fastrack around the room

Hi spifff,

 

I made a shelf layout in my den and used Fastrack.  I lined the shelves with gray cushion backed marine carpet, the Fastrack is still pretty noisy.  I thought about replacing the Fastrack with tubular, but I just can't seem to warm up to the idea of going up and down the ladder a few dozen more times, just so I can work with my head against the ceiling!

 

Below are a couple shots of the layout.  The room is 14' x 16', the ceiling is 9', and there is a pair of 8' tall french doors at the entrance to the room.  So I had to keep pretty close to the ceiling to clear the doors.  There are two loops of Fastrack - the inner loop uses 36" curves, and for visibility I ran it as close as to the edge as possible.  The outer loop uses 48" curves and it is elevated on strips of 2" thick foam, painted gray.  The shelf brackets are from Ikea, the shelving is 12" wide, cut from 3/4" birch ply, painted white with a trim strip to hide the edge.  I am pretty happy with the way it came out.  Like I said it is a bit noisy, especially when running two trains, but no one else in the house complains so I don't feel compelled to change it.

 

Good luck,

Mark

 

 

thanks! that's petty much along the lines of what i was thinking! you gave me a great idea with raised outer loop too.

this gonna be my way of running trains all year long.

thanks again!

Dave

Mark, I like the idea of using 2" foam to raise the inner loop for better viewing. The wife, no, that's not a typo, wants her standard gauge ran around our sun room ceiling.  RW

Dave, I'm glad that was helpful.  It got to where I just had to raise the outer loop, with the height of the shelf and the small dimensions of the room it was too hard to see all the trains.

 

The signs and passenger platform in the corners are raised on stacked pieces of 2" foam.

 

I learned a lot from this project, there were some challenges that I did not foresee.  First, it was very difficult to get a good level line all the way around the room.  I used a Black & Decker Bullseye laser level, starting at one corner and going in both directions.  After several tries the lines still missed each other by 1/2" at the far corner, so I had to average the gap and go from there.  I'm sure that a professional laser level would yield much better results.  Also, after mounting all the brackets directly to the wall I found out just how un-plumb and uneven my walls were.  To eliminate unsightly gaps I ended up caulking around every single bracket, and along the underside of the shelf all the way around the room, then touching up the wall color.  If I ever do this again I think I would mount the brackets to a series of backboards, then mount those assemblies to the wall; it would be easier to caulk a single straight edge.  Although, I do think I prefer the appearance of the brackets mounted directly to the wall.

 

To make the ends of the shelf sections mate up, I used a plate joiner to cut slots in the ends, and installed biscuits.  The shelves fit so tightly against the walls that I did not need to use any glue.

 

Ryan that is really cool that your wife wants to run Standard Gauge!  I'm hoping that one day my wife will want a train of her own.  For now she tolerates my enthusiasm for toy trains, no doubt because it keeps me off the streets!

 

Good luck,

Mark

Thanks Killian, I enjoy it very much, and visitors seem to get a kick out of it too.  The clock is from Harbor Freight Tools, I learned about it here on the forum and thought it was really neat so I got one!

 

Good luck,

Mark

Mark, I bought her a tinplate Red Comet set (The MTH Repro) for valentines day, not she has just about every item circled in the latest catalog, wanting to "Move Up" to Standard Gauge. Apparently, i'm not allowed to run them. LOL

 

Nice job on the ceiling layout....  RW

Hello, i also have built a shelf around my sons room. I took a slightly different approach. I did not want to see any shelf brackets so i cut 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" angle iron pieces and lag bolted them into the studs 16" on center. Then i used 5/8" thick plywood for the shelf. Now i cut pieces that ran the length of the staightaways and then i cut the curved pieces for the corners, now the corners appear to float. Both pieces have half lap 2" joints. Then i used 3/8" carriage bolts to bolt them all together & to the bottom of the angle iron. So the entire plywood appears to be floating. You can go to youtube & search Wyatts train movies and see it. Have fun!

Sorry i forgot to add that i used Gargraves 072 & 080 track.

Justin I like how the support is hidden on your son's layout, I am definitely filing that idea for future reference.

Thanks,
Mark

I did much the same with Baltic Birch plywood and Birch dimensional stock for the brackets, gave it a really nice finished look. Being a bit concerned about noise I went with tubular track with the Woodland Scenics foam underlayment. After gluing down both the foam and the track the screws were removed resulting in an extremely quiet run.