At long last... Southern Pacific in a garage!

[SirTainly]

Thanks Gary, the climbing is going to be an issue, but it's hard to work it out in my head without some of the work being started. On that note, just had a quote from a builder - in excess of 4 thousand pounds sterling to redo the walls an increase the insulation - that's ridiculous. It looks like I will have to do the work myself, so that's going to slow it all down. At the moment there are damp issues related to condensation which have rotted the chipboard floor by the old metal door. I'm thinking vents on the inner walls, and an airbrick to outside would stop this issue, or just insulating the inside of the metal door so closely that the air inside the garage does not come into contact with the metal - spray on expanding foam would do this.

Glad others have gone with cabinets, makes my decision seem saner! Having them all round, or close to, will be good for a) not having to build legs, and b) storing things, so win win! I thought about drawers, but I'm toying with some other ideas for storing not in use stuff.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

One thing to mention, since I think this is your first soup to nuts layout... don't try and do too much with it.

The happiest modelers I've met are the ones who know what they can accomplish, and then do it.

Setting out with grandiose plans is a path to stagnation, frustration, and exhaustion.

If this is your first, I'd say skip the multi-deck approach, and keep it simple to get your feet under you and build up the skills you'll need to develop to make something bigger and more complex.

[coldriver]

An underappreciated supplier of cool PNW forest products industry structures is https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/.  They target an earlier than modern era, but a lot of what they do is fairly timeless. 

I managed to avoid a helix by keeping the climb up the lower deck really simple (no industrial switching) and the scene shallow (8 inches) - the grade starts at 15 inches of vertical clearance up to a mere 7 inches of vertical clearance before finishing the climb on a single deck peninsula.  This was after I built a helix, hated it, and was desperate to rip it out.  Very happy I was able to make it work.   

[SirTainly]

Cheers Ed, good advice. I think though I need to put in a second deck while I'm in building mode (at least the woodwork), otherwise it won't even happen and I'll get bored with just one level. I do plan to have the lower deck operating on it's own, so I can phase completion at least.

Thank for reminding me of those guys colddriver, I think I bought some Nn3 stuff from them years ago. I'm keeping an open mind on how to do the transition, but at the moment some poorly located power outlets are giving me headaches with a continuous climb - still thinking about my options.

[BCR 570]

Hi Simon!

Welcome back; I have been wondering how you were getting on back in the UK and have changed computers so don't have an email address for you.  Glad to see you have made a purchase and are moving forward in life.  Where are you located now - still in Peterborough?  I was back in Dorset for Christmas with Mum last year.

Good luck with your layout planning and construction.  Mine is getting to the point where all the work is now resulting in some very enjoyable train time, so I encourage you to dive in and get going;you,lol be glad you did!

Best wishes,

Tim

[SirTainly]

Hi Tim, good to hear from you. I still have your address, I'll ping you an email this week and catch up.

Simon

[SirTainly]

I had hoped to start progress this weekend just gone, but a chance to spend a day with a localish Railway club (that only does US prototype) was too tempting! Impressions were very favourable and I also got to run some trains on their modular layout, and I found out that the International N scale show is happening in 2 weeks less than 20 miles from my house! I've ordered an UT4dce controller for use on their modular layout, but I suspect I'll need it later on at home, so win win.

Sunday was a washout due to having a day-long headache plus chores, but next weekend is a long one, so things will be done! I've decided to remove the chipboard flooring and paint the concrete underneath with one of those resin floor paints as that should stop the dampness rising up through the flooring. I lifted a plastic box the other day to find mould growing underneath, so there's obviously an issue with damp coming up through the chipboard that needs to be addressed.

I'm also doing circles with deciding on a track plan - I've not had much success using the computer tools, so I'm doing sketches by hand. I'm flip-flopping over whether to make my staging un-sceniced, or to make it into a yard, which gives me one of my key elements for free. When I get things sorted in my head I'll draw it nicely on graph paper and post it here.

[ScrewySqrl]

a possible problem is that staging will want to be full of ready-to-run trains, while you'll need a yard open enough to build trains. 

[SirTainly]

That's a good point, although you could only half fill with staged trains and thus half to play in. That said I spent some hours remeasuring the garage last night and I'm having some serious thoughts about what I need to do to hold off layout trains. I got really excited about balloon track staging as I got to use on the modular layout at the weekend but it would eat up tonnes of real estate in my limited area.

[SirTainly]

I removed half the old stud walling and insulation last weekend, and found that there's an breeze block wall behind the up and over door. This, unfortunately seems to be leaking and there was lots of water in the rock wool insulation and the floor was sodden and rotten! (it's chipboard)

I had the damp fixer chap around today who says that it's not penetrating damp, just the old door is leaking, not exactly rocket science, but it was good to here someone else confirm that. He has suggested replacing the non-functional door with bricks (my initial idea) and a some concrete pieces to divert any water away from the door. The advantage of doing this is that the old breeze block wall can be removed giving me a marginally longer room to work in. It might be <6" but it all helps!

Photos soon

[Lemosteam]

You might consider using the 24" deep base cabinets under each turnback loop only and using the 12" deep wall cabinets for the rest under the first level.  This would allow 18-20" of scene depth with a possible 6" of nolix space behind a backdrop.  26" should be a reasonable reachover for a 36" high first level, so long as the backdrop height is not like a deep trough.   The second level could be very shallow using 8"-10" shelf bracketry to support the benchwork, (foam with a fascia stiffener @Ed Kapuscinski ?).  This might also improve aisle space between each side and provide a more open feel and better lighting to each level.

[SirTainly]

Thanks, that's a possible solution, although I'd be concerned about anything running too far behind a back drop, especially when you've a shelf above it. How tall do you think you'd have to make the backdrop to avoid that canyon effect?

A couple of things that have occurred whilst removing the freestanding units last week, one of which being that the legs were damaged (old plastic had become brittle). This means that I'll need to replace them, so might be able to reduce the height of a lower level a little, which would make switching on an upper deck a little easier. The other of which was that some of the units had damage I'd not been able to see before which might limit their longevity. This means I might replace them with another racking system which again means I'm not tied to start at 37"+depth of bench work.  I'm also considering using those metal racking systems with the removable/repositionable arms for both decks now, with the lower deck braced against the cupboards.

[Lemosteam]

Usually, wall cabinets are not 36" tall so you can actually hang them above the floor entirely at whatever height works, no legs or feet at all. 

In reality, the canyon doesn't have to be one at all.  You could have a short wall there with trees and buildings and cornfields or whatever hid the trough.

I did this here:
 

[SirTainly]

The floor standing set of units are 37" from worktop to floor, so I was working from that as the height for level 1, in the original photo they are on the right at the far end, and are about 8' long.

Ah I see what you mean about the no-lix line at the back. I'll have to think about that as I was planning for the backdrop to be painted represent the mountains.

[SirTainly]

Drywall and rock wool insulation gone, and now the awful cinderblock wall that hid the up and over door. Turns out that door wasn't properly sealed from the back, but in either case it's going next week to be bricked up.