A Rough Sketch Of My O27 Doorway Layout

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
The brown and grey areas are what I currently have to make the layout. The dark grey up at the top is a raised tressle going along the back stretch. black lines are future additions as I get more remote switches. Just a simple doorway layout to leave room for scenery and such as I go.
 

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pgandw

Active Member
Unfortunately, what you have drawn won't fit on a door of 36" or lesser width. The track diameter is 27", and switches S2 and S3 add another 9", for a total of 36". This means your track will be right on the door edge, or hanging over.

On my 027 and 0 layouts, I allowed an absolute minimum of 1.5" between the track and the table edge, and preferred about 3" to ensure my trains did not go into floor-seeking mode of animation.

If you rotate S2 to point NE and S3 to point NW, you will reduce the overall width of the track to 33.5", which still isn't really narrow enough. You need a wider table, or you need to leave off the siding with the raised trestle.

By the way, a 39" x75" layout will fit under most twin beds. The extra width will allow you to fit your plan, especially if S2 and S3 are rotated 45 degrees. But the shorter length would eliminate the expansion at S7.

my thoughts, your choices
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
pgandw said:
Unfortunately, what you have drawn won't fit on a door of 36" or lesser width. The track diameter is 27", and switches S2 and S3 add another 9", for a total of 36". This means your track will be right on the door edge, or hanging over.

On my 027 and 0 layouts, I allowed an absolute minimum of 1.5" between the track and the table edge, and preferred about 3" to ensure my trains did not go into floor-seeking mode of animation.

If you rotate S2 to point NE and S3 to point NW, you will reduce the overall width of the track to 33.5", which still isn't really narrow enough. You need a wider table, or you need to leave off the siding with the raised trestle.

By the way, a 39" x75" layout will fit under most twin beds. The extra width will allow you to fit your plan, especially if S2 and S3 are rotated 45 degrees. But the shorter length would eliminate the expansion at S7.

my thoughts, your choices
Yeah, it comes in right at 36" but the door is sitting on the floor right now anyway so I'm not too concerned with it. At least not yet. If I decde to make a more permanent layout on a riased table, then I'll worry about hanging over the edge. I'm considering moving down to the basement anyway. At least if I can figure out how to get a 4x8 piece of plywood down my narrow stairs without killing myself. I'll keep the idea in my head to move S2 and S3 though. Might work out better for a lot of reasons.

The raised trestle is out for now as well. Just doesn't seem stable enough when it's not fastened down. I'm keeping the siding however. It's going to become part of a complete loop in a few days when I get my next set of switches. (I actually had 3 remote switches but S1 does not function for some reason. It just buzzes and hums when I try to flick the remote switch. I think I need a real fiber pin in it instead of just a toothpick.)
 

Jim Krause

Active Member
You can always have the lumber yard cut that 4X8 sheet of plywood and then re-assemble it with a doubler on the back side. Use screws short enough so they don't extend through the plywood and also glue the joint.
 

Cannonball

More Trains Than Brains
Jim Krause said:
You can always have the lumber yard cut that 4X8 sheet of plywood and then re-assemble it with a doubler on the back side. Use screws short enough so they don't extend through the plywood and also glue the joint.
I would actually have to cut it lengthwise. The major problem being that the back wall of my kitchen sticks out over the basement stairs and there is ony about 3.5 ft of clearance. I have to bend over to go down the stairs and there's no room to angle anything. I really hate going down there but it's the only room I have left for trains.
 
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