Bedroom layout thoughts

[kc9jts]

My wife and I recently purchased our first house.  It has 3 bedrooms and as right now it is just the two of us; my wife has agreed to allow me to use one of the spare bedrooms for a layout (oh, did I mention the bedroom in question is already painted sky blue?).  I have a couple of design obstacles that I have some thoughts on how to deal with, but thought I would seek a little forum input.  The room is about 10x11 with the door and closet on the same side.  The door has a slight recessed entryway (not suitable for modeling) so the door won't swing much in to the layout.  The layout itself will be N scale (obviously) and will be based on the Soo Line in southeast Wisconsin in the mid-70s. 

Issues:
1) this also does need to double as a bedroom for when we have guests (sometimes with little notice).  My parents live out of state and visit on occasion and my wife's brother is a HVAC tech who lives out of town and is on call on a regular basis.  Therefore I will still have a bed in the middle of the room.  (Bed is about 4 1/2 x 7 feet and it cannot be obscured by the layout)
2) My wife wants the layout to be moveable (not on a regular basis; but in case we move down the road).  Not too much of a design issue other than I can't have fancy benchwork shapes or "blobs".
3) In relation to number 2 I need to minimize mounting on walls.  Hence I am thinking of building it in sections about 1 foot wide around the walls (again, free-standing but at least bolted to the wall for strength)
4) Height would need to be at least 4 feet tall to clear some parts of the headboard and also keep the feline residents of our house at bay.

My grand scheme is to have a 1ft wide layout around the walls with a staging yard in the closet.  Considering the bed placement this would leave 2-3 feet walkways on all 3 sides of the bed.

So why am I posting this?  I am interested in hearing from anyone who has built a layout around a bed in a bedroom and hearing if they have any tips or advice or what works or what doesn't work.

Thanks in advance,

NBT
Omaha

[davefoxx]

There is an issue of Kalmbach's annual magazine, Model Railroad Planning, that had several examples of bedroom-sized layouts built around a bed.  If I get the opportunity (and someone else doesn't provide the specific issue), I'll try to dig out the issue to let you know which one it is.

Recommendations: build the layout close to eye level to get it above the bed and minimize anyone hitting their head on the layout when getting into or out of bed.  Your 12" shelf depth is a good idea, especially over the head of the bed.

DFF

[mmagliaro]

Is the idea for this to be point-to-point, or will there be a duck-under by the door?   With only 12" wide, you'd have to
have somewhere wider for trains to "turn around" if it's not point-to-point.
Otherwise, I like the narrow shelf around the walls idea.  Sure, you'll have to patch and paint screw holes (if you move) if you
fix it to the walls, but I think that's worth it.  It will be so much easier to build an so much more stable if it's
attached to the walls than if you try to make all of it as free-standing units.

Plus, if you DON'T move and you ever get free use of the center of the room, there's nothing stopping you from curving off your
shelf somewhere and making an island out in the middle.

[Kiasutha]

Like the Gentleman said-build high!
If you have cats,like as not 4' will barely slow them down.
I still remember my first n layout about 45 years ago,and my dear "tom" bounding to the top of the 4' "half-door" of the train room.
Next leap was to the layout. Homasote was apparently great for claw-sharpening...
Darn thing used to sit & wait to swat locos coming out of the tunnel...

[bc6]

Well speaking from experience I have a hollow core door in my bedroom which could be moved in a pinch I guess lol. The HCD is 36 x 80 which gives me a lot of bang for the buck, it keeps me busy with scenery, track design, etc. If you added another hcd  to make an "L" I think that would fit around a bed. Build it high as mentioned before, I bet even non train heads would be tempted to (mess) play with your trains.

[PAL_Houston]

At our house neither dogs nor cats are not allowed in 3 of the bedrooms, and this has nothing to do with trains or layouts.  Cats shed and (according to my darling bride) it's hell keeping the rooms clean as it is (and she is the one who likes cats.  Oh.  OK.  I like them too ).  Therefore the doors to these bedroom remain shut.  Unfortunately, OUR bedroom isn't one of the 3   (But my train room is  )

Secondly, an alternative to building around the walls could be building to store under the bed (or in the closet for that matter)...but you'd probably already considered and discarded that notion, I bet, for reasons having to do with what you want to achieve with your layout.  Nevertheless, some 'givens and druthers' set down on paper might be a good way to focus and clarify what you want to do with your layout....

[Pomperaugrr]

I'm 6'4" tall, so I built my layout with the rail height at about 53".  This allows plenty of room for furniture below the layout.  The layout resides in a bonus room that also serves as a guest bedroom and a craft room for my wife and daughters.  I used closet maid shelf brackets, with 1x2 pine and extruded foam for the sub roadbed.  This allowed me to drop scenery below the brackets in one location.  There will be shadow box foreground scenes in the closet with staging tracks along the back of the closet. 

I suggest mocking up the shelf heights with cardboard to figure out the best height and depth for you.  I can remove the layout is sections by removing 2 screws from each bracket, snipping the rails and using a razor saw through the scenery.  I don't plan to move it right away, but I may build a dedicated layout room in my basement at some point, so I could re-use sections of the layout without much modification.




Here is where I dropped the scenery for a very non-prototypical bridge scene, but I liked the fantasy element for photos and watching trains.



Eric

[Scottl]

Nice layout Eric, we need to see more of that...

[Ian MacMillan]

Nice layout Eric, we need to see more of that...

Check out the Layout Engineering thread forum.

[BCR 570]

Well your layout description seems to sum up mine quite well.  I am building a double deck layout in an 11' x 13' apartment bedroom which has the door and closet on one wall.  The room had to remain functional as a bedoom and hobby room.  The layout employs sectional construction and is supported along the 13' walls on proprietary shelving brackets screwed to the studs in the walls.  The benchwork along the 11' wall is primarily suspended between the other benchwork with a portion of the back edge resting on the window ledge.  The wiring is also sectional, and there will be joints in the trackwork at the benchwork joints.  All of this ensures that the layout can come out fairly quickly if necessary.  The deck heights are 42" and 58" and the width out from the walls ranges from 12" - 24" except for the helix which is about 34". 




More information can be found at my website.  You should also check out Andy Thomas' Fort St. John Subdivision layout blog (see my Links Page).  He is also building a layout in a functional bedroom but he has gone with free standing benchwork.


Tim

[Flatrat]

I would be inclined to do what others suggest about an eye level, or at least above furniture height, narrow point to point style layout around the perimeter. You mentioned a closet area as a possible staging yard area. Is it the typical byfold door size closet or is it a single door closet? If it's a byfold door closet that could be a lot of modeling space! Could you loosen the screws on the doors and remove them for now and store them in the attic or somewhere to be replaced in the future if you sell the home to really open up that space for modeling?

Sky blue helps with backdrop. I am using a space that I didn't want to paint the wall and painted my backdrop; clouds, distant hills, etc. on banner paper from Michael's and held it in place as a backdrop with double sided Scotch brand poster tape that is fairly 'low tack' so it should peel of and clean up fairly easy when I pull it down someday. Looks believeable enough for now and i can peel it all off when I go to sell the place, maybe without repainting. It looks about as good as the premade backdrops for low cost as i needed about 18' of backdrop and I used acrylic paints to paint it on the basement floor then applied it to the wall. Cheap.

At one foot wide, running around only two walls of your 10x11 foot room, plus a staging/switching yard in your closet it should give you about a 20' foot long layout. May sound small-ish initially but in N scale I think you could make a lot of layout on that space if you put your imagination into it. If you design it in modules that you can easily disassemble and move to a new home some day I don't see why you couldn't build something that could continue to grow with you if you move to bigger digs someday.

Best wishes! Looks like a great project and may be good building blocks for future projects!!

Scott

[kc9jts]

Thanks for all the replies everyone.  To answer a few of the questions that have been posed:
- I intend on having the layout be point-to point operation with the staging yard in the closet; although I do plan on having a continuous running connection. 
- I will have a lift-out section of the layout near the door for access to the room (so any non model RR visitors don't need to crawl around to use the bed.
- The closet has two sliding doors.  I had not considered removing them yet although that might not be a bad idea.  I am contemplating using a small, lift-out section (maybe Atlas bridges) where the layout goes would traverse the door's track.  This way I could remove the bridges and shut the door and (hopefully) keep the feline family members out of the staging yard at least (I do plan on keeping them out of the room period but that would be extra insurance).
- I had considered a HCD for under the bed; but as my previous layout was 3X5 I wanted something bigger and also something where I could leave cars in place and be ready to run easily.
- I do have blue paint for the room, so if I put holes in the wall matching it should not be an issue.

I do have a trackplan roughed out but it's a PDF file and I don't know how to upload that here (or if I can).

Question specifically for Tim H:  Looking at your photo and website do you have any issues getting in and out of the "aisle" between the bed and the east pine river when operating the layout?

Thanks again everyone,

NBT
Omaha

[BCR 570]

Question specifically for Tim H:  Looking at your photo and website do you have any issues getting in and out of the "aisle" between the bed and the east pine river when operating the layout?

No I do not.  While the actual aisle width is only 14 inches (although this could be increased by moving the bed over a little), the effective aisle space is wider because the bed is only knee height, the lower deck is only 42 inches high, the upper deck is only 12 inches wide, and I am of average stature.  I can stand in that aisle and work or operate on the upper deck, or I can sit on the bed to watch trains cross the bridge.  The room has successfully accommodated 6-7 people for layout visits, although 2-3 will be the norm for operations.

Tim