Gavino200s new layout

[toc36]

Gavino,

 

Very interesting.  Thanks for sharing.

 

That agent is risking his/her's license.  The homeowners are skirting some disclosure issues.

 

Glad you guys caught it and avoid a decade long headache.

 

Toc 

[gavino200]

So we're in the new house, and our furniture has arrived. There are three possibilities for a train room - all in the basement. A central room that's not super big, and two decent sized rooms that open onto in. One room is unfinished. The second is finished (with a slightly ugly style)

 

I could make either side room into a train room. Or maybe both, and connect them with a tube for a connecting track. Or maybe open up the area to make one room. I haven't looked at whether the walls are structural or not. (actually the thought just ocured to me know as I write this). I haven't measured the rooms yet.

 

"Finished" room

 

 

 

Unfinished room

 

 

 

Central room - between the above two rooms.

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Nice options!

 

Usually basement walls are added later and not load bearing, but you never know. Did they have any original house plans? Check with the county, they may be on microfiche. Any evidence of a few steel posts anywhere? Sometimes they use smaller steel girders for major cross support and then metal pole supports and walls build along them later. It is a good sized area so those may be load bearing perpendicular to the floor joists.

 

opening up may be nice to have a nice mixed use area.

 

they have very flat 4’ led strips (like 1/2” high x 1” wide) now you can daisy chain on the ceiling w.o taking up much vertical space and spreading light around well. I got them for our basement and it’s on the list to install here in the next couple of weeks.

 

great you have the house and can now get settled in!

 

congrats!

 

jeff

[Bob_NZ]

Wow! 

Lots of options with room for expansion. 

You could have your layout in one room and have a 'hidden' storage area in another with the 'tube' going through the wall.  That is what I did.  I  have the storage area on a slight downhill gradient so that a train starting from cold moves easy and does not need 'tapping' to get moving. 

Visitors cannot work out where the new trains are all coming from.

Small holes through a wall are easy to patch up should you move from the house.

[Martijn Meerts]

Looks like the cat already owns everything 😉

 

[cteno4]

They always do! We are but their sniveling servants...

 

jeff

[gavino200]

5 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Usually basement walls are added later and not load bearing, but you never know. Did they have any original house plans? Check with the county, they may be on microfiche. Any evidence of a few steel posts anywhere? Sometimes they use smaller steel girders for major cross support and then metal pole supports and walls build along them later. It is a good sized area so those may be load bearing perpendicular to the floor joists.

 

You're right. I checked by "knocking on the wall". I'm pretty sure it's  all just plaster board. 

 

My wife is still fairly stressed with house adjustments. I'm going to strategically wait until things are more under control before suggesting any alterations to open up the space for trains.

 

 

5 hours ago, cteno4 said:

 

opening up may be nice to have a nice mixed use area.

 

they have very flat 4’ led strips (like 1/2” high x 1” wide) now you can daisy chain on the ceiling w.o taking up much vertical space and spreading light around well. I got them for our basement and it’s on the list to install here in the next couple of weeks.

 

Awesome. Can't wait to see how they look.

[cteno4]

Well if it’s 16” framed it could be load bearing framing. But if no cross framing probably not load bearing.

 

yes wait a bit to settle in till talk of tearing out walls, I’m sure your wife is frazzled enough finding and vetting the new house and with the move!

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

Looks good Gavin!  Even just one of those rooms will make an excellent layout space.

[RogerMc]

Wow, what a project!

 

Look forward to seeing the progress reports.

[gavino200]

Haven't made much progress. We've been doing a lot of remodeling. So I just finished unpacking boxes today. Time to start thinking about this project. 

 

To recap. There are three rooms. Two long rooms, one finished, one unfinished, and a room in between where the stairs ends. You can now seen the center room for the first time, since the boxes are gone. I haven't measured the space yet.

 

Two options:

1. Make this area a seperate den/reading room/music room. 

2. Take down the wall separating this space from the long finished room to make one big L-shaped space. 

 

 

 

This is the "finished" space. I definitely don't like the finish here. I want to at least take down that weird wood strip and repaint the walls. I may also want to change out the floor. Maybe heated tiling. 

 

Just based on how the old layout looks laid against the wall, it looks like I can upsize the layout a decent bit. 

 

 

 

I'm going to make this room into my workroom/shop. Likely it's going to also have to serve as a storage space, so I can't have it all. Fortunately there's a separate washroom upstairs and a lot of storage space in the garage so it shouldn't be too bad. 

 

 

[gavino200]

Got things tidied up a bit. There are still a ton of things to do on the house before getting around to the basement. So I've decided to set up a temporary layout. It'll be DC and I'll use it to run my new acquisitions which I'll keep DC for the time being. 

 

I think my inspiration would be  @Waisneed's temporary layout. (seen immediatly below).  I really don't want to set up on the floor. As far as I remember waisneed used tables from Ikea. Problem - the nearest ikea store is hours away from me. I'll have to find an altenative. Anyone got any ideas?

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead setting up a proper workbench and "shop" setup for my workroom. Not really sure how to do this. But the main thing will be a good big long solid workbench and lots of storage shelving. I might hire the local Amish guys to build a work bench. Anyone got any pearls of advice on things to include when setting up a "shop". I'm going to make a dedicated painting booth too, and maybe a wood cutting table. 

 

[bill937ca]

Ikea has an online website and delivers with FedEx. I buy my floor lamps from Ikea. No Ikea store close to me either.

Edited November 18, 2019 by bill937ca

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

I think my inspiration would be  @Waisneed's temporary layout. (seen immediatly below).  I really don't want to set up on the floor. As far as I remember waisneed used tables from Ikea. Problem - the nearest ikea store is hours away from me. I'll have to find an altenative. Anyone got any ideas?

 

 

 

 

Road trip for Lack tables and some meat balls!

[cteno4]

And some of the little 3w led flexi lights! 
 

for 10 of the lack tables they quoted $30 to ship, not bad.

 

you would be hard pressed to beat the price. If you want higher you can use the ikea desk tops and legs ($35 for 24x48 $46 for 30x60). The legs have a 1” adjusting feet for any unevenness in the floor. Legs screw off so tables can be stored flat. Pretty sturdy, wouldn’t stand on them, but for a table for trains you are not putting half your weight on pressing sideways to reach way back it’s fine. We used these legs on one of the club members large layout sections that were like 4x8’.

 

the plastic folding tables like 6’x30” are ok but heavy and not super flat.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

20 hours ago, cteno4 said:

And some of the little 3w led flexi lights! 
 

for 10 of the lack tables they quoted $30 to ship, not bad.

 

you would be hard pressed to beat the price. If you want higher you can use the ikea desk tops and legs ($35 for 24x48 $46 for 30x60). The legs have a 1” adjusting feet for any unevenness in the floor. Legs screw off so tables can be stored flat. Pretty sturdy, wouldn’t stand on them, but for a table for trains you are not putting half your weight on pressing sideways to reach way back it’s fine. We used these legs on one of the club members large layout sections that were like 4x8’.

 

the plastic folding tables like 6’x30” are ok but heavy and not super flat.

 

jeff

 

Flexy lights? For what?

 

Wow $30 for 10 tables that's very good. I think I'll bite.

 

The desk tops and legs look good. But my wife already looked into those for a sewing table, and the shipping is very steep. 

 

Thanks for the advice!

[cteno4]

Bummer on the shipping. They are handy tables and pretty sturdy.

 

check your zip code for the shipping. We have a store about 8 miles from here so that’s why it may have been cheap.

 

cant beat those ikea legs at $4 each

 

Jeff

[gavino200]

I got the $30 dollars shipping. Took me a while on the phone. Long story not worth telling. 

 

I'm excited about setting up a temporary layout. I've been missing my trains. It's a good thing that I've kept acquiring trains even though I have no Layout. I've got a few trains without DCC that I can run!

 

 

[JR 500系]

That is some impressive space you got there Gavin! Nice! Wish I too had such a space for my hobby....   😞

 

Those tables are a really good idea since they can stack up pretty quickly if you need the space... and they look good! 

[cteno4]

The flexi lights are nice little led lights for the workbench.

 

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/naevlinge-led-work-lamp-black-40404914/

 

or to clip on stationary power tools

 

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/naevlinge-led-clamp-spotlight-white-20449895/
 

sadly the desk one is not as convenient as the old one for desk lamps, it was flexible all the way to the base with a larger base so you could stretch it however you wanted and the head was smaller. IKEA seems to have done a big makeover in many designs this year.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

14 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

That is some impressive space you got there Gavin! Nice! Wish I too had such a space for my hobby....   😞

 

Those tables are a really good idea since they can stack up pretty quickly if you need the space... and they look good! 

 

Thanks. Yes, it is a lot of space. The challenge will be to use it as well as you use the space that you have!

 

The tables are great. But now that I look more closely at waisneed's picture, it looks like I'll need closer to 20 tables than 10. But it's better to do this incrementally. That way it's easier for my wife to adjust to the idea.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by gavino200

[gavino200]

5 hours ago, cteno4 said:

The flexi lights are nice little led lights for the workbench.

 

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/naevlinge-led-work-lamp-black-40404914/

 

or to clip on stationary power tools

 

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/naevlinge-led-clamp-spotlight-white-20449895/
 

sadly the desk one is not as convenient as the old one for desk lamps, it was flexible all the way to the base with a larger base so you could stretch it however you wanted and the head was smaller. IKEA seems to have done a big makeover in many designs this year.

 

jeff

 

Ah, yes I already have a bunch of these. Two with clips, and two with bases.

 

 

[gavino200]

First batch of Lack tables. Haven't ordered more yet, but I might. Looks like I'll have some trains running this weekend. 

 

I also laid out my old "L-shaped" layout in a straight line, to get a feel for what I can fit in the room. I'm tempted to use the entire room for a layout wrapped around the walls in a large "C-Shape". I'll leave one wall or corner for shelving, so I'll have somewhere to store trains. 

 

I'd like the new layout to be modular, so I can pull out sections to work on them. I'd also like the sections to be deeper than these ones. After I work out exactly what kind of construction I want I can look for a contractor. Probably the Amish. 

 

First thing will be to take that awful wood panel off the wall and paint the room. I may need to change the lighting, and I'll consider changing the flooring too. 

 

 

 

[bill937ca]

Wonderful train room.  Those tables look like a great start.

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

Tables looks like a good place to start playing again!

 

wall wraparound layout sounds great and sectional is a very smart idea. Motorcycle connectors Are great for doing all your wiring connections and pretty inexpensive. You can make frames that are rectangles Of 2x4 and bolt to the wall and then top with some 1x6 for the module joints to rest on. This makes lots of space under the layout for storage. Use rolling carts and shelves to tuck under the layout. Modules can just be 1x4 framework and 3/16” ply top or drop the top down an inch into the frame and add 1” foam. If you use a couple of bolts In the ends of the modules that have countersunk nuts to hold them on the end of a module the rest of the bolt will self center when you pop them together to line up track joints.

 

looking forward to the new adventure!
 

cheers,

 

jeff