Ceiling Shelf Layout Is Finally Complete

Better picture of the bridge?

Dave

Nice job, enjoy!

Awesome job - looks great! That's the first train room I have seen with a fireplace. How did you get your wife to authorize this? 

Very nice job, Bob. You have a beautiful train room and I can't wait to see the "main" layout get started.

Bob,

   Real nice job and very very nice Train Room, great stuff!

PCRR/Dave

Gary, when we moved in, back in 1987, there wasn't a dedicated room, just a fireplace at one end of the basement.  I built the room as a game room ( a term popular here in the Pittsburgh area).  We used to call it a rec room.  Anyway, my three sons used it as their personal "den of inequity" during their formative years.  Then, I turned it into my home office for about twenty years.  When I retired last July, after clearing out the office furniture, I began the transformation to a train room.  It was inevitable.  Something I had envisioned for quite some time.  The wife is happy I am now in the building stage, and out of the "buying" stage.  Well, we'll see what transpires from here.  It's been an arduous journey to say the very least.  I think I may be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  I only hope it doesn't turn out to be that "white light" you hear about now and then.  

Very nice.

Nice job. Looks real classy. 

Nice work, What's next?

Bob,

Nice craftsmanship, I can see that room bringing you a lot of enjoyment over the years.

Brad

Bench work next, now just a pile of 2 x 4's, 3/4" plywood, and a ton of screws.  It'll probably take a couple of weeks, being very optimisticical.  (sure, it's not a real word, but it fits for me).  

The tracks of my life,

Oft lead to strife.

Now the tracks just go ‘round,

And the trains do too,

Life for me, has begun anew.

Looks great, Bob

-Pete

Fantastic

Bob,

You are a wise and patient man.  I would have impatiently built the main layout first figuring I would get to the ceiling shelf layout later.  And, of course, trying to put up the ceiling layout with the main layout already installed would have been a lot more work.

Congratulations on achieving this milestone.  

Looks good. Now you can have a train running while you work on the main layout. And please keep us posted on your main layout progress.

The shelving look good, and so,does the room.  Thanks for posting the photos.

They say invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Looks like your perseverance is about to pay off for you and you are about to "invent" the layout you have been looking forward to. Enjoy this moment and I am looking forward to the great pics I am certain you will post.  

Thanks Vince.  I had the very same thoughts.  I just couldn't envision myself climbing all over my new work to erect the first element.  Heck, it was a struggle to do it in an otherwise empty room.  Lots and lots of trips up and down the ladder.  When the shelf was finally up, I had to go back and re-plaster and repaint all my mistakes.  Then I figured, why not put up all the signs and wall decorations?  It saves leaning over tables and benches and hoping to get everything mounted straight.  

Nice Shelf Lay-out and Wall Decorations. Will the rest of the room be full with a major lay-out or will you have sitting area, bar, etc.?

I know the work it takes to put one up.  Besides all the trips up and down the ladder, I always got a crick in my neck trying to get in focus what I was doing with the shelf only 9" from the ceiling.  I had to go that high to get over the door.  If the exterior door didn't swing in, I may have lowered the shelves and bridged the gaps.

The bar, is kept in my desk, a simple bottle of Gentleman Jack, just for those special moments.  I have but one chair, and one stool, a roll-around.  Yes, a major layout is envisioned, planned, and about to be constructed.  Stay tuned.  

Years ago, when I built the room, I had the foresight to use a pocket door.  My ceiling shelf is 10.5" from the ceiling.  Still a small space, and just enough room to use an angle drill and a set of hands.  

Bob - Very nice job so far.  It sounds like you have a good plan.  I am anxious to see the next steps.

Art

Nicely done Bob. Thanks for posting. 

Bob,  Your a bit ahead of me, I have built the brackets, cut all the corners and have the pine boards ready to cut for over the longer windows running across, getting time to finish has been my Achilles heal lately.

You did a great job, I never thought about using the system you did, I have built many cabinets using them, great joints, very strong. Did you seal your seams or just let the paint seal the ones between boards?

Ron

Well done Bob!

Awesome job! I am going to think about doing this because in the near future, will be looking at downsizing home and retiring. This option is better then giving up my basement layout for a 4 x 8 LOL.

Ron, all the joints are just butt joints.  In the corners, I ran the shelves from corner to corner on the long walls and butted the shorter wall shelves into them  Then, I cut a triangular piece for each turn.  I'm using tubular O-54 diameter curves.  I had space behind the track, so I used some of my Dept 56 buildings to occupy some otherwise dead space.  I ran some  SPST-2 wire and made up my male and female connections with press-on pressure connectors.  I have four power drops for the sixty foot track run, one in the center of each wall.  

Bob.....very sharp-looking room!

Peter

Bob,

So how did you fasten the triangles to the but joined shelves?  I did mine the same way, but now haven't figured out a secure way to fasten the triangles to the other shelves.

You have a great TALENT!!! and a good taste in "Gentleman Jack"

Brent

Bob,  I am going to use gargraves flex track for corners and 37 inch rigid for the long runs, my loft is 20x 23 give or take a bit. I cut some triangles, a few shaped like Oklahoma to give better strength in 2 corners, and had one outside corner.

I plan on using flexible conduit to run wire to the layout, coming off a ZW 180 watt terminal, and have 8 inch width and hoping for 060 and 048 or bigger radius in the corners, my bridge will be in one corner, the entry to the loft comes in that way. I will be using 2 MTH arch bridges with 3 girder MTH bridges using a metal support bracket (2) fastened into ceiling.

Mark, I used the Kreg pocket joining tool.  If you don't have one, it's worth the investment.  I just set the triangle temporarily in place, marked out where I wanted the pockets, and drilled them over on the work bench.  I have a jig set up for this tool.  Two holes on each side.  No other support needed.   No glue, absolutely nothing.  Four screws four pockets.  Plenty of support for what I'm using it for.

Wonderful train room and shelf layout; thanks for the photos.  Looking forward to additional progress photos and descriptions.

Ron, I needed 14" from the inside corners to the outer edge of the triangles in order to get the O-54 track on the shelf.  The track is set back from the outer edge about an inch or so.  All the track is screwed to the shelf system.   The track sits on a 1/4" foam roadbed.  Running fast is way too noisy, but I don't run my trains any faster than I can run myself.  These days, it's pretty slow for me and the trains.

Bob,  I have close to the same setup in the corners, so it might produce less than desired radius, but the plan is for mostly 027 trains on the 2 rails running the shelf, a B&O F3 with 9 cars and a SP Daylight with 8 cars, both sets have 4 motors each so like to run longer consist.

The lower layout you see in the pics finally got to load, have 3 of the islands against 3 foot main benches, where 2 large yards, one as a hump yard, the other industrial complex, and the 3rd will have a Shell oil tank farm complex, with 2 main loops around entire perimeter and 3 concentric passing loops against rear of the layout.

I am planning on having , UP coal trains, BNSF grain trains, SP PFE trains, BN freight trains, D&RG tanker train, with SF, WP and Rio passenger trains in the passenger loop.

Ron, the one area that concerns me is your outside corner turning directly into an inside corner.  I think you've got some pretty tight track work cut out for yourself.  Good luck.  It may take some creative ideas to get around both in and out turns.  

Bob, it is a concern, it will not turn against the wall though, it will be a slant towards the joint,  if it is too tight I plan on recutting it to extend to the last bracket set, and let the pine carry the load of only one bracket for section running over the window, we shall see.