# Elevated railroad in the bedroom!



## Sampug394 (Dec 30, 2010)

Been a little while since I've posted here on MLS, but in the intervening time in the past three months or so, the G gauge empire of mine has taken a slightly new direction. Sometime in mid-November or so, after rearranging my bedroom some, I stared at the upper part of the longest wall in my room, and realized there was open space along the twelve feet of wall that seemed to be begging for a full length display shelf...

Cue the first visit to Home Depot. Bought four-foot shelves and enough brackets to support them, and went to work, creating a twelve-foot shelf that quickly hosted track and trains. The inevitable test however, was running my Stainz locomotive under its own power up there, which promptly decided the expansion into a full loop. The allure of a layout that never needed to be temporary, never needing removal from the floor, was too great to resist!










Additional trips to the Depot brought home two 4ft x 8ft sheets of particleboard in the same thickness as the rubbermaid shelves, additional straight shelves, and numerous wall brackets for them to rest upon. I promptly went to work with drawing and measuring three ninety degree corners, measuring approximately 4ft x 4ft, and cutting them to match the profile of LGB R1 curvature.


















After creating sawdust with an electric saw, the resulting panels were sanded and painted white to match the walls and braces, and soon found homes up in the room.


















With further installation of the straight shelving, it quickly became apparent that minor adjustments were necessary, and the shelving sections were shortened to fit on their ends. The installation was also where creative methods of bracket support (read: turned around/upside down) were implemented over my closet and window, given the lack of wall space beneath, and the actual position of wall studs hidden behind the drywall.










Hartland Dunkirk #7 plies newly laid track on the finished half of the elevated line. With a majority of the shelving and bracketry complete, the next task was spanning the open-air passage over my doorway, diagonally, to complete the loop. The curve geometry allowed for larger R3 curves, and being the first point of the shelf layout to be seen upon entry of the room, was naturally to become an engineering focal point, and as such demanded a slight bit more elegance in design than the rest of the simpler bracketry. To start things off, I began drawing and measuring, and redrawing, and remeasuring a cardboard template, to span the gap.










With the template suitably complete, it was then transferred to particleboard and cut to shape. This particular chunk of wood stuff sports some nice sweeping curves to match up with the wall dimensions, and rests upon a pair of nicer, larger shelf brackets, also suitably curvy.










Good fit, and just a hair of trimming, and white paint was splashed onto it in short order. (Rolled, actually. Technical details!)










Track laid and connected. A lovely sight. But what about that long gap between the support brackets...?










My father, a welder-fabricator and build-anything-out-of-steel tinkerer, helped with design and implementation of this marvel. Tube steel cut to shape and bored for all-thread, with matching nuts, washers and toggle bolts to hold the assembly tight from the ceiling. VHB tape was also added to the metal tube to make sure it doesn't separate from the particle board curve... Ever.










Completion of the Super-Specialized-Span as it was so coined, looking for all the more like a cable-less suspension bridge, was the final segment of the elevated railroad, and operations began shortly afterward, exposing me to a brave new world of massive trains rattling the walls over your head.










Given that three of the four curves on the line are R1, only small locomotives and cars have seen operation on the line, which is fine considering 75% of my roster rides upon two axles. Dunkirk #7 however, having the ability to navigate R1 geometry with zero complaints, is the exception to the rule and is frequently found towing strings of minis and a variety of two-axle rolling stock along with my Stainzlok #1 and Lehmann Porter #4.



















Standing on my bed allows for easy swapping of trains, and an eye-level view not normally attained with G scale. Being beneath the S-S-S viaduct with trains rolling directly over your head, is also a unique experience. 

Overall the entire project cost maybe $200-250 total and required several days of work, but was certainly worthwhile, allowing trains to be operated on demand... And never having to pick up the layout ever. As for inevitable question of derailment what-ifs, I live in the rock-solid foothills of the Colorado rockies, so earthquakes are pretty unlikely. Trains are also run fairly slow and not on a daily schedule. There are zero switches, and several track segments are held together by clamps, so wheels picking at trackwork is quite unlikely. Nearly all of the brackets holding up the shelving are screwed into wall studs as well, so the entire setup is remarkably sturdy and easily handles the tiny trains rumbling around on it.


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## Mike Flea (Apr 8, 2014)

Very nicely done, Sam. You now have the clickety-clack to lull you to sleep!


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## MJSavage (Dec 27, 2007)

It looks great. I'm jealous!


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## Homo Habilis (Jul 29, 2011)

Sam:

Nice job, but I wouldn't get too cocky about "earthquakes are pretty unlikely". 

The Colorado Geological Survey thinks "Relative to other western states, Colorado’s earthquake hazard is higher than Kansas or Nebraska, but lower than Utah and certainly much lower than Nevada and California. Even though the seismic hazard in Colorado is low to moderate, it is likely that future damaging earthquakes will occur."

I live in California, about 70 miles north of San Francisco, and I take a number of precautions for my rolling stock stored on shelves. Obviously my chances are higher than yours, but as they used to say on Hill Street Blues, "



"!


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## Egon (Mar 22, 2021)

Great post! A lot of good ideas.


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