Building a 'Round the Ceiling loop

Hi Ed nice start, it does add a really nice touch

to the train room. Here's a photo of mine

Good luck and keep us posted as you make progress

Thanks, ALEX

There are some good ideas here: http://www.ulvr.com/john/train/

Alex,

dat'sa nice!

My train room is a 12' x 12' basement bedroom with 8' ceilings so I'm going to put the track about 11" below the suspended ceiling.

Bill,

That design is a lot of work!  I may do the wall switch part, but the plexiglass is amazing....I'll put my cheaper trains up there and skip the safety net!  Thanks for the link.

I did decide to re-do my corners out of 3/4" select pine from the 'depot.  $56 and a few hours later, I have a new set of corners.  I used the same router setup, but the pine cuts easier and only minimal sanding was needed.

I got (4) 42" corner curves out of (2) pieces of wood 12" wide by 6' long.  The width is  3 1/2" so it is a perfect match for the 4" (really 3 1/2") clear pine boards I'll use for the straights.  The pine looks a lot better and will stain better too!

Here's some pics:

36" by 12" (11 1/2") blank, with router ready to go

After the second cut. It looks like the width varies, but it's an "optical illusion" - I measured it 3 times!

With a 42" loop, sitting on top of the original plywood loop..straights will come later

Ed

As a safety fence (we have those earthquake thingies) I added a side strip on which I mounted dowel and fishing line. It helps me sleep nights knowing the train is parked behind the fence.

Thanks Eddie, just looked at the new pics nice router work

looks awesome. Keep us posted all the way through.

Thanks, Alex

I really love your suspended track.  I just put up a ceiling track in my spare room this weekend.  I am using 72" curves and was going to use MTH Realtrax.  Due to quirks in the room design some runners (upon which the tracks will sit) are off a few fractions of an inch.  When I lay pieces of RealTrax on the runners to see if they will sit properly on the runner I notice the track bed seems, in some areas, not to sit perfectly in the middle of the runner. My question is this: Since I already bought my Realtrax curves, can I join them with MTH ScaleTrax flex rail where the aberrations occur?  I do not know if the two different types of track can be joined without inhibiting the electrical current.  I realize the Scaletrax has no "ballast" base like the RealTrax and will have to build under the ScaleTrax to keep things even.  Or, do I swallow the cost I made in buying the 72" RT curves and buy ScaleTrax or Atlas 0 3 rail flex track so I can bend the track to follow the variations of the runners?  I am not concerned how realistic the track looks like as it is mounted on the ceiling.  Thanks for any advice?