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A different idea on getting through the door Dream and design
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Prolific poster 3,069 posts DKRickman Prolific poster 3,069 posts
DKRickman

As I read the thread about the new Richlawn Railroad, I had an idea.  Rather than taking over Rich's thread, I'll start my own.

Around the room layouts make a lot of sense operationally, but how do you deal with the doorway?  There has to be a way to get into the layout, or the layout has to either stop or turn back on itself at the door.  Duck-unders and lift-outs are the typical answer for the folks who want to keep going, whether for continuous running or access to a staging yard or another level.  Neither one is really ideal.  but one photo got me thinking.

What about running the layout above the door?  At the very least, you could put it about 6' up - not enough room for a door to swing, but plenty to walk under.  Then, since most of us tend to take over an entire room anyway, build a platform to establish the new floor height at whatever level is convenient, with steps up from the doorway.

I have 9' ceilings, and there's a good 2' of room over my doors.  By blocking the upper portion of the doorway, I could even fit a double deck layout in there comfortably.  Even 8' ceilings would leave plenty of room for a single deck.  Another advantage in most cases would be that you could mount lights and a valence directly to the ceiling, reducing the framing needed there.

I know something similar has been done with large multi-deck and mushroom layouts, but I'm talking about the typical spare bedroom layout.  Why not raise the layout, and then raise the floor to match?  If I'd thought of it before building my current layout, I might well have done it, as it would definitely solve a few problems and give me a lot more space.

Ken Rickman

Danville & Western HO modeler and web historian

http://southern-railway.railfan.net/dw/
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jeffshultz MRH Staff 7,994 posts
jeffshultz

Run it above the door

That's how Joe Fugate does the entrance to the Siskiyou Line - the track above the door is the section between staging and Cottage Grove. However, this is the "high" section on his multi-deck mushroom, and so as soon as you walk through the door you have to go up a couple steps to get to his 15" raised floor.

His staging is effectively a foot or so below the ceiling, and is not a mole yard - it is simply "set the trains up, move them into staging, pull them out as needed" double-ended staging.

orange70.jpg
Jeff Shultz - MRH Technical Assistant
DCC Features Matrix/My blog index
Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.
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Paul Rankin paul_r Active Member 96 posts
Paul Rankin paul_r

Verticality

I've actually done that - built the track over the door.  In the 2 rooms I get to use, there is a total of 9 doorways.  When remodeling the doorways to fit the reality of the walls that exist (now), I actually shortened 2 doorways from 6' 8" to 6' 4" to reduce the grade needed to climb above them.  I have a Warren truss bridge between the 2 doorways (they're at the bottom of the stairs), and it's plenty tall to walk under.  The track then climbs further to be above at least 2 normal height doorways, and it will also cross 2 other open doorways over 8' high.  Another branch will cross above the doorway into the (former) crawl space, where the track enters a staging yard.  There will be a total of 7 places where pedestrians walk directly under the track, and only one is less than 6' 4" - that one's only 4' 11", but it only goes into the middle of the helix, where pedestrians won't normally go.  The overall effect of these tall tracks is that most trains are either at eye level, or a little above, depending on where you're standing.  And that is close to how we usually see trains in real life!

Lowe's had painters benches on sale after Thanksgiving, so I bought a few to work on the tall areas.  I'll actually cut them down a few inches to make them more comfortable to work from, or to operate from in certain areas.

Paul

 
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