Shelf layouts

Looks nice.

  One way are barrel clamps. Find some with two tandem set screws. Thinner?Maybe uninsulated crimp connectors; thinner yet, metal tube and epoxy or solder.   If you can terminate in a pole, just butt two poles together.

   98%+ of my derailments happen to the outside of curves. I've had two divers; both before I perfected the track (old, graded). But not plastic locos and both were ok. The infrequency and perfecting trackwork stopped my railings from ever being put up. If I was going to sleep under it while running, I might add one overhead.

Captain Hindsight says; The railings could have been camouflaged bus wire. Depending on how you wired things, bus or just tracks, you might use them to fatten up your center rail side of the feed? It only has one rail worth of delivery ability vs the 2 outers

I personally wouldn't have made it in 4' sections.  I would have placed all the vertical poles and then run one wire through the whole things as it was a 300' spool.  Other then that I can't thing of anything that Adriatic didn't already say.

But I will say I love your idea and the look.  I may just steal it for my table top layout to keep the locomotives from dropping to the floor.  What size dowel rods did you use?  Could you share a sketch of hole locations and dowel spacing?

On my two high Mountain Cottage shelf 14x32 operations (1992-2009 RIP), I used 3-1/2 x 1/8 inch high plexiglass fence.  I bought 1/8"x 4x8 sheets and Lowe's cut the 3-1/2" wide strips for me on their upright panel glass cutter..I never had derailments as such but stringlinning derailment of 8-10 empty hoppers on the head end did occur at times on startup at curves. Mostly corrected by weighting first 8-10 cars with pennies. 

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In the last photo (above) just above, at the lower edge the plexiglas fence is friction-fitted between the stained window edge trim stop mold and the short blocks you see spaced along the lower track.   I eventually hid the wire runs and T-strips behind the Masonite riser panels all around the layout on the two stair-stepped tracks. 

I powered operations during the '90s  on the five tracks with 3 pw ZWs until TMCC installed and I switched over to five 180 watt PoHos linked to TPCs.  Fortunately I never had  an engine or car to hit the floor. Shelves were in the Domestic CEOs kitchen-breakfast room w/ 20" high ridge.

 

Some photos from my shelf layout.  I have used lots of bridges, utility poles, rock walls which act as guard rails.  I have not had a single derailment in two years.

Facebook page "Buffalo Pittsburgh RR Lakewood NY " has many more photos of my set up

very nice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The strips are 4" due to me cutting down a sheet of 4x8 white oak plywood in half to make my main planks / strips for shelf layout. Some of the left over pieces I cut down to 1/4" thick. Save wood, and money... Now I also thought about running the cable the length of the layout. I have not cut it yet into 4ft sections. Now these pieces ive come up with are only for the straight sections. I have several curved areas in layout.

Wood curves are cut to match the track. But if I go Premier with the engine I want to run, I may redo turns to O-72, as O-54 is the minimal. I don't want large amount of overhang. So i havent started making strips for the curved sections quite yet. Trying to pick between Imperial and Premier MTH Southern Pacific Daylight. Have same loco in HO...

Anyways...

Top pic... trying to show the installment of the next strip. Left the gap there for visual. But really, close the gap, then have correct 4" spacing between posts. Also a new MTH ES44AC i got from the LHS. Sound and pulling power!

Posts are 1/4" x 48" dowel rods I got from Lowes. Cut them down to 2" each. Then drilled the post holes with a jig and drill press. 1/4" down for top hole, 3/4" down for lower hole.  From the ends of the strip, start out with 2", 1/4" hole for post, then 4" after that for the length of the strip. That way, when i join up the next strip, my post spacing is the same.  Oh and the offset from edge of wood to center of post is 3/8". Then ill cut these down to 3/4" width and install on my layout, butted up against the cork.

I thought about the plexi glass idea... back when I was trying to get ideas... but little on the expensive side when I was pricing a sheet of it.

Lower pictures... idea on what it looks like on the layout, and my next obstacles.. the curves.

Forgot to add: posts are held in place with wood glue only. Add to end of post and the hole, wipe away excess. Once glue dries, its a solid hold.

Tugboat15,

I really like your posts and wire.  It's going to add something attractive to the layout.  Adriatic always has a great idea, and the one about using the fencing as bus wire is another one.

My overhead layout has been finished for 3 years.  I have posted many times on shelf layouts, and I had the perfect situation for one in the basement entertainment room.  I considered fencing many times, but the only two times cars have fallen was because I was talking instead of watching.  Never had an engine fall, and no cars ever broken, just a few of those cheap plastic trucks.  I prefer a double-tracked system, and I run 2 MTH engines on each track, controlled by DCS, and powered by one PW ZW.

These pics should show how the layout was done, including supports, wiring, backdrops, lighting, and accessories.  Feel free to ask questions or make comments.

 

Good luck and best wishes on your newest train project.

Jerry

Very nice. Where did you find that background paper that looks like buildings / mountains? I also see some hidden lighting. Is that light rope?

Also good source for freight cars? I want some tankers, like those blue conrails. I seem to just find the rail king rugged rail series, and some of the tankers i find, are beat up.

The backdrops are from Backdrop Junction.  Two city segments and two wooded hill segments.  He has a large selection, and he custom printed them to be 7 1/2 inches high.  I prefer the vinyl without the self-adhesive.  I used velcro to hang them, and spray glued a card stock backing to give them more support.  I think they came in 5 fifteen foot rolls.  If you give him a call, he is really good at adapting your choices to your sizes.  He printed three more large ones for my table layout, and they all look great.  Here is one behind an old shelf siding, and another atop the upper-level mall.

Yes, the lighting is rope light.  They plug in to a regular outlet, so no extra wiring or voltage drop from the mains.  Since the layout is double-tracked and close to the ceiling, they can't be seen unless you get on a step stool.  They give a nice striated effect, which I like better than LED's.

By far the best deals in freight cars is Menards.  They have a large and growing collection.  I know what you mean about the blue Conrails.  I'd love to find a couple more, but they seem unavailable or outrageously priced.  Not sure why.

Jerry

Thanks for the info. 

After work, I'll get on and look at what all is available. 

Just got DCS remote commander to work. Not plug n play like older engines.

Maybe I'll add a double line in the future. At the time during planning, didnt know about Gargraves track. Until I ran across a post on this site. 

Come from running mainly HO, and a coffee table N Scale layout. 

Track really cut costs way down... and made for a longer run. 

Nick

That sure looks like a fun basement Jerry. I can smell the air of the hockey table from here. The Ten Pin game in the corner being used as a table is killing me though. The last I played one was the long lower version; but they had both; and it was at the oddest backwoods hidden, gravel two track access log cabin pub ever... must have been off a snowmobiles route or something....Simlar amount of wood decor but with tall ceiling and errie wild game heads from all over the world hanging from the ceiling everywhere. Most with open mouths and teeth bared. Tasmanian devel, ram, bobcat, wolf, coyote, shreiking monkeys and purple faced baboon, coiled snakes etc. all on a system of rope and pullys that allowed them to be lowered from behind the bar to sit at face to face level at tables, right above your plate. An over the shoulder distraction was "risky" at "Worth's" "Were you did get your money's worth" ....fire Also where Gramps usually met up with locals for train deals. Good times, good times

Oh man I'm in trouble... so many freight cars to pick from. Wife likes tankers, ive always been a fan of the shipping container cars. 

Any idea on how many cars one engine can pull?

Also, are these metal or plastic trucks? 

Nick

Assume you're talking about the Menard's selection.  Metal wheels, plastic trucks.  Can't beat the price....

Here's an older pic.  All the cars are Menard's.

Pulling power depends on what you have, engines and grades.  I normally pull 20 cars per consist.  My own experience is that the cars have more trouble than the engines.  Most guys put their heaviest cars closest to the engine.  Some add extra weight (to the cars) to keep them from derailing around curves when they are pulling many other cars behind them.  I have seen engines pulling 70+ cars on a flat grade.

Jerry

JerryG posted:

Assume you're talking about the Menard's selection.  Metal wheels, plastic trucks.  Can't beat the price....

 

Only the 10" flatcars and the new gondolas have plastic trucks. Everything else is die-cast trucks (the 14" flatcars even have roller-bearing trucks with rotating bearing caps).

Plastic wheelsets don't exist in the Menards' lineup. Rolling qualities are very good (I pulled a 30-car train of the 10" flatcars with a starter-set 0-8-0 steamer--no problems at all). You might find some examples of diecast trucks with dislodged axles that don't roll too well, in which case shoving the axle end back into the recess in the truck sideframe where they belong should cure this (the axles are a somewhat loose fit in the diecast truck frames)

---PCJ

Yep.  Railride is correct.  All metal trucks.  Sorry, I was lazy.  I don't run the trains much during the summer.  I just looked instead of lifting and checking.  All my Menard's have metal trucks.  

Jerry

Doing a trial run with LED strip light.  At 100% brightness level. Very cool effect. Daughter now wants train, and the lighting in her room. So looks like Ill be doing an expansion soon.  I haven't looked yet, but who makes a good cross track section?

Yeah.. thanks for telling me about Menards. I have about 400.00 or so on freight wish list. Waiting on a bulk of tankers to arrive. Trying to limit what I buy, although its hard, since in October, MTH suppose to release new loco and psngr cars of the SP daylight.

Have a business trip coming up in 2 weeks. Always search for what is around.  Be in Indiana for a week. Found out ill be near Mr. Muffin's trains. Def going to make a stop there. Wish I had the space for that size of a layout.

 

I'm up north near Noblesville Indiana for work this week. Found a few Menards, but no luck with the freight. Is there any way to see what stores have stock?  Didn't want to ship to store, then if any ship delay, seem like a mess to get them sent back home. Not sure if most or all stock was online order only.

Thanks

Nick