# My Garage Moment



## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

I lurk daily, looking for ideas and resolving questions I may have with my layout (which is still stuck between my ears), when I had my garage moment. My reason for life made me sell our house that was almost paid for, to move closer to her job, which paid more than mine. In the deal, I got over half an acre for dreaming up my logging line (plus a commute of 110 miles a day, not that I am bitter) and a 20 by 30 garage with a nine and a half foot ceiling. I think I got the better deal because I always imagined that my railroad would grow outside and I would part with my collection of the lesser scales (some of which I have been collecting for 50 years), but reading indoor threads gave me my garage moment. I figured that I could build an indoor "test" track in the garage, incorporating a 20 by 30 oval with eight foot diameter curves. Then my garage moment multiplied to a garage five minutes. It struck me that since I was indoors and I had my narrow gauge ladies, Connie and Annie, turning my head, I could utilize the lesser scales along side my large scale. I doodled a track plan, which looks sort of like an op art figure nine, and if I have learned anything here it would be to add 10 foot minimum curves (thanks guys!), which wouldl really make the lesser scales look good as well. My reason for life gave me a gift certificate for Home Depot, which I will I will use for material, I figure 1/2 inch OSB for substrate and 2 by 3's for ceiling supports. My question is how much space should I allocate for the g scale track, HO, and N scale for the substrate? From the wall out, I see large to small scale, but have yet to settle on a width. In addition, I have had moments where I add my O27 Lionel into the picture along with a slot car track, but I think that is a ways off yet. Going back to my question of width, since I am well over eight feet off the ground, does the width of my substrate eliminate the need for a guard rail (or cable)? I am giddy with anticipation.


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Yup. Just as I thought. He's got it bad.


----------



## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

You mean it's terminal?


----------



## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Tom, did I draw long long ago that or was it someone else that did that ???


----------



## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't remember where I got it. Likely you









It just seemed to suit the thread.


----------



## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

Be that as it may, how much room would one need to run G, HO, and Scales paralell to each other?


----------



## ThinkerT (Jan 2, 2008)

Be that as it may, how much room would one need to run G, HO, and Scales paralell to each other? 



Are you trying for some sort of forced perspective deal here? Hmmmm...somewhere around here there used to be a link to a You-Tube clip featuring Lex Luthors giant model railroad from the last `Superman' movie (a mix of G and either O or HO scales that created a very good forced perspective effect). 

I suspect that in order to manage this in your space, the depth of the benchwork required would be enough to cause serious `reach' problems (if you can manage it at all, you don't want a `reach' of more than 3-3.5 feet). You might want to look into separate layouts; I think we have a couple of posters here with G scale on one level and a separate smaller scale layout on a shelf a couple feet above that.


----------



## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

No forced perspective here, but once I had that garage moment, I figured I had an excuse to keep my other trains in HO and N scales, with an eye down the road for my O27. The focus would be on my G Scale. I thought 10 inches to a foot might be enough. I can manage the reach, even if it suspended eight feet off the floor (I saw a real cool ladder on wheels at Borders last night), but I have a long reach as it is. I never thought about a separate level, I guess I could design it to act as some sort of safety catch for the G Scale. Thanks for the idea!


----------



## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I think with a base that wide, you would have trouble seeing the cars from below. I did not see what height you were thinking of, but maybe you need to consider open mesh to support the trains. 

To expand on ThinkerT... what if you had an "angled" shelf, like one half of a canyon so the G scale was at the top, on the outside, (getting the largest curve diameters), then step down the height of a loco, and come "in" for the next larger scale, etc. A lot more work, but you would be able to see every train since the "layout" would slope so all tracks visible, like the inside of an open pit mine. 

Just a crazy thought. 

Regards, Greg


----------

