Train Room Project Finally Gets Started, Benchwork up

Here is also a quick video of the layout.

That's a great start, and I love the way you did your ceiling train, great "benchwork" :-)  

very cool!

very nice Paul.

Who did you get the truss system from? Looks really stable.

Bob

Bob, The ceiling system was from ceilingtrainkit.com. I used their modern kit which saved me a few $$. I bolted each support into a 1x4 wood piece above the drop ceiling panel. It worked our fairly good and only required some minor tweaking. The guy who owns the site will stain it whatever color or stain you want.  I put it up over the last two weeks. Could have been done in a day but I wanted to take my time to make sure everything was sturdy.

Thanks

Paul

Nice work on the ceiling train! That helps inspire the O work when trains are running. Nice modules, by the way.

Finally found time to start on the project again. Layed out all the benchwork tops in the train room. Now I need to start bolting together and add the legs. All of this benchwork is from Sievers. I had gotten from a closed LHS.

thanks

Paul

Paul, Your train room looks great and that is a lot of benchwork. Do you happen to have a track plan of the planned layout?

Any chance there is a turntable in your plans ?

CSX Al, Thanks for the comment. A turntable no, but I have a transfer table I purchased 4 years ago that I am planning on using. As for a track plan, I have one that I am still cleaning up. When I created it I forgot to build in the grades. I knew in my head what I wanted. I realized when I was done that it looked very messy. I know what is what but no one else will.  The layout as a whole is 25 x 14 with access from 3 sides plus down the middle. The look of it is somewhat like another layout that I saw on the forum. I believe that layout was called South Fork. I was struggling with putting together a nice layout when I saw what that gentleman had done. Our dimensions were the about the same, we had some of the same accessories plus his track plan looked real nice. He basically had very close to what I was looking for. I tried contacting him a few times but never heard anything back. So I have borrowed some of the look for the mainline and the  yard.

 One thing that I have added which is different is a slot car track for a little race action. It was something my son and like to do but in order to have a slot car table I would have had to make the train layout much smaller. So I incorporated what is basically an oval slot car track into the train layout. The train layout will actually be built on top of the slot car track. Once scenery is done it should actually look like a grand prix race. I hope to eventually get the layout plan loaded on here. 

thanks

Paul

I'm looking forward to this thing coming together, heck I even like the flooring in that room!  

The slot car track sounds like it will be a lot of fun you you and your son. 

benchwork is look great, can't wait to see the track plan for all that!

Yes, your benchwork looks great. Beautiful basement too! Good luck!

I finally was able to get some work done on the layout. I got all the benchwork bolted together and a solid tabletop on. On the left side I placed the transfer table. There I will have a engine yard, then transfer table and service facility. I posted a picture of the layout. The blue track represents the upper level and the green the lower. 

Next phase will be the slot car track so that I can space it out. Then foam for the lower level.

thanks for the interest.

Paul

Wow, Paul!!  When you got started, you are really on a roll!  The Ceiling RR looks great, and so does the Seivers benchwork!  I’m looking forward to seeing this progress!!

Paul,

I can't visualize the elevations, but I like the track plan.

Will you be using EZ-Streets or scale slot car track?  I think the over under track lines on that confused my railroad elevation guessing.

The modules are very sturdy. I would have set the legs back away from the edge more. I think you'll tire of kicking those.

Paul I love how you approached this project.  It's quite obvious that tons of planning went into it.  So looking forward to seeing your dream come together.

PaulB posted:

I finally was able to get some work done on the layout. I got all the benchwork bolted together and a solid tabletop on. On the left side I placed the transfer table. There I will have a engine yard, then transfer table and service facility. I posted a picture of the layout. The blue track represents the upper level and the green the lower. 

Next phase will be the slot car track so that I can space it out. Then foam for the lower level.

thanks for the interest.

Paul

Benchwork looks great Did you get it from Sievers or did you make it yourself?

The benchwork was purchased from Sievers a few years ago. It was used in a Hobby shop for a large slot car track. when the store closed I kept the benchwork. I was glad to finally start to put it good use. I have moved it three times.

thanks

Paul