I hear ya on the models in boxes - my own collection of engines and stock has been in storage for the last two decades due to lack of anywhere to build a layout! I’ve got engines from pretty much all the decades since the end of steam, but nowhere to run them. I just hope I get the chance to build a layout while I can still do the woodwork…
And it’s sad to see those old MPs rotting away when I remember them all shiny and new!
We’re 1/2 mile from the local railroad tracks servicing autoracks which I used to load and unload. We can hear the horn when they cross roads. Also 2 miles from the main UP line where those autoracks come in and out of town. Amtrak and reefers as well.
Growing up we lived just down the block (900 feet) from the local RR company tracks that rolled box cars for the paper mill.
Do not build big tables for the layouts. Sneak along the walls instead.
Door opening can be handled with a removable section, maybe a bridge over a river.
Use shelves along the walls, two 12 inch shelves meeting in a
right angle corner allows space for a 36 inch radius curve.
Go up to 18 inch shelves with some radiusing in the corners
and there is plenty space for big curves.
There’s no space when your son lives in the would-be train room!
Yes that’s an excellent idea uncle, I’ve seen guys who were pressed for space and utilized the shelf wrap around idea.
Thinking more about this, I remembered I had a couple of pictures:
I took this a few weeks ago - I was telling a friend about my bike route, and the bridge I use to get over all the tracks - and, this one, from a long time ago - a maintenance train:
There was no power on this, but it was pretty cool to see -
Cheers
Nick
Nice shot Nick
I’m not really a railroad guy but I saw this thread and thought I’d comment. I live in a small New England town in Connecticut. White churches, town green, right out of Currier & Ives or a Hallmark movie. Our one train track runs right through the middle of town and I live about a mile from it, on a hill above the town. It is passenger service only now. We have a classic iconic train station, now a good restaurant. When the train comes through 6 times a day I can hear the whistle wafting up the valley. It’s perfect. Since it runs through the middle of town and it’s active, there is no “wrong side of the tracks”. This train is used extensively since it runs down to Bridgeport, where you can transfer to the train for Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It’s a nice touch to our quaint town.
I passed through Bridgeport once on my way from Manhattan to Simsbury to open a Borders Books back around 1999/2000.
That is what I intend to do for a lot of my layout. And if other models and things take up too much room, I may just have a point to point shelf layout.
Past 3 days we were back up in indiana. The hotel is up on a hill that overlooks the old Wabash main line, which is fairly active serving a pickup truck factory. There’s a road that crosses the railroad at grade down the hill from us, so plenty of horn activity. Crossed over/drove by/drove under the former Nickel Plate RR and Pennsylvania RR lines a couple of times. Never saw any trains in motion. Coming home last night I took a detail through Corbin Kentucky and checked out the big yard there. Unfortunately, did not see any “runners” but there was a manifest freight staged to head north.
My plan is an eventual point to point with a turnaround at one end. I also want to make it modular.
