Need ideas and help for semi permanent winter layout!

Side note, I am not a novice to the hobby. I have Legacy and plenty of motive power. I'm just looking to take my holiday layout to the next step!   

I used some panels framed with 1x2 and covered with white felt. Clean and neat.

@92hatchattack posted:

Hello everyone! This is gonna be a long post, so please strap in!

The time has finally come in my life for me to start building my holiday "train board".

Let me give some more insight to what I am trying to pull off. Id like to build a roughly 11 foot x 5.5 foot holiday train board that is light enough to be moved as a single piece. The Christmas tree will be on the board in the center.  I plan to run 2 loops of O gauge on the perimeter (63 outer/54 inner) and then some sort of HO loop with yards/sidings in the middle. The entire layout minus the outer O tracks will be modeled in HO. (More room to work with in the confined space)

Since my carpentry skills are nearly non-existent, I'll leave it to others to tell you how to build an 11' X 5 1/2' layout that's light enough to be moved in one piece.

My last layout was 15' X 6' with an O-64 outer loop and an O-54 inner loop using Ross Sectional Track.  I put 3 1/2" "fitter" pieces of Ross Section Track between the turnouts connecting the two loops which, in turn, provided great side clearance, preventing any side-swiping concerns.  Here's a 3-D illustration of that layout.  You could probably take some of the straight track out to get down to 11'.  A 5 1/2 foot width works out to 66 inches, so I don't know if O-64 or even O-63 would work well.  Maybe you could figure a way to extend the width to 6'.

I hope this info helps.

Thanks for the reply.   Yeah I'm still working on how to make it light, or a system of rolling it into the house on its side. 

But I still have no idea on how to make a winter scene that won't dirty or yellow over the years.   

Obtain two pieces of lumber that look like the ends of a quilt holder and put casters on the bottom of each piece.  Then connect the two pieces of lumber with a very strong piece of tubular steel piping that is as long as you want the layout.  Now, put your tabletop together with sturdy plywood and attach it to the steel pipe using as many steel u-channel pieces you feel comfortable using.  With that done, your table top should rotate completely around the steel pipe.

You can have a 6' wide tabletop such that 3' extends below the pipe level and 3' extends above the pipe level.   Since you will need the table top to parallel the floor to run trains, chose which side you want to be the top and attach retractable legs to the other side.  The retractable legs will have to be as long as the quilt holder ends plus the casters that you added to them.  Now, when you want to move it, simply retract the legs, rotate the table top to vertical to floor position, and push it on the casters wherever you want it.  Total height from bottom of casters to edge of tabletop should be no more than 75" and easily fit through the average doorway.

Chuck