My layout was made portable for two reasons. The first is my job required frequent moving usually about every 5 years. The second is the layout would only be used about 1 month a year around the holidays and would be on the floor of living rooms, dens or family rooms. I did not want to make a new layout every year and did not know how long my interest in model railroads would last. I built it to allow my young children to enjoy toy model trains as my brother and I did in the Christmas season in the 1950s.
The layout needed to be a portable, floor layout as it was desired to install the layout in a family or other room floor for two months around Christmas and then removed and stored in the garage or storage or shop room. Since it was on the floor a Christmas tree could be on and part of the layout for the Christmas season. In one house the layout was in front of a large bay window and the tree was beautifully shown to the street traffic. The large living room had the room for an expansion with an added section to make an L shaped layout.
The layout would be moved with the house hold furniture when relocating for employment (this was a great idea as the layout has be in six different houses from 1976 to 1993 !). All track, switches, transformers and control panel would be attached to the layout and trains, buildings, bridges, mountains, accessories, etc. would be removed for storage or transport.
The layout would have section sizes that allow easy moving in and out of the house for storage in garage, etc. and also allow packing for shipment with house hold goods for job relocation. It proved to be good to make sections sized as to fit in queen size bed mattress boxes. The section must be small enough to go through standard size doors and up steps. The sections must have means to allow it to be moved for storage and into the house from the garage by one person. Each section had two wheels to allow it to be rolled on one edge.
The main board length is 11 ft, 1.5 inches in length and width is 5 ft, 9 inches The section with the control panel is 6 ft, 3/4 inches long. The other section is 5 ft , 3/4 inches wide.
A third train board addition ( 7ft - 6in x 4ft - 7 in) was added in 1988 and has two wheels on the edges as the first two train boards.
Pictures of wheels on board one, Pivot Wheel on one side (this is a double 6 " diameter plywood wheel for the weight of the transformers and control panel on this section)
Corner wheel
I have safely moved the train board sections ( 2 sections, then 3 after1988) from storage in a garage workshop, into the house and then back to the workshop 2 to 3 months later each year from 1977 until 2010 by my self.
It was built in 1977 in Jamaica and was built with a homemade $10 turntable.
It was moved to six houses from 1976 to 1993 and on the floor until 2010 when I built a room above a garage to house it and it was put on legs.
On the Floor from 1977 to 2009
Layout up on Legs permanently since 2010
Charlie
