crowding the edge a bit

Slow down, redo your track work to not worry about derailments, and/or ad a 2"high plexiglass wall on the layout edge.

-Greg

Good track work, realistic speeds for running your trains, and paying attention when you have more than 1 running at a time.

2" thick extruded polyethylene foam placed on the floor beneath curves which history has demonstrated where an engine that has taken flight will land.

My Dad always said if you can't afford to lose it you shouldn't be playing with it. 7 out of the 9 loops on our display are less than an inch from the edge. Nothings gone over the edge I haven't been able to fix. But if something did break beyond repair I'd probably cuss a little kick myself in the *** and move on. The first engine I ever bought with my own money and the one I prize the most is the MPC Milwaukee Special. It's a cheap engine but still my favorite. I always try to run it at the top of our display, 6' above the floor  with the outside rail maybe 1/2" from the edge all the way around.

 

 This past Christmas there was zero clearance from the edge of our double spiral with no major mishaps.

 

The secret is to remain in control, never value a toy train more than peace of mind and have fun. If any of my trains ever suffer a fatality the thing I'll probably be most upset about is not capturing it on video.

 

And maybe a Plexiglas barrier.

I have a 3/4 " lip from the wood frame that prevents "headers" on to the concrete floor on the lower level.

is 3/4" enough,  must be but i would think any head of steam and off she goes, and i could just see five hundred going down the dumper   how can i ask this,   have you tested it??

I try to be careful.  

 

In seven years I have lost one: a Legacy ATSF Northern (3751) that did a nose-dive off the track in the first photo below. I accept the very occasional bad high-$$$ wreck as a cost of having crammed a lot more track into my layout so that it is the way I want it.  I have about sixty-feet of track that runs within two inches of a edge with at least a 38 inch fall to the floor.  

The perimeter of my layout is similar to the picture posted by TURTLE 2 except mine is taller, about 2". Short enough to easily see over, but more than tall enough to keep anything from taking a swan dive off the side. I installed this when I built the layout 20+ years ago.

 

I wish I had a dollar, for every post over the years, on the forum, where someone had an engine derail and hit the floor.

I would prefer that my trains remain on the layout in any event unless being maneuvered by the big 0-5-0. I have had a few wrecks putting some pricey rolling onto the concrete, so my layout will get a new Masonite fascia that protrudes above track level by an inch or two.

pelage,

    Running speed at different levels is a critical item for damage control, this past Christmas season for the 1st time I had a 2nd level run away train, due to a mismatched DCS unit.  Happened so fast I could not even stop it with the emergency shut down button.  Had some damage to one of my newer Atlas trains, which has been repaired.  Having a thick plush carpet in the living room helped save most of the train from severe damage.  In this case because the 2nd level was over 4' high, not much would have saved the run away train from damage, I was lucky to have thick plush carpet in our formal living room to limit the damage.

 

PCRR/Dave

 

 

I have an 8x20 layout and the entire perimeter is surrounded by 2 inch wide plexiglass which I installed about 20 years ago.  I certainly try to operate my trains safely by controlling speeds but as I found out the hard way years ago some pretty strange things can happen on a layout to cause derailments.  Post-war Lionel steamers aside a three and a half foot header onto a concrete basement floor is almost always a recipe for disaster.

I also have a 3/4" lip on the edge of the benchwork, but it is there primarily for appearance purposes. I have never had a nose-dive issue and would not let that bother me in terms of installing barriers.

 

We are now building a new Christmas layout and will use the same criteria as before. The photo below details what we have in terms of track to the edge.

 

 

pelago:

 

      I believe that the "3/4" mentioned above is in reference to the thickness of the material used. So, a 1 by 4 piece of wood is actually 3/4" thick by 3 1/2" wide.

 

      If you check out these photos above and references in other train books, the 1 by 4 piece of wood (or whatever else is used) generally protrudes about 2" or more above the surface of the layout. That should prevent a runaway train from going over the edge and taking a nose dive to the floor.

 

John Knapp

Erie, not Eerie

When I ran my ceiling layout, I installed black trim head screws every 16" on the perimeter. I wrapped a single piece of very thin utility wire around each one & made a guardrail about 2" high. You didn't see the wires or screws from 4' away, and when you did see it, because it was so small, it was in no way a distraction or a deterrent from the display. It was much cheaper than plexi-glass, and thankfully in my 6 years, have never relied on it to prevent a disaster.