I live in a very small appartment and move fairly often. In the interest of saving space and remaining mobile, I build a small, lightweight table for the layout. The table is constructed out of 1x4 pine and 5/32 louan plywood. The edges of the table are full size 1x4, but to save weight I ripped the inner "ladder" members to 1x2. I fabricated the legs out of 1x4's and tapered them to keep the table from looking too heavy. This is important since the layout currently occupies the space between my living room and dining room. The underside of the table was coated with an automotive grade rubber underlining to help reduce noise while the exterior of the table was painted with a rustoleum texture paint which should nearly match the basic terrain colors of the layout.
I want to avoid having any wiring visible so I plan to install all of the wiring under the table. This includes my speed control. The plan is to mount all of the electronics (transformer, circut boards, etc) behind the front edge of the table. Accomodatins will have to be made for the speed control knob and track control switches.
Sounds cool. Maybe
Charles
New Railroad Name and other planning ramblings
Since wiring and electronics don't necissarily have to be completed first thing (although I do have some ideas in the works), I figured I would continue to plug away with other aspects of the layout. I'm originally from western Colorado, possibly one of the most beautifull places in the world. Biased opinion of course:). My ultimate dream would be to model the entire Durango and Silverton, but it would take approximately twenty miles of n-scale rail! Since I am so limited on space I decided not to use a prototype railroad. Instead, I came up with my own: the Sneffels Short Line. My inspiration for scenery is the mountains and canyons near 14000ft Mt. Sneffels, my old stomping grounds. Mt. Sneffels is part of the San Juan mountains near Telluride, Colorado. I'm planning on using elements from the town of Telluride, and nearby Ouray and Ridgeway, for the town in my layout.
I would like to focus on steam era operations, but since many towns in Colorado have preserved their historic downtown areas and railroads I should be able to get away with running some diesel stock as well.
ibdrown
It is amazing how big a
Charles