Suspended track

[Dougrl]

HI, I'm very new at this type of track and the hobby of railroading. I am building a G-scale system in my sun room and I think that I have most of it figured out, except the brackets on the wall that hold the track up. I have cut the ties, made the radius corners 36" and have the bed cut out for the ties to sit on. The rails, spikes are waiting. this will be about 12" from the ceiling, one bridge, and one 8' tressle from steel channel.and 6 or 7 hanging brackets in the corners and across an open ceiling at one end of the room. But the wall brackets have me in a stew. how heavy should the bracket be, come down from thr top or come up from the bottom?? I was planning on making these from wood {oak} and I think that they will be about 8" out from the wall as I want to put a street lite to scale on each bracket that sticks out and keep the train 2" from the wall. I have found suspended tracks that you can buy but that did not help much. Sorry for the long winded story but I'm stuck. Cheers Doug.

 

[60103]

Suspension of disbelief

Doug:
Can't advise you myself, but check various posts from N gauger. (Don't let the name fool you - he seems to be involved with G and larger these days.) I think he's posted some pictures of his tracks.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Whether your brackets are screwed into the wall below or above the layout probably won't make any difference structurally. It would depend on which look you like better. Brackets fastened into the wall above the layout will tend to be hidden by the layout itself. Brackets fastened into the wall below the layout will be in plain sight, and need to be finished to look nice. How wide is your shelving that the layout runs on? How sturdy is it? If it is good solid material, you could probably support it with a bracket that extends approximately 25% from the back edge, if that bracket were well secured to both the wall and the roadbed with screws. Since I model in ho, I'm not familier with how heavy "G" scale equipment is.

 

[N Gauger]

Hello. and welcome to the Gauge!

60103 is right, It's a long story, but I'm into mostly G now.

You can see the caboose near the top is sitting on 3/4 plywood and 1X6X8's hung on bicycle racks (thre's one near the US Flag = wrapped in pipe insulation). This is suspended from the ceiling, not the walls. The only thing you will have to worry about is the weight of the engine or Future Engines you would want to run. (Like Russ said). I found, I got bored with the same train running around, so I built this heavy duty - so I could run the U-25B around he ceiling.

If you put the brackets below - think "shelf Brackets" - every 18" - into the wall studs to be safe. You can use 2 X 2 wood for his, I would think. You may even be able to find nice looking ones at a lumber store.

Also - don't forget - since the track is 36" radius - watch the "swing out" of the larger engines - some Cow catchers will rub against the walls as they go around a curve. Notice the cut out on the 2X4 near the front left? I had to cut it out for that reason.

Please e-mail me if you need any help And when you get it built - post some pics in the photog section. You will be suprised at how much help & suggstions you will get!! --- Have Fun!!!!

 

[Dougrl]

Suspended tracks

Many thanks Russ and N Gauger. the bed is going to be 1" x 1" oak with blocking every 10" and the ties and rails set on top of this. In 5ft. there is hardly any movement up or down with these rails as the side grain runs up and down not flat. I am going to put the brackets on the top end, out of sight. I will watch the corners for clearance, or swing out, as I am doing the corners first. Thanks Gentlemen, You helped me make up my mind. When I get it done will post pictures. Cheers Doug