Where does your layout begin?

Moonson posted:

If you enter the trainroom from the in-ground garage, ours begins right here, where we pass thru every day...

The door to the garage is on the left, once you step into the room....

...if you look to the right of the door, you see a corner of the first neighborhood...

I

...then, directly in front of you is a corner of another neighborhood...

..and then if you look farther to the right of the door, a broader spread of a section of the layout comes into view...

How about your layout? What is the first thing visitors see when they see your layout?

FrankM. Moon Township, USA

After arriving down the steps to my basement this is what you see first.....

Hi Gandydancer, Those three photos are a real treat, affording us interesting perspectives on your enjoyment of our hobby. The entrance to the room looks very welcoming and inviting, especially with that old fashioned bubblegum machine saying Hi. The collection of train treasures offers us a further perspective on your collection, and that photo of the river scene is spectacular!

Obviously, you sure know how to play!

FrankM

Coming down the stairs, flipping the lights on and turning left, my old layout, completed in 2004, becomes visible. On the left is my father’s toolbox and his US Army dog tag, a veteran of World War 2 in Europe. On the right, train shelves. At the upper left, in the unlighted side of the basement, is my under-construction 10-by-8 model railroad. Note train boxes under layout.

Taking one step forward and turning left, my workbench appears.

With all the lights on, my new layout is visible across the basement.

MELGAR

MELGAR, slightly off topic. Is your Father's tool box by any chance a Gerstner? 

John

John Meyncke posted:

MELGAR, slightly off topic. Is your Father's tool box by any chance a Gerstner? 

John

John,

Thanks for asking. There does not seem to be any brand identification on the toolbox. It is made of wood with a green felt lining in the upper tray and lid. I became aware of it around 1948, when my father first took me to his place of work. The collection of machinist's tools inside is priceless.

MELGAR

Sure looks like one, and your description sounds like one. I'm a sorta student of Gerstner chests. Handmade, top of the line, still being made today in the US. Of course your Father's tools are beyond value, but maybe so is the chest... don't clean it or refinish it please. Leave it just the way it is and enjoy it!

John

Moonson posted:

Hi Gandydancer, Those three photos are a real treat, affording us interesting perspectives on your enjoyment of our hobby. The entrance to the room looks very welcoming and inviting, especially with that old fashioned bubblegum machine saying Hi. The collection of train treasures offers us a further perspective on your collection, and that photo of the river scene is spectacular!

Obviously, you sure know how to play!

FrankM

Thanks Frank!

Down the stairs and to the right in the back half of my basement, no switch to turn on the lights, since the lights I use are controlled by my phone. Since I added track lighting down there in place of a pull chain light. I also added two more lights by jumping off from a junction box. Though I haven't been using my train layout much lately. It is in need of a redesign and I decided that is it time for me to go back to school, to get a better job, so that I can get more trains (and also support my family better). Not to mention it is usually chilly in my basement in the winter months(normally around 50°), so not the best environment to work on a layout.

I'll have to get a picture later but it's in my unfinished basement, to the right of the stairs. Can't really see it unless you go into the basement. 

Basically I was granted use of the only unused space in our house/garage by my wife 😁.

John Meyncke posted:

Sure looks like one, and your description sounds like one. I'm a sorta student of Gerstner chests. Handmade, top of the line, still being made today in the US. Of course your Father's tools are beyond value, but maybe so is the chest... don't clean it or refinish it please. Leave it just the way it is and enjoy it!

John

John,

Thank you for the information. Toolbox is original and a piece of craftsmanship by itself. Drawer pieces are assembled with something like dado joints. Looks like a costly and well made construction. I look at the toolbox every time I go to the train room. And remember.

MELGAR

I am seriously jealous..........

For me its down the stairs zig-zag past all of the c..p and there you have my humble layout.

Frank, Gandy, and Melgar- very nice train rooms. Maybe one day after the kids are out of the house.....

Bob

I am very jealous of the basement guys. The frost line here in the south is only 18" deep, so basements are extremely rare. gandydancer, I really like your train display. 

gandydancer1950 posted:

Goshawk posted:

I am very jealous of the basement guys. The frost line here in the south is only 18" deep, so basements are extremely rare. gandydancer, I really like your train display. 

gandydancer1950 posted:

 

Thank you Corey. Train enthusiast and former hydraulic trouble shooter on A-7 Corsairs USN.

More importantly for most of us, after years of this stuff, just where does it end?

My train room is only 10 1/2' x 12'.  You enter from the corner of the room.

Usually, the first thing one sees upon entering my train room is a MESS.  After they get over that part they see this:

Panning to the left slightly

Looking directly to the left as you enter the room

Tom

Tom Densel posted:

 

My train room is only 10 1/2' x 12'.  You enter from the corner of the room.

Usually, the first thing one sees upon entering my train room is a MESS.  After they get over that part they see this:

Panning to the left slightly

Looking directly to the left as you enter the room

 

Tom

Very nice layout Tom!

Tom Densel posted:

 My train room is only 10 1/2' x 12'.  You enter from the corner of the room.

Usually, the first thing one sees upon entering my train room is a MESS.  After they get over that part they see this:

Panning to the left slightly

Looking directly to the left as you enter the room

 Tom

Tom,

That is a very nicely done small layout.

MELGAR

Unfortunately my layout begins after the dishes are done and the kitchen is vacant.

Then it is just a matter of getting through the living room, hallway, and utility room to get back to the kitchen.  Just have to avoid furniture and get the two ends to meet,

LP records are handy for shims/trestles to jump from linoleum-to-tile-to-carpet and back.

The other layouts above look very impressive.   Maybe someday . . . .

At at the bottom of the stairs.

As soon as you turn right at the bottom, you are looking at the layout.

New layout, still in progress, at the top of the stairs.  That's an Atlas F3 painted in Seaboard colors, I was actually testing the clearance of the tunnel thru the wall on the left.

When we bought the house these stairs were only 24" wide and steep.  My dad (retired carpenter) tore them out and moved that left wall over to make 36" wide stairs plus made them less steep.  Lost most of a closet but  made it easier to climb upstairs.

Looks like I need to paint underneath that section!!!

aussteve posted:

 

 

What a classic photo!  This is what the hobby is all about!

Tom

Some great shots and layouts, sure wish I had a basement, even more, sure wish I had a layout.  I agree with with Tom, that is a terrific picture of a father and son setting up the train.  Sure reminded me of my uncle and I setting up his Marx train set at Christmas time to run underneath my Grandmother's Christmas tree.  That was 64+ years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday.

This is what you see when you enter  This was Halloween  Thats Conductor Irving

Sometimes his brother Norbert shows up

And if you look to the right you see the Tom Snyder layout

If you turn around and go in the other door you see the Sopranos layouts

Alas, I don't have the space to set my layout up at home. Fingers crossed though, this will become my layout room once the purchase of our new house goes through. All 20'x10' of it.

My caption... Passing the Torch.

aussteve posted:

Unfortunately my layout begins after the dishes are done and the kitchen is vacant.

Then it is just a matter of getting through the living room, hallway, and utility room to get back to the kitchen.  Just have to avoid furniture and get the two ends to meet,

LP records are handy for shims/trestles to jump from linoleum-to-tile-to-carpet and back.

The other layouts about look very impressive.   Maybe someday . . . .

Running trains on white carpet can and will cause oily spots on that white carpet and the wife WILL NOT BE HAPPY.   My wife was so bad that she made me build a 20ft by 50ft Train Building 50 feet from the house.

Here is my train room entrance.

Here is my train room from the entrance to the room to the inside,this is a separate room from the main house,the building is 1800 sq ft with the trains taking up 900 sq ft with the other side dedicated to the shop and boat storage.

Mikey

Frank, I know it's been said at least a thousand times, but your modeling skills are outa sight!

BTW,  I won't tell you what you'd first see upon entering my train room.

Hal

This is the view from the bottom of the basement stairs.  Sometimes before guests see my layout the first time they ask if I "leave it up all the time".

CBS072 posted:

aussteve posted:

Unfortunately my layout begins after the dishes are done and the kitchen is vacant.

Then it is just a mater of getting through the living room, hallway, and utility room to get back to the kitchen.  Just have to avoid furniture and get the two ends to meet,

LP records are handy for shims/trestles to jump from linoleum-to-tile-to-carpet and back.

The other layouts about look very impressive.   Maybe someday . . . .

Running trains on white carpet can and will cause oily spots on that white carpet and the wife WILL NOT BE HAPPY.   My wife was so bad that she made me build a 20ft by 50ft Train Building 50 feet from the house.

 

WOW!  Bet you could have sold tickets to that fight...

My set up is in my cellar. It's basicly the same as it was when at my Dad's house when I was a child, although the original was 8x8. Here, the layout is "fairly" new. It's the only area I have but I'm happy watching and working on the original trains my Dad bought me as a 2year old. 

Down the stairs, turn to the right.

Are those Aurora race cars? I had almost as many of those as I had trains. Very nice classic layout.

Bob

YWhy yes..yes they are!  ;-)

Aurora AFX- didn't get any cooler than that. My best friend and I used to race each other all the time. We always fought over who got the outside lane.

Gentlemen,

  Some very cool stuff, I enjoyed the pictures and the explanations greatly!

Even before you enter the door way of our Train Room you see the over head layout along with the Bar Top layout with the Hell Gate Bridge, and the Bear Christmas Tree next to the fire place. 

I am very satisfied so far as to how the new Train Room is coming along.

PCRR/Dave

Where does my layout begin?  The same place it ends.  Doesn't everybody's?

What, me worry?

Good afternoon, depending on your height this is what you see when you make it about half way down our basement steps.

Mike23 and RSJB18: I still have my H0 Aurora racecar set as well. I keep meaning to take them to York to sell. Maybe this Fall. I wish I'd been able to buy the 1/48th set they made, I remember seeing it at the old "Two Guys" dept. store chain back in the '60's.