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I would only suggest that you DO have room for a layout--just one of an extremely small size! A car repair shop on a 2'x4' foot module can certainly end up as part of a larger layout, and has potential for operation on its own, of a sort. If you have been out of the hobby for a while, you...

Are there? I haven't seen them--maybe it's a Euro thing. As mentioned, there is little difference between decorative trolley overhead and functional trolley overhead so using common techniques for trolley overhead would probably be your best bet.

No, but there is functionally very little difference between decorative overhead trolley wire and functional overhead trolley wire. You'd just build trolley overhead (www.trolleyville.com has some good tutorials) and run two wires instead of one, using trolley hangers and trolley wire. The poles...

Car scales have been around for a while--and an interesting piece of rolling stock is a special car used to calibrate scales, with a known weight. The ones I have seen (in photos, admittedly) were short cars with a heavy weight on them. They even include special brakes (or no brakes) in order to...

The Model Memories third-rail setup was mentioned to you earlier in this thread--so far as I know, nobody else makes third-rail products, decorative or not. It shouldn't be too hard, though, to scratchbuild third rail: you can put the rail itself on some sleepers and just glue a rectangular bit...

5x9 feet is also the standard size for a ping-pong table, so if you have a ping-pong table you have a good basis for a 5x9 layout. They give a little more "room to breathe" than a 4x8, a bit wider curves, a bit more room for switching. Reaching the middle of the table can be a problem but if you...

Neat! I am very fond of box motors. One of those "when I have the time" projects on my agenda is construction of a Sacramento Northern box motor, or at least one of the Central California Traction box motors that were later demotored and used as cabooses for a few years after dieselization.

http://www.alpinemodels.com/catalog/item/2762955/2713737.htm Alpine Division/Suydam hobby shop Pretty much any retail store front could have a "HOBBY SHOP" sign stuck on the front, though...

Has your LHS heard of the Walthers Catalog?? Many companies, including Grandt Line, make door and window castings of various sizes.

I assume that the layout will be wider than 3 feet deep at the ends, or you're modeling N scale. In any case, 3 feet deep is an awfully deep reach, especially for a bi-level layout on the upper level.

Just about anything you buy these days comes packaged in clear plastic: save some flat bits for use as window glass. As for the window frames, I'd suggest saving some plastic lids from things like cottage cheese containers and cutting them up into narrow strips for use as window frames and...

My current home is a block from the old right-of-way of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, the first common-carrier railroad in California. It later became the Southern Pacific's Ione Branch, and today carries passengers as part of Sacramento Regional Transit's Light Rail system. There is also a...

As much as I like switching layouts I have never been fond of switchbacks, but they are nice for an "up the side of a hill" scene. I recall a fellow who modeled a fictional Los Angeles area railroad scene that was basically a G&S on steroids (around 3x11 feet) with lots of interesting scenes--by...

Take This Thread To Cuba!

I know someone posted a semi-humorous "joke thread" a while back about how people of various nationalities built their layouts, although they got the Americans dead wrong (they assumed every American has a basement empire, when the archetypal American layout is the 4x8 and the basement layout is...

N scale has less popularity than HO scale, but there is certainly a lot of N scale equipment out there. It's a strong second place to HO scale's #1, though, and you will find plenty of N scale equipment and models at any decent hobby shop. If your interest leans towards narrow gauge, early...

Any track plan can be a switching track plan, as long as it has some switches: even your planned rollercoaster of a track plan, should you choose to incorporate a yard and industrial sidings, might be turned to some foul operations-intensive purpose by a visiting model railroader chum with a...

You'd probably like my dad's layout. It's a three-times-around loop in 5x10 feet, with multiple levels and lots of steep grades. He's fond of mountain railroading and switching is an afterthought. He also tends to defer scenery for as long as possible, as it blocks his view of the trains. The...

Have you built a layout yet?

What is the purpose of this complexity if it is not used? If you're just watching trains run around, doesn't that make complex trackwork just a particularly finicky sort of scenery? The majority of any railroad is a single or double track with no switches--ideal train-watching spots. If you love...