Inspirational (N Scale) Bedroom Layouts

[chuck geiger]

And the winner is...I know it's HO but this could rock in N.

[nickelplate759]

I just realized that a lot of these around-the-walls plans for a bedroom depend on the door opening out of the room.  That's unusual in my experience.  Do folks rehang the door to enable this, or am I just looking at (and living in) the wrong houses?

Regards,
George

[wm3798]

I just realized that a lot of these around-the-walls plans for a bedroom depend on the door opening out of the room.  That's unusual in my experience.  Do folks rehang the door to enable this, or am I just looking at (and living in) the wrong houses?

Regards,
George

You're not wrong, George.  Typical installation has the door swing into the room.  It's not major surgery to reverse a door, and model railroads would obviously benefit from having it swing out, but there are things to consider before you make such a change.  Mainly, if there are light switches inside or outside the room, you'll want to make sure the reversal doesn't make them inconvenient to reach.  Also, the traffic pattern of the floor plan outside the room could be impacted.
The easier thing to do is to design the benchwork so it doesn't interfere with the door when it's open, and just keep the door closed when the layout is operating. 
Lee

[randgust]

First room I had mine in had a conventional door swinging in, real PITA.

Second room I got to design, and used a pair of bifold closet doors to replace the regular door, and widen it as well.   

When I got to the third house, I had to move the non load-bearing wall anyway, so I designed in a sliding pocket door.   If you're owning and not renting, I'd really recommend looking at that, if you can do basic carpentry and drywall you can do that, I'm glad I did.

Putting in a new wall also let me put in the electric lines I needed so I had powered outlets on all the time for the dehumidifier and filter, a wall switch for all layout power, and a wall switch for overhead lighting control, and put the entire room on its own breaker.   Now, many years later, I'm looking at moving that wall again to try to get another 30" of width to add benchwork.

[StarCruiser]

And the majority of bedrooms have a closet - with another door that opens inward.

As for HO plans being used as a basis for N - absolutely. Nice broad curves, lots of open space and any yard you setup can be revised with more tracks/turnouts and will look more reasonable...

[BCR 570]

Yes, the door and closet locations are major concerns when planning a bedroom layout.  When looking into a new apartment last year I had to try and find a suite with a similar door and closet location so that the layout could be accommodated with the least amount of changes.

Tim

[randgust]

Another one you might want to look at was Verne Niner's Arizona Divide layout.   I got to visit it, it was jammed in a pretty small bedroom, around the walls with a duckunder and a big center peninsula.   I got to visit after he went to On30 (on the same benchwork!) but the original plan was very good.

It had at least one full magazine writeup, but the online trail is pretty cold:
https://nscalerailroadingmagazine.com/wp-content/backissues/016/NSR016.html

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I had a very inconvenient door in my layout space.
I just took it off the hinges and stashed it under the layout.

[chuck geiger]

You will see under LER I have one that swings in (new layout locations) and I worked around it. Didn't want to F with it, with ADT system component.
Allowed 3 feet for door swing.

[James Costello]

Anyway...[salty] moving on from our universal issues of getting track plans to work for our individual needs and back to actual inspirational track plans [/salty], Bob Sprague has had quite a few plans published in MR over the last decade or so:
https://www.bobstrackplans.com/articles-and-clinics

A fave at the moment is his CSX Indianapolis Sub from Nov 2014 Model Railroader
https://www.bobstrackplans.com/single-post/2013/08/31/matt-allens-csx-indianapolis-sub-n-scale-version

These are nice as well:
https://www.bobstrackplans.com/single-post/david-chapman-s-penn-northern
https://www.bobstrackplans.com/single-post/2015/03/29/perry-pollinos-nw-and-conrail-in-willoughby-oh - with the large industry as the pennisula
https://www.bobstrackplans.com/single-post/2013/12/26/mason-mills-ns-frankfort-sub

[wm3798]

Bob does some nice stuff.  He seems to have a basic plan that gets repeated, with various elements such as yards, switching areas and staging shifting around a bit to meet the needs of the room and/or modeler.  That's pretty much what we all have to deal with.

The bottom line, for the ops oriented modeler, is the traffic flow in and out of staging, and a place to work the trains above the benchwork for operational and scenic interest.

He must work out of the midwest, as he does a pretty good job of capturing the flatland style operation.  As an Appalachian modeler, I find that much more challenging than my track plans, which always have a mountain to dive into to mask the return loops...

Nice collection there.
Lee