with the same physics of a real one. The whistle is really cool. N&W whisltes were called "Hooters"  this is from the guy who is working on it now.
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