Where is your layout located?

Hello.
This is really an interesting topic. There is a lot of resourcefulness among the members here. I don't post much, but I check out the Gauge every day.

I am in the process of starting an N-scale shelf layout in our bonus room over our garage. Heat, central air, carpeting are all there. The shelf will be 24" to 30" wide, and about 52" above the floor (I'm 6'4"). The layout will run along 3 walls; 12' x 21' x12' and will "tunnel" into a 2'x10' staging area in the old adjoining 6'x10' layout room. I am very fortunate that my wife saw how limited operations were on the old layout and offered wall space in the other room. This will be a shelf layout, since it will share space with our computer, craft table and exercise equipment. How could I turn down an offer like that! :D

Eric
 
My Layout is in a strange place, it above my bathroom and in the lounge , My wife and I due to advancing years were ordered (yes Ordered) to down size and sell our 5 bedroomed house. My son then allowed us to build a Granny flat on his property. So we have a large bedroom and a large lounge with an open plan kitchen ,its "L" shaped with the bathroom in the far corner I built the lounge with a back wall 5 meters high giving me a very high ceilling. A strong floor over the bathroom ceiling gave me a loft area 2.5 metres square to build a shelf lay out which will eventually go into the roof space above the bedroom. Hence the name of my RR. when people will ask me were its goes though the Wall, not the first strangely placed layout I have had, had one under our double bed when I was newly married:D :D :D
 
My layout is in a 19 x 25' area of an unfinished basement. A suitable basement was most definately a must when my wife and I were in the house market. the layout occupies most of the main room, created by taking down a wall which the previous owners had built along a row of lolly columns. One side was sheetrocked and had been used to watch TV in the summer (nice and cool down there) the other side had been for storage. After ripping the wall down and some old decripit sheetrock on the ceiling of the storage side, I had a 25 x 25 area, half of which had sheetrock walls and ceiling. The furnace and water heater were against one wall, so a 6' strip was left for their access and storage. I stapled plastic sheet to the exposed floor beams to prevent dust and dirt from falling when people walk upstairs. I installed the cheapest paneling I could find over the plastic. I installed it in such a way I could remove the sections which were under piping, and I also punctured holes in the plastic sheet there, so if a pipe were to leak it won't act as a dam until the weight was such that it collapsed! That was the extent of room prep I did. Also in the basement is another room about 7 x 25, this became a 4 x 7 laundry room and the rest a workshop. It will also contain the stub ended staging tracks one day. We also have a bomb shelter down there, about 4 x 20, which i installed several flourescent fixtures in and which my wife uses to winter over plants. Can't use it for the railroad, I'd have to tunnel thru 4' of cinderblock!

We had looked at lots of homes before we found a good basement. Oh, we wanted a large kitchen too, ever notice thats where everyone congregates when you have company? The day after we had seen the house, I called the owners and asked if I could come over to take some measurements. They agreed, figuring I wanted to see if our furniture would fit. They looked pretty confused when I headed for the basement! I explained that was where the NYC was going to be. It didn't seem to clear up the confusion! I had the plan essentially completed prior to closing a couple months later. It was torture to have to work on the living areas of the house for 6 months before I could start downstairs. I had one section from my previous layout that would be reused, it was placed on a wall and served as a tease. I will be able to salvage little of this road when the time comes to move on. Hopefully that won't be till old age makes home maintinance impossible, maybe 20 years. By then I'd want to build something new anyway!
 
My layout occupies 1/3 of our unfinished basement. It is 26ft by 11ft. Another 1/3 is my workshop that is totally covered in sawdust that I must clean up someday. The last 1/3 has the furnace, water heater and water softener and some storgae space which I hope to use for expansion of my layout when needed.
 
Ya know, I could envy people with basements if it wasn't for my bad knee, hips, back and a few other parts.:rolleyes: :D It is rare to find a house in this part of Arizona with basements. Very few builders offer them as a option, and when they do, they are big bucks. 99% of houses built here are cement slabs poured over gravel. No frost level to worry about.:D

But on the other hand, little free space for workshops and train layouts....

Don
 
After retiring at age 51 four years ago the first project was building myself a model RR room. I took the back 11 feet of a 34 foot deep garage and raised the level of the floor to the house level and completed a 11X15 room. the RR runs along t and 1/2 walls with a seven foot pennisula. A great size for an N-scale empire.
 
Some pictures of layout spaces would be nice on this very interesting post....so heres mine,the loft over my lounge,getting up to it is a problem as he retrackable stairway has not as yet been installed
 

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Right now it's...

...in my wallet. When I lost my job after 9/11 I dismantled the MCL as it was. I plan on rebuilding over the winter. Right now it fits neatly in my wallet as a laminated print of a CAD drawing that I am refining. I keep it tucked in a pocket and as I move about work I cup it in my hand and act as if I'm reading a very, very important memo- commenting occasionally that, "this will have to change" or "it's not in the budget but it's gotta be done"!
WALLET.gif


Perhaps not a Z gauge in a briefcase, more of a palm pilot on paper.


Mark :)
 
My layout is in the 2nd floor "media" room. The layout is about 6'X17'. The room is 18 X 14 and also has our "office" the opposite wall.

We moved the "media" to the spare BR that we used to use as a office. That's working our great.

This was the idea of my understanding wife and it's turning out to be very comfortable.
 
My pieces of the modular layout are in the basement. My "other" layout is the Lake County Model Railroad Club. All that is left of the 8' X 10' modular layout I built while on active duty, are the module frames, and some old pictures.
 
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