Longcroft

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Ok, I should have started this thread months ago when I first had the idea of using my loft for a model railway but I didn't so to start off with are a few pictures of how the loft looked 6 months ago. The room is roughly 15' square which should be ok for a OO 1970s/1980s layout.

First, this is the view on the way up


Next, if you take a left at the top of the stairs we start to look around the room starting in the stairs corner. There will eventually be a tunnel rounding this corner.


Then the next corner. The HSE office has now moved.


The back wall. At the moment, in my mind, this will be the main station but I change my mind more than I change my socks so this may not turn out to be strictly true.


The opposite corner to the stairs which lets in a decent amount of natural light


And finally (for now) some of my stock which varies from a few bits of 30+ year old stuff, some about 20 years old and some bought over the last 12 months from ebay and various other sources.



Note to self, please let my attempts at linking the main pictures from a smaller preview picture work. My fingers are crossed.[/url]

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Okay, so this weekend I've actually started work on the baseboards. I managed to do some painting earlier in the week too, just the white bits. There's no point in painting the stuff below the baseboards is there?

It's getting late for explanations so take a look and feel free to ask questions, post constructive criticism, etc etc














There's plenty more carpentry to do yet as I'll be going right around the attic and maybe even have a central part converting it into 2 loops.

[joshs]

looking good do you have a track plan or are you just making the track plan up as you go nice start on the baseboards.

cheers josh

[m.levin]

Great stuff, also a skylight for some natural light, something on my to do list.

[retroman]

What a super railway room.

Looks as though you are modelling the best era, too!

[SouthernBoy]

Nice big space - plenty of room for a great layout there. Any ideas for a track plan / Era / Location etc ?

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Thanks for the comments guys. I only have a track plan in my head and that is changing each day. I think it will be basically a big square (with rounded corners) and I may cut across the middle too kind of like a figure of 8. There will have to be a decent size TMD due to having appx 50 locos and also some decent size sidings as I probably have around 50 coaches, maybe 20x container wagons, 30x oil tankers, loads of permanent way stuff etc etc. I'll try not to make it all too crowded but some places may look that way. It is an excellent room and I am maximizing it's use to the full, there will be no spaces left! Probably won't do any more until the weekend now and may have to cut down on the golf too, that could be a tough call!

[B@rney]

wow thats a lot of stock.. I think you might be able to give lofty a run for his money..

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Nice big space - plenty of room for a great layout there. Any ideas for a track plan / Era / Location etc ?

See above re track plan and era. Location will probably be biased towards the Western region although I have at least 1 of most loco classes including 5x class 56, 5x class 58, I think 5x HST and probably about 5 or 6 DMU's. Not sure how many are in running order yet and I would guess I won't know for a few weeks yet either. My plan is to get all of the baseboards laid before trying out track/loco's and then probably try to give them all at least 30mins running in. If some don't run I will probably still keep them and either repair them or leave them in the TMD looking like they're stored for use. I'm also planning to stay away from Ebay for a while but that's a bit like me trying to give up smoking, nigh on impossible!

[pointstaken]

The joinery looks nice and solid - nice job. I'm planning not to smoke after my cremation.

Dennis

[Farken]

i can only dream of space like that. Look forward to your progress

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

The joinery looks nice and solid - nice job. I'm planning not to smoke after my cremation.

Dennis

It certainly is, it's mainly a mixture of 3" x 2" (left behind by the previous owners who had made a bed out of it) and loads of 2" x 2" which I acquired from Big Yellow storage company in Cardiff when I was there quoting a job for my last employers. I have absolutely no doubt that if the ceiling was high enough I could walk on the baseboard and I'm not the smallest of people.
The battens supporting the baseboard are 1.25" square and are only fixed at the front. They sit on a smaller batten fixed to the 3" x 2" on the wall and are screwed through from the front 3" x 2". The reason I have done this is so that when it comes to installing point motors I can easily move these battens so the motors can be installed anywhere underneath. The MDF on the top is only pinned down at the front and back (not onto the battens) so it's just a case of removing 1 screw and the support batten will be able to move.
As for the smoking, I know I mentioned it first but let me add that I don't smoke in the loft or indeed anywhere in the house but I do frequently nip out to the garden or the garage if it's raining

i can only dream of space like that. Look forward to your progress

Trust me Farken, I used to dream of a space like this (well, bigger than this actually) and this one has cost me a £170,000 mortgage so it's not a cheap hobby! It will be a slow progress as I'm very methodical with things and take a bit longer than most. Plus work/golf/football/drinking beer etc all get in the way at times, I only wish there were more hours in the day so I could do as much as I want to with all of my hobbies

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Not much of an update although a lot more wood was fixed over the weekend.

As usual, click the pictures to see an enlarged image


I think the wife's painting leaves a little to be desired, just don't tell her I said that!


We're not actually married you see.


Carpet in the storage areas rather than leaving bare wood will hopefully keep it warm up there.


I painted this area, maybe I shouldn't knock the other half's too much.


Ok, not a very interesting update but an update all the same. Hopefully over the coming weekend I'll be able to finish all the carpentry around the sides. Who knows, I may even get far enough to run a loco round. I hope so but won't be doing so until all the carpentry is complete. And the carpet. And the lightswitch moved. And a good tidy up. Ok, so maybe 2 weekends time instead.

[pointstaken]

Very sensible idea, leaving the battens detachable for point motors etc. to be installed. How many people have done a beautiful job on the joinery, then spent time crawling underneath the baseboards to fix the point motors as an afterthought.
A thought occurred to me - would there be any virtue in hingeing the baseboards to the rear batten so they can easily be raised at any time ? Not sure how practicable (if at all) this would be in your circumstances.

(Freudian slip - I originally typed 'point motors' as 'pint motors' - which would I'm sure appeal to some of our members).

Dennis

[I'll_be_in_the_loft]

Very sensible idea, leaving the battens detachable for point motors etc. to be installed. How many people have done a beautiful job on the joinery, then spent time crawling underneath the baseboards to fix the point motors as an afterthought.
A thought occurred to me - would there be any virtue in hingeing the baseboards to the rear batten so they can easily be raised at any time ? Not sure how practicable (if at all) this would be in your circumstances.

In this case it would be difficult as only 1 wall is vertical, the other 3 are about 45degrees so unless all scenery was kept flat it would be difficult. I have pretty good access to the underside of all the boards so hopefully this shouldn't present a problem.

(Freudian slip - I originally typed 'point motors' as 'pint motors' - which would I'm sure appeal to some of our members).

Dennis

I think I preferred 'pint motors'