New Train Room Finally Getting A Layout! (Last Update: 07/02/2022)

This is an end unit, so it is larger.  Some of the stuff we wanted was a 2-car garage and a large basement and no outdoor maintenance.

It's fairly good sized inside, the main floor has 1000 sq/ft, the upstairs around 650 sq/ft, and the basement has around 750 sq/ft finished area and a bunch of storage that's not finished.  Interestingly, the largest room in the house is the master bedroom, it's enormous!  We also liked the large deck, that's a really nice feature as well.

I'm looking forward to it, I just wish all the stuff was already over there and all I had to do is build my train platform!

I'm thinking of putting all the tubular track and switches in my car and having a fire sale!   I'm not planning on using any of that stuff here, so it would be nice if someone could use it.

Have fun John. New adventures await. 

Not to worry about those heavy boxes and all that other stuff. There a moving company in your area that specializes in moving model train collections. Give them a call at 1-800 MOVE MY TRAINS. After all your supposed to enjoy the move , right?

Early on I also figured out how heavy the larger boxes could get! I saved those for the movers. They sent 5 young, big & strong guys that made short work of the heavy stuff. It's amazing what those guys could pick up and carry! I did notice that none of them appeared to be over about 30 or so. Probably a good reason for that too. Their prices were quite reasonable too, at least I thought they were. Not nearly as much as I was expecting.

We also sold some things, gave a ton of stuff to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and Habitat for Humanity. Then I ended up getting a LARGE dumpster (biggest they had) and filled it up as well. People kept coming by asking if we had anything metal in the dumpster. I started just putting the metal stuff (old shelves etc.) in front of the dumpster near the street and it would be gone by the next morning. Saved some dumpster space for other junk that way too! 

I still have some things I wish I would have unloaded, but keeping them seemed like a good idea at the time. We labeled all the boxes and what room they came from, but it was still a mess when we got all moved in. Some of the best laid plans... Hope yours goes a bit better than ours did. 

We also did what you are doing with less home maintenance. Didn't get a maint. provided place, but the exterior is vinyl siding with only a little trim to paint. Trim is all cedar so the paint doesn't peel like pine does. Then we have a lawn service to mow and shovel snow so it works out to be almost no maintenance at probably similar costs to the added HOA fees for the maintenance provided places. I think you will really like the no maint. part! Almost as good as having trains running!! 

We looked a some single homes, but in the end I think this will work out well.  I don't need stuff like snow blowers, leaf blowers, mowers, etc.   I know what you mean about metal, I have put stuff out by the curb and it doesn't last ten minutes!

I will be getting help for the mass move, no way I'm going to do all that myself.  I'll probably stage all the boxes in one bay of the garage and then hire a truck and strong backs to move it.  That will happen several times before the final "move". 

Nice condo.  I can't wait for the layout planning and construction threads.

Very nice John.  Have good time designing & building

Ken M

Hi John:

Are you going to use your YouTube Channel, to tell your story about this new layout and train room?  Just like anything we do in this hobby, there are pros and cons.  You have an exciting story to tell your viewers.  

Gary: Hope to see you on YouTube

This is on the larger side of condos, they call them "Carriage Houses".  I always thought a carriage house was where you put the horses and carriages.

John, looks like you hit the mother lode.    Congrats on your new digs.  

Your condo looks close to the size of my house, and a lot more finished. Looks like a very nice place for a layout, have fun on your recent endeavor.

Thanks all, I'm really looking forward to turning the page.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

We looked a some single homes, but in the end I think this will work out well.  I don't need stuff like snow blowers, leaf blowers, mowers, etc.   I know what you mean about metal, I have put stuff out by the curb and it doesn't last ten minutes!

I will be getting help for the mass move, no way I'm going to do all that myself.  I'll probably stage all the boxes in one bay of the garage and then hire a truck and strong backs to move it.  That will happen several times before the final "move". 

We did the opposite, started out looking for a condo/townhome with maint. provided and ended up in a single home. We found an area that had ranches with full basements and that did it for us. Ranches around here are very difficult to find newly built. All 2 story and that sort of thing these days. I got rid of all the snow removal, lawn trimming, etc. stuff, but there is still a lawn mower buried out in the garage somewhere. Don't think it's been run since we moved. Not sure why I kept that now, other than it was only a year or so old?

We also did similar to your plan, filling up a bay of the garage and then moving it. We ran out of room for more boxes a couple of times so I had to make a few trips with the lighter boxes to make room for more. We had about a month to move to the new house, got it quite a bit earlier than we had to be out of the old house. Good thing too, or we wouldn't have made it! That plan should work out quite well for you, a very good way to move, IMO!! Having some extra time also is a great help when moving. The more the better too, it goes by very quickly! 

Time does go fast, and I'm going to blow three days fooling around at York.

Well, I'm starting the long process!  This is about a quarter of my stuff that's been boxed up or simply put in the pile to go.  I have another larger pile in the basement that has to go, and I'm still packing and stacking up here and in the basement.  However, making good progress, I hope when I make settlement that I have a large part of my stuff packed and it can be moved over to the new place.  That will also free up the rooms so we can start to get things ready for selling this place.

Well John: Do you remember the age old question in High School, are you a Ford or Chevy guy? I am a Ford 150 guy and a 1970 Classic Ford Mustang 302.

Now for the important question as related to model trains.  What is going to be your control system for your 3 Rail Trains?  MTH - DCS or Lionel TMCC / Legacy.

Gary

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, I'm starting the long process!  This is about a quarter of my stuff that's been boxed up or simply put in the pile to go.  I have another larger pile in the basement that has to go, and I'm still packing and stacking up here and in the basement.  However, making good progress, I hope when I make settlement that I have a large part of my stuff packed and it can be moved over to the new place.  That will also free up the rooms so we can start to get things ready for selling this place.

That's a quarter of your stuff!!??  You got a lot of moving to do.

trainroomgary posted:

Well John: Do you remember the age old question in High School, are you a Ford or Chevy guy? I am a Ford 150 guy and a 1970 Classic Ford Mustang 302.

Now for the important question as related to model trains.  What is going to be your control system for your 3 Rail Trains?  MTH - DCS or Lionel TMCC / Legacy.

Gary

I had a 67 Camaro that was fire engine red with a black top back in the70's. It had a Craig 8 track stereo with Jenson speakers. I drove the 'you- know- what' out of it.

trainroomgary posted:

Now for the important question as related to model trains.  What is going to be your control system for your 3 Rail Trains?  MTH - DCS or Lionel TMCC / Legacy.

I'll be using both, I have a lot of MTH and TMCC/Legacy.  I'll also use my lone LC+ locomotive, the Camelback.

DennyM posted:

That's a quarter of your stuff!!??  You got a lot of moving to do.

That's why I'm starting early!  I want to get all this boxed up before we make settlement on the 22nd, right after that I'll be trucking this over.  There's plenty of other things that have to get done, this move is going to be a giant PITA, but I'm hopeful the long term result will be worth it.

Looks like a good time to get that new F150 you have been wanting, with the large bed of course!!  

Seriously, it will be worth it after you get moved and re-grouped in your new place. May take a while, but it will be a big relief (I think) and it looks like you will have a lot less to do with others doing the maintenance, other than play with and repair trains that is. You will have more time to make nifty, neat, new electronic devices for them as well! 

I can't wait to get started on a real layout, first one in years!  Right after I figure out what to do with all the trains to make room for the layout!   I think most of the boxes will finally bite the dust when I get the display shelves up for stuff.

I think I'll just use the phone to call a moving guy rather than buying a truck.   Some of those larger boxes are pretty HEAVY!

I can help you do a 1/48th scale move. Sent from my iPhone.

Atlas scale model, looks just like my full scale version, the color red is correct.

If you ever come to Detroit you can take a tour of the Ford Plant, where they build these trucks.

Click here.  for Ford Factory Tours

Gary

Don't do like I did and stack all the train boxes right where you plan to put the layout!  It works great...until the bench work arrives... 

John,  Just an idea, but it helped(s) when having to lift/move a box.  At some point, take time (when you move it) have a bathroom scale nearby and  get a weight (at the least, close) of each box, write the weight on outside of each box.  That way, you have an idea before lifting each one, and that comes in very handy later.  I did this when we moved from Lake of The Ozarks in Missouri to the OKC area, in Tuttle.  As much as the individual boxes get moved/relocated before being opened, it is nice to know.  My boxes (too many) were moved in two U Haul box trucks and after being unloaded into the garage (half of a two car), they were relocated to the attic, by myself, while I had to work on sites out-of-state for the next eight years.  Now, when taking one down from attic and then upstairs to the train room wife had built over new 3 car garage, cannot over state the weight being known is a good thing.  Another good thing I did at the time of packing was to include the date items were packed, more information that is nice to have later.  Don't ever misplace the spreadsheet, I did on mine.  But, as I relocated boxes from attic, I have gone through them, took out items as needed, inventoried the rest and put copy of listing in box (copy off of printer) for later when looking in box, knowing what is in there at a glance.  Don't live in a condo, so doing all the property workings and business myself robs me of time, and layout progress, but it is slowly getting done.  Congrats on the new digs and beautiful area for your new layout.  As others, cannot wait to see your progress and steps getting there.

Jesse      TCA  12-68275 

Wonderful looking layout room, John. Keep us posted as you build your dream layout.

Jay

gunrunnerjohn posted:

...  However, there is simply a LOT of stuff!  I figure the train stuff is going to be around 45-50 large boxes.  ...

Seriously, I think some of us could easily fill a train store with our inventories.    The worst culprits -- and I include myself in this category -- are the ones who purchased our trains while DREAMING of that big basement empire or barn empire we'd build in our retirement years. 

If I could do it all over again, I'd spend the $$$ on building the layout as early in the game as possible.  THAT then becomes our built-in governor of sorts in spending... because you constantly SEE the trains either on display or in operation on the layout.  Storing them away in boxes (for years and years) is an absolute guarantee to over-purchasing in the long run.  I'm speaking with first-hand knowledge here -- as my wife will very quickly attest. 

Yep, I wish I had this place first, it would have targeted the spending a bit more.  However, I'm here now, so I have to deal with it.

Larry, the 1:48 move isn't going to help enough to make a dent in the task, I'll have to stick with the 1:1 move for now.

The weight isn't a bad idea Jesse, but my plan is to have all the boxes stacked in the entry section and not in the actual train room.  I'm also not planning on moving them any great distance, they go down there and stay down there.  Also, I'm not planning on carrying all this stuff anywhere, I'm hiring a trucker to move them all over.  I'll move the more delicate stuff individually, but the big boxes will be hefted by someone younger and larger.

Great Job Gunrunner John !

Your new place looks great .  Great looking train room to boot. 

Good Luck on your move . 

Wow John, a Condo?  

Good Luck buddy, I know it's going to be a beautiful piece of work.

Please keep us posted on how thing progress.

It's a big condo.  

So John, just one really important piece of advice. You're not as young as you used to be and you're not immortal. Moving a lot of heavy boxes can be REALLY STUPID. I'd give that a lot of thought if I were you.

Gerry 

I'm having someone younger and stronger move most of the boxes.

The long awaited Mianne benchwork is on it's way.  UPS says tomorrow I'll have a bunch of heavy boxes, then the fun begins!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

The long awaited Mianne benchwork is on it's way.  UPS says tomorrow I'll have a bunch of heavy boxes, then the fun begins!

I see you got the liftgate.  I love mine and it is worth every penny.

Wonderful news! Now we can watch a master in action!

Great news GRJ! Good luck with it all, but it really is very easy to assemble, liftgate may add a bit of difficulty, but probably not a lot. Well designed stuff!

Take lots of pictures to post for us, that is if you can pause long enough every now and then! 

Congrats! If I lived near I'd be over there!

Thanks guys, I hope to finally get started on this project, it's sure taking a long time!  

Mike, I doubt the "master" designation applies to this endevor.  I'm an average carpenter, and my skills with the scenic end of layout construction do not match my electronic skills.  I'll be importing some consulting for the more difficult parts.   I can lay the track and wire it without issues, but making it look like some of the masterpieces I see here is way beyond my personal skills.

Did I miss a track plan??? Good luck!!!

No track plan yet, I'm still mulling over ideas about what I'll do.  Basically, I made the benchwork fill the available space to give me the maximum flexibility of the layout.  I also have to do some thinking about what pieces I currently have will go on the layout and an idea where they might go. This has kinda' been on the back burner as I didn't know when I'd get the benchwork and could actually start, so I've been doing other stuff.  Of course, I still have the other stuff to do, but now I have an additional major project in the mix!

Can't wait to see what you come up with John. 

Nice!!  I'm struggling with a similar situation.  Are your layout dimensions 12 x 20 feet?  And the platform is 4 feet wide from the center hole??  What are the overall dimensions of your room!?  Congratulations and thanks for sharing!

Benchwork looks great !!! Let’s get going on that track plan !!LoL 

Remember what we say ,  always leave a little time for ourselves. ! 

Since I posted the first video of my new train room , NOT a single thing was done. Absolutely zero progress. 😟

Alex 

Here's the dimensions of the table, feel free to offer any suggestions.  

I'm actually thinking of moving the liftgate over a bit as I am already planning on an extension at the lower left, I have a 12 foot open area there.  Moving the liftgate is no problem now as I just move modules around.  The one narrow section at the middle top will get a angled segment to allow more room to make the curves fit there.

This is the whole basement plan.  The red is where the current layout will go, and it will also fill that back cavity, too lazy to draw that shape.   The green is what I'm going to add for a yard, so I'll move the liftgate over about 4 feet to keep out of the way.  The white triangle is also bench for the tracks to the yard.

John, that's going to be awesome! Are you planning to put up any backdrops before assembling the benchwork?

Make sure you post some photos after you get the benchwork assembled. Have Fun!!!

Bruce

I have a simple strip of cloud backdrop, and I'm thinking of putting that up.  I am planning a town on the shelf section with EZ-Streets, and I figure the back wall will be the faux building fronts that stick out about 1-2" for the skyline and then put lower stuff in front with the streets.

I've still got a little work to do in removing a couple of wall sconces, I've ripped some stuff out already.

Hi John, either way I cant wait to fallow your build! Looks like a great space and from your other pictures it sure looks comfy !

Plans look great John. I hope that those 3 human figures in the plan are actual people who are helping you. Can't wait to see when things start to get set up.

Will someone please call me when this pile looks like benchwork?

Hah - looks good, John.

Are you using Mianne for the yard, too, or will that be stick and frame construction ?

It's easy John- Tab A goes in Slot B.

At least its not a book case from IKEA

Looking forward to the build. Good Luck!

Bob

I have more of the Mianne stuff that I was given after my order, so I'll be building the extension with Mianne as well.

Hey John,

What a beautiful space to build a beautiful layout, as I know you will.

If you have any questions about wiring, electronics, lighting etc feel free to ask me.  I will forward them to this genius that always bails me out on the forum .....Gunrunner.....lol...

Better than Lincoln Logs.

Once you get familiar with the directions and parts you will be surprised how fast just the benchwork all goes together (not sure about the lift gate?).  I think you will find it kind of fun to do after you get a couple of pieces put together. It's not like real carpentry or woodworking stuff and it's all light weight and easy to handle. Oh, and no sawdust! 

I would offer to come help, but you will probably be finished by the time I get there, don't want to spoil all your fun either.  

The only issue was two of the pulleys on the liftgate got squashed during shipping, so I have to wait until I get those to assemble the liftgate anyway.  I'll put all the other stuff together first.

That's not good, too bad there was shipping damage. I think I'd probably wait on the gate anyway. I imagine it will take a while longer and may need a little extra thought? Forgot to say I like the pictures and please keep them coming!! I just like the looks of the Mianne too. 

I'd really like to have one of those lift gates myself. Maybe in the expansion project. 

Oops, thought of one more thing, use a #3 Phillips screwdriver. They may say that in the directions, but it works much, much better than anything smaller. 

John - Whew!!  There's going to be a whole lot of railroading going on in that spacious basement!  Congratulations on the move and looking forward to seeing photos of your progress!

It has been a long time coming.

I couldn't think of a better way to spend a long Thanksgiving week than building a new layout!

-Greg

Well, I could spend it running trains, but I think I need to do the building step first.

Can't wait to see, looks great

I really can't wait to see it!

Glad to see you finally have the benchwork. As RTR12 said, once you get started it comes together pretty quickly. As I have mentioned I am very happy with it.  Also Mianne was great with phone support if you have any questions with the assembly process. By the way those LED lights you installed in my NYC passenger cars look great.

That stinks about the shipping damage John. Seems anymore that there is ALWAYS shipping damage and its not getting any better. Its almost like when you thought you'd seen it all, guess again, here comes some other kind of damaged stuff in.

I hope that they get you the replacement stuff in quick(which shouldn't be long). Can't wait to see what you post here next.  

It'll all get sorted out, I've been pretty busy with other non-train stuff anyway, so I'll live.  The holidays are always a busy time around here.

I had a couple of hours, so I started the assembly.  Not much yet, but it looks like it'll go together pretty quickly.

Lookin' Good, and no mess!  Enjoy, it goes fast. Might be the easiest part of the build.

I put in another hour, time to knock off and watch a little TV.   The upper deck is on.

It's coming along nicely!! 

-Greg 

Looking great, John!!

Looking good John 

Alex

Looks great John. It’ll go faster than you think, and before you know it, you’ll be laying track. Looking forward to following along.

Andy

Nice work John!

John!  What happened to painting the backdrop first?!

John,

The nice part:  NO sawdust !!

Fred

Sweet!!!  Train meetings for NPOG’s at your house soon... ;-) 

Very nice John. Yea- no sawdust

Thanks guys, it's good to finally get started on it.

Traindiesel posted:

John!  What happened to painting the backdrop first?!

Got carried away when the benchwork came.

BHalfway posted:

Sweet!!!  Train meetings for NPOG’s at your house soon... ;-) 

 You bring the beer.

john, quick question. First I was unaware they did upper level benchwork.  will the upper level hold our heavy trains? btw looking go so far. 

The upper deck is plenty strong to support most anything you put up there.  Since it's only a 12' x 2' space, it's going to be a town with a 'Streets track, so heavy won't be an issue in any case.

Looking good John! Your moving right along! I do have to say it looks a lot cleaner then my bench work! LOL

It doesn't have a top on it Mike, it'll get covered with something once it has a place to put things.

Its funny how that happens John, I had a nice clean room but once the top went on it started to collect stuff I didn't even know I had! LOL

gunrunnerjohn posted:

 

This is the whole basement plan.  The red is where the current layout will go, and it will also fill that back cavity, too lazy to draw that shape.   The green is what I'm going to add for a yard, so I'll move the liftgate over about 4 feet to keep out of the way.  The white triangle is also bench for the tracks to the yard.

John,

What did you use to model your basement like that?  Is that some kind of architecture tool?

John, it's Sweet Home 3D, a pretty neat and free tool.  You can draw a plan view and then view it in 3d and rotate it around for different views.  Very slick tool for planning, we used it for all the rooms in the new house to decide where to put stuff.

Sweet Home 3D

Here's the plan and a couple of the 3D views.

Looking great John, where's the thumbs up emo?

That looks like a very quick way to setup bench work. I may look into some of the prefab bench work when I am able to use my whole basement for my layout.

GRJ, If it's possible to slide the bench work out away from the wall, you can always fasten 1/8" tempered board to the backside of it. Then paint that or use it for mounting back drop poster. That way you don't have to mess up those nice walls and it will also strengthen the bench work. It's about 9 bucks a sheet w/tax. Just a thought.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ha...in-832777/202189720?

For removable backdrops you can provide a slot along the backdrop edges.

Dave and Tom, There should be a lot of built in support for a hardboard backdrop on the configuration Mianne sold to John!

The slide in variety is slick, if John wants to make it removable.  I don’t think he plans to move again, but I may.  I ordered a single level from Mianne, so I need to build support.

The back side of the Masonite was framed like picture frame matting  with 2 1/2" strips of 1/4"  multi-ply plywood.

The contribution above was an attempt to show the  slot idea.  Photos above  were for a traveling module.

There was also a sturdy corner brace to retain an even curve, otherwise the curve tends to flair out at the top on module mounted curved corners:

For Mianne bench work you could fashion a filler insert panel  to provide a flush flat background mounting surface.

Yes, I get it now on the slotted variety for easy setup and teardown.  I have moved more times than I would have liked, so moving a layout is on my mind.  The coved corner support looks quite sturdy!

And now back to our regular scheduled GRJ layout build...……...

I agree. Nice discussion on background building, if it had its own thread. John already indicated tentative plans earlier in the previous page.

Tom has a tendency to make complex woodworking look easy.   It looks like he has more clamps on that corner than I own!

I try to make electronics look easy, but I'm not capable of making complex woodworking look easy. 

Dave Zucal posted:

GRJ, If it's possible to slide the bench work out away from the wall, you can always fasten 1/8" tempered board to the backside of it. Then paint that or use it for mounting back drop poster. That way you don't have to mess up those nice walls and it will also strengthen the bench work. It's about 9 bucks a sheet w/tax. Just a thought.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ha...in-832777/202189720?

 Interesting thought Dave, that would be easy.  The benchwork will slide right now, it's not that heavy and all the legs have levelers with nice smooth pads on them.

Congratulations on the beginning of what will become a very nice model railroad for your enjoyment, and ours. I suppose it’s to early to ask what your minimum radius will be? To me, building the layout was as much fun as Operation. Thank You for sharing your achievements with us. Happy Railroading.