Home Layout

Jered was granted trackage rights into the back room of the house a few weeks back. Since the room has power, finished walls & ceilings, and a beautiful wood floor, it was ready to move in, and create a layout. Working within the confines of a 9 x 10 room can be tricky though. After going over several renditions of track plans ( Thanks, Dave! ) and combing through books and the Internet, I came across a plan from an old Model Railroader magazine called the "Pike City Belt Line", done as a shelf layout with a peninsula. The peninsula creates a second location, so you don't feel like you're running your trains around a U - you can be on the other side of a divider and feel like its a different place than the rest of the layout.

Anyhow, the track plan has not been 100% firmed up, but I believe in working forward with the bench work, and then using the basic track plan as a guide. I know what will fit, how many industries, etc, but being a visual person, I want to see it in rough form, on the foam, before I decide for sure.

I picked up four 2 x 4's, a sheet of 3/4" Plywood, and a sheet of 1/8" Masonite. The studs were ripped in half and screwed into the wall as the main supports. They were cut to be taller than the backdrop, so that lighting brackets can be added later. The plywood was ripped into 3 1/2" strips, and will be more than sturdy for a small shelf layout like this.



Andy came by and helped with the assembly. Since we're not moving anytime in the next many many years, I wasn't too concerned with having to tear it down someday. Plus, given the fact that this is an old house, which is never flat, level, or square, we built the bench work in place for the most part. After the studs were attached to the wall, we attached a ledger board around the entire "L" at 48" from the floor.




Then, I used cutoffs of plywood to create small 3/4" x 2" blocking, which was screwed into the ledger board at 12" intervals. Next came the 18" long supports for the main layout, which were glued & screwed into the corner blocking and the ledger. This was followed up by the outer ledger, screwed & glued into the end of the supports. By itself, this was impressively sturdy and very rigid. But knowing that people lean on things, I added 3 supports of 2 x 2, from a ripped 2 x 4. They tie the outer ledger back to the wall studs, making things strong enough that you can sit on the bench work with out there being any give.




The peninsula was pre-built as a "domino" and screwed into place, with a pair of 2 x 2 legs & braces added underneath.




The yard are was also built as a domino, and then screwed into the wall. Since it is only 12" deep, the anchoring of the wood into the rest of the layout, and both the side & end walls, was plenty sufficient. I stopped the main layout at the window casing, so that in the event we decide to replace the window, I only have a couple of track cuts & some screws to remove.

The Masonite was ripped to size and screwed into the wall studs, which will reveal a 16" tall backdrop after the foam sheathing is installed.



The foam is now in, and some track is installed. Stay tuned!