My layout in the garage is Celotex over plywood that is painted almost a Dorfan green. My portable layout is a tan indoor/outdoor carpet from Home Depot.
Steve
Originally Posted by Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611:
Of course, most of my wiring for the layout is routed through one of the duck-unders...
Of course you use Murphy the lawyer too 
Up or down? I'd extend to the floor, and use a rubber cord guard like you see in office buildings to prevent catching the cord with your foot and tripping, and mount it so the "door" swings away from it. Anchoring the ends would make it kick proof.
You can fit quite a bundle in them. 2-3 "fat, grounded, vacuum cords" in each easy.
If you wanted to get fancy, there are industrial plugs that would stand up to lots of hard abuse, handle more power than you could throw at them, and could be mounted to simply reconnect when you close it up.
Originally Posted by Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611:
Originally Posted by wmtrainnut09:
I used a high traffic carpet I found at Lowes. The color is cinnamon.
Johnny,
That carpet and color looks really nice with the colorful trains and accessories. Good choice for a very nice display,
Thanks Dennis.
Originally Posted by Adriatic:
Originally Posted by wmtrainnut09:
I used a high traffic carpet I found at Lowes. The color is cinnamon.
The work train on the bottom shelf. Do you have a set number or know what engine came with it. I have those, but never thought to see if they were a set.
Sorry. I don't know if there was a set number or a specific engine that might have pulled them. I collected those about 15 years ago from various dealers at shows.
When I was planning my layout, I considered using indoor/outdoor carpet as a base. A friend with extensive experience told me not to do it because the carpet would be a dust magnet and would be all but impossible to keep clean with all the little accessories, cars, figures, etc. on it.
Originally Posted by Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611:
Originally Posted by Bob Bubeck:
Medium green short nap I/O carpet atop Cellotex and plywood. These along with the rubber roadbed make for a quiet layout. It is also easy to keep clean. Tubular track all the way.
Bob
Bob,
A Gorgeous layout! Did you use the foam backed celotex, or the fibreboard style? The current material looks much different than the homes I worked on while working with a brick mason during high school and college. I'm very much leaning toward I/O carpet similar to what you describe. I presume that carpet was very easy to cut for the layout.
Thank you, Dennis.
The Cellotex is just good ol' black-painted Cellotex Classique purchased at the time of construction. Yes, the I/O carpet I used is comparatively thin and readily cut with a large sharp pair of scissors.
Have fun.
Bob
Originally Posted by Southwest Hiawatha:
When I was planning my layout, I considered using indoor/outdoor carpet as a base. A friend with extensive experience told me not to do it because the carpet would be a dust magnet and would be all but impossible to keep clean with all the little accessories, cars, figures, etc. on it.
The vacuum works great on my buddies, but he doesn't have many small items on the layout just structures.
I don't see it as being easier with wood, grass mat, or anything else really.
I'll give him the fact, unmaintained, or over time, the gaps between nap, will have a build up down deep.
Thank you Johnny.
Its nearly a mirror image of one of my shelves.
Minus the autos
Originally Posted by Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611:
Originally Posted by handyandy:
I used cheap fleecy blanket throws to cover my layouts. Bright green on this little portable one and more of an olive green on the main layout...
handyandy,
That looks awesome! Is that really a blanket, and how did you get it so tight? Years ago, I did this with a similar white blanket on a Christmas layout with snow village buildings. Simple construction, with rave reviews from visitors, particularly women -- more so than my main layout that took countless hours to build.
My only problem was oil/grease stains on the blanket after the inevitable few derailments. I just joked that my layout was pure as New York snow...
I used hollow core doors for the table tops. The blanket is just wrapped ever the edges and stapled on the bottom with a heavy duty staple gun (Arrow T-50 or similar). On the small layout I used Maclinberg (?) Duncan felt weatherstrip as roadbed. Two pieces, side by side like cork roadbed. This was also stapled in place.
Originally Posted by Dennis GS-4 N & W No. 611:
Originally Posted by Greg J. Turinetti:
My layout is named The Blueboard Central Division of American Flyer Lines, for obvious reasons. Here are some early photos of it.
Greg,
Love the pix -- the layout, the display -- the whole thing! The above pic is much like my O gauge train room, without the stunning SG collection. Paneling is similar, and I have display shelves on the walls above the train table. I also have a "duck-under" in a similar place on the layout, with another on the far left side. My O Gauge layout is shaped in an "E" configuration, with the center section of the "E" spanning 6' wide, and the top and bottom sections of the "E" spanning 2', with the "E" closed into a rectangle by the two duck-unders. This was done more than 20 years ago to shoe-horn an 0-72 loop into an 11' wide room. I have now been "given" the adjacent recreation room (much wider and longer) where this Tinplate layout will go. I still need to fix the O gauge room, and don't want to destroy my knees with the duck-unders.
In closing, love your train room!
Thanks for the compliments Dennis. I found that the duck under got to be too hard to do regularly, and it seemed like I was always having to crawl in and out. I decided the layout could be made into a folded dog bone without taking over too much more space and eliminate the duck under. I don't have any switches on the layout either, so I can run any kind of prewar train without the problem of derailing at switches.
Good luck with your new layout. Its nice to have the option to expand.
Greg
Mine is plywood painted green, with painted ballast and roads.
Pardon the mess
Attachments
Images (1)
Greg,
I was actually considering a dogbone with no switches for the O gauge layout.
I'll have to see if that requires a major rebuild of the benchwork which was built in a "modified modular" fashion, so large sections could be left intact if I had moved.
Michael R,
Looks very nice. I have about the same number of boxes to move off my double-tracked mainline in front!!
Originally Posted by Greg J. Turinetti:
Thanks for the compliments Dennis. I found that the duck under got to be too hard to do regularly, and it seemed like I was always having to crawl in and out. I decided the layout could be made into a folded dog bone without taking over too much more space and eliminate the duck under. I don't have any switches on the layout either, so I can run any kind of prewar train without the problem of derailing at switches.
Good luck with your new layout. Its nice to have the option to expand.
Greg
Greg,
You've actually really helped me make a final decision as to the revision to my O Gauge layout. I'm also going to use a dog bone for my mainline, and eliminate the duck-unders. I've done the measurements, and that will work very well, with only modest revisions to the benchwork. I'll have to re-do the track work which won't be too difficult, and, I plan to follow your lead and eliminate the switches for similar reasons.
Pretty cool that a tinplate thread actually solved my O Gauge dilemma.
Thanks again.
