Holes in the Wall

[PAL_Houston]

The thread about "Tear Down that Wall" has me thinking. 
(I know.  I know.  But please keep your jokes on hold for awhile 

My base plan has me adding a couple more modules for staging inside the layout room.
But, I also could put staging in closets if I put track thru a hole in the wall.

Does anyone have any examples of running to/from staging thru a wall? 
Pictures and/or diagrams would be helpful.  Anyone go thru the wall on a curve or at acute angles?

Also, what is your experience about running trains thru the wall, and "continuity of operations"?
In one case the closet would be directly accessible via an adjacent door, but if I used the other closet, it would be a hike thru a hallway and a bedroom.

OK.  Since you've listened politely, NOW you can crack your jokes!!   

[conrailthomas519]

I'm thinking about doing the same thing. I recall seeing some articles in Model Railroader about going thru the walls. However I am still searching for that info...
Tear down the Wall thread is mine  .

[eric220]

Todd Treaster's layout goes through a couple of walls.  Let me tell you, it's a little disconcerting when you're using the restroom and a freight suddenly blasts through the wall, through the room, and out the other side!

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5170

Although I've never seen it personally, Jim Reising's layout also goes through a couple of walls and into three different rooms.

http://theoakvillesub.freehosting.net/

[jereising]

Although I've never seen it personally, Jim Reising's layout also goes through a couple of walls and into three different rooms.
http://theoakvillesub.freehosting.net/

Yep. Piece of cake.  Not at all difficult - the only problem is explaining away a hole in the wall and avoiding it in pictures.

And Daryl Kruse's Geneva Sub also goes through a couple walls.

You do what you've gotta do...

[Bendtracker1]

My only piece of advice, start with a little drywall saw or spade bit making a small hole and THEN inspect the interior to make sure there is no Romex wires, water lines, gas or sewer pipes!
I would also make sure that if you need to cut through a stud, that it's not in a load bearing wall.
If your lucky enough to have the floor plan of the house, double check that to see where the above listed items might be placed.

I had a friend who suspended a "G" scale layout on epoxy coated mesh panels that went through every room of the house on the first floor.  There wasn't a room that didn't have at least holes in each wall.  This layout wasn't just a single mainline run, each room had a separate loop, sidings or storage tracks.

When he moved three years later, he spend several weeks patching all the holes!

[Roger Holmes]

I go through the wall four times.  Here's one of them.  As soon as it passes through the wall it goes into an "S" curve. Eight years of operation and no issues.  It returns through another hole on the left side of the doorway shown.  That is a 17"radius 180 degree turn and the "hole" in the wall is a long rectangular slot.  Sorry, no photos of that at the moment.

[LV LOU]

Todd Treaster's layout goes through a couple of walls.  Let me tell you, it's a little disconcerting when you're using the restroom and a freight suddenly blasts through the wall, through the room, and out the other side!

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5170

Although I've never seen it personally, Jim Reising's layout also goes through a couple of walls and into three different rooms.

http://theoakvillesub.freehosting.net/

That's nothing..When I was in Todd's bathroom,a passenger train stopped,and people got off..
 I've been kicking around going through a wall into another room,just to add one return loop at the end of my RR.I know it sounds crazy,but to hide it,I was gonna put it in a dresser..

[elnscale]

Here's mine going through the wall to staging and a turnaround loop.



This is a 8" shelf:



I di what others have suggested in that I identified the stud locations, drilled a "pilot" hole and looked for wires etc. All clear so in I went. I lined the tunnel with thin styrene which I painted black.

The toughest thing was actually getting the layouts the same level both sides of the hole. Somehow, even though I measured several times, then ended up 3/16" so I had to relay the track on the staging side and have a small slope. Not a big deal but something I hadn't wanted. I also have curve (to the left towards the wall) immediately the other side of the wall. Ont thing this does is it means even if you're looking into the tunnel and the staging room is dark, you will not see any headlights until the last moment. Not planned, just a bonus of how it worked out.

[nkalanaga]

My layout is in a spare bedroom in a double wide.  The room is at the front end, and has a walk-in closet that runs half way across the front of the trailer.  The other half is a similar closet, entered from the end, for my bedroom, which is in the other side of the trailer.  I have four tunnels similar to Roger's connecting the train room with the closet, one on each side of the door for  the standard gauge mainline, and two on the left for narrow gauge tracks.  Both gauges go through the wall between the closets to staging in my bedroom.

This is a little inconvenient, as I have to leave the trainroom, under a swing bridge, out the door, around the corner, into my bedroom, and into the other closet to access the staging yard.  Since it's just me, and I usually only run one train at a time, that works.

Here is a picture of the staging yard entries, taken a couple years ago.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5199/eastmoriabusyday.jpg

and the closet end of the two narrow gauge tunnels.

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/8503/eastmoriabridges.jpg

These two are on 12 inch radius curves, with the mainline (rear) track in the train room about three inches from the wall, so definitely both acute angles and curves.  The BN track is also on an 18 radius curve, but the double track tunnel is almost at a right angle, and is dug extra wide, as it's at the entrance to the town's yard, so nothing special there.  The single track tunnel on the other side of the (removed) closet door is straight.  As can be seen, the narrow gauge staging entrance is on a VERY acute angle, while the standard gauge, at the end of the wye, actually has a turnout IN the tunnel.  Eventually the top of that tunnel will be disguised by pipes and walkways between the unloading building and the silos/loading building.  The narrow gauge tunnel is hard to see from usual viewing angles, as it's hidden behind the unloading building.

In all cases the tunnels go through drywall on both sides, with studs between, and are arranged to miss the studs.  The gap between the walls was fully sealed, with pieces of wood and caulking, before the tracks were laid, to ensure that nothing could possibly fall between the walls, as the only way to get it out would have been another hole in the wall!  The studs were found the old-fashioned way - poke a hole in the drywall and see if it hits anything.  With no plugins in the area, there weren't any wires, and since I cut the holes with utility knife and razor saw, not much danger of cutting one if it was there.

[PAL_Houston]

Yep. Piece of cake.  Not at all difficult - the only problem is explaining away a hole in the wall and avoiding it in pictures.

And Daryl Kruse's Geneva Sub also goes through a couple walls.

You do what you've gotta do...

Yep.  The problem is not making the hole.  The problem is explaining it away so as to make it not too apparent in pictures... 

Some of the folks who posted replies have shown really excellent solutions involving tunnels through hills and mountains, such as yourself, ELNscale and Nkalanaga, and in city-scapes such as Roger Holmes.

In my case that is nearly impossible since the hole would have  to appear adjacent to Galena Jct.



What I have been considering is using a bridge-approach, which would be prototypical for the location although spatial compression would be massive.  My thought is to use a short section of a truss bridge masking the actual hole in the wall, and some painting to make it appear as if the bridge continues.  I was thinking the interior of the hole would have to be sky blue to help disguise the hole.  I was also thinking that angling the track towards the edge of the module might help disguise the hole.

But I don't really have a lot of confidence that this will work very well.  On the plus side, I don't actually have to drill out the hole in the wall until after I am satisfied with the disguise...which could take a number of  iterations to get right (or at least good enough). 

As it stands the worst case is I leave it as it is -- namely a dead end disguised as going off to infinity -- which isn't either prototypical or satisfying.

[Zox]

Yep.  The problem is not making the hole.  The problem is explaining it away so as to make it not too apparent in pictures...In my case that is nearly impossible since the hole would have  to appear adjacent to Galena Jct.

Well, if you can't make it disappear, can you make it big enough that it's not obviously a hole? The difference in repairing a little hole through drywall and a REALLY BIG HOLE through drywall is trivial, as long as you don't cut any studs.

Open the thing up from your scenery's "ground level" to just above eye level, from stud to stud, and round over the sides of the hole with your favorite backdrop-curve technique to eliminate the sharp edges. Continue your scenery through the hole, and nobody will notice it--not even in photos.

[nkalanaga]

Another viewblock for your location, if the other side is lighted, would be a couple large trees in front.  With branches overhanging the tracks, and some low vegetation around the trunks, a minimal hole would be hidden.  The light on the other side would help avoid a "dark spot".

[wm3798]

My old Laurel Valley layout poked through at two locations.  The yard and urban scene which occupies most of this video, was inside the laundry room in the rowhouse we rented, while a more bucolic mountain scene was on the family room side.  The main ducked into a tunnel under the yard that curved around to go to the other side, while the yard lead poked through in the corner, coming out where the upper platform of the passenger station resided.

Here's the track plan:


Lee

[Pomperaugrr]

Here are a couple of shots where I am attempting to have the hole in the wall disguised, without resorting to tunnels, as there are none on the Housatonic RR.  There are also no steel viaducts, but I like those so I added one anyway.  Disregard the horrible color of the cheap e-bay trees, as these will be painted and have a better color of ground foam applied...eventually.    The tree line is simply a mock up at this point.





Eric

[mcjaco]

Nice holes, guys.   


Back when I was in HO, we blew through a wall for staging at the Old Indian Heads Line.  Piece of cake, and it was on a curve so it was a pretty decent sized hole.  It ended up being covered by a mountain. 

In high school a buddy and I did the same thing on his HO pike.  He had a shelf in the living room side, and the layout in the train room. 

Best one I've personally seen, was my Uncle.  He blew through the back of his garage wall, and had a helix under the roof of the dog house that was attached to the back side of the garage.  The roof was on hinges, so you could lift it up in case of a problem.