Getting the Room Ready for Trains

Getting the Room Ready for Trains

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end”

Songwriter: Dan Wilson

Closing Time lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

In the past I have been able to salvage large sections of model railroad when moving out of a house and use them in some revised fashion in my new place of residence. This time was different. Coming from a large basement to a couple walls in a small spare bedroom. Like the Semisonic song “Closing Time” says, “Every new begin comes from some other beginning’s end.” So, it is with my latest model railroading adventure. I’m starting nearly from scratch, building two totally new layouts, but I’ll be keeping the same general themes for the two.

My new spare room layout area will still feature my two longstanding railroads. The On30 Mosquito Creek Lumber Co. is the top layout at a rail height of 58 ½-inches from the floor. On the lower level is my HO scale Big Island Rail featuring the new Hawaii Department of Transportation Harbors Division Kawaihae Harbor Railroad concept. This layout is 38 ¼-inches from the floor.

In order to get a rough idea of where the two layouts would be located on the walls, I first measured estimated bench work heights on the walls around my corner of the spare room. (Photo 1)

I used blue painter’s masking tape spots on the walls and then used a Sharpie felt pen to mark the various levels. I lived with this for a few weeks to determine if those heights would work, especially around the door and window openings and the plug outlets and light switches. I did change the layout levels a couple times until I was satisfied. Next, I found the wall studs and marked those locations as well.

Actually, there are three different levels in the train corner. The very top level is an around the room 1x12 shelf for displaying RR memorabilia and models. I needed to have solid support for all three levels. I used 1x4 pine strips against the walls. 

The reason is a two-fold. One, to give a more reliable, solid surface to screw shelf brackets into. The other reason is to try and minimize damage to the sheet rock walls with as few screw holes into the sheet rock as possible, only three per board to hold the 1x4 to the wall.
(Photos 2 and 3)