Flimsey1 | modelrailroad

Tips on Building Your Layout, Part 1:

Turning That Dark, Dank Space You Laughingly Call a “Basement” or “Den” or “Extra Room” Into Your ‘Layout Room’

You’ve bought a trainset and now you’re “Bitten”

So! You’ve decided to become a “Model Railroader” and go full-bore into this hobby. Congratulations! It’s pretty hard to find another hobby that encompasses so many supporting parts (each a hobby unto themselves) that unite to make a unique, united whole.

This part, of “Going the extra mile” and doing work in your basement (or, where ever you so choose to make your “Layout Room”) is slightly beyond those who may be simply building their first 4x8 layout. I apologize, but throughout this novel, I do go out of my way to mention the first 4x8 layout. There is, actually, much more to it the first time around than going out to Home Depot, Lowes, Fleet Farm or Menards and buying yon 4x8 sheet of plywood and plopping your track atop of it, much, much more. My purpose here is to try to help you along and, hopefully, help you avoid some common mistakes that always come back to bite one in their caboose (note the flagrant reference to railroading!??) at some point down the line. However, I wish to point out to you that it is not my purpose to lead you by the hand and explicitly instruct you what to do! What you do, how you do it, and what you choose to model are all decisions you’ll have to make yourself. How detailed you want to be, how far in to certain aspects of the hobby you wish to go, etc., are all things that are up to YOU. All I’m here to do is to try to help you avoid common mistakes that I or others have made that can be avoided and point out products and techniques that I or others far more skilled than myself have used to help you turn out something you can be proud of, that you feel comfortable showing off to others, that not only looks nice, but operates the same way.

And, yes, this applies to your time-honored, 4x8 layout and its circle of track. This is where interest starts, and often, dies, and it doesn’t matter what scale (be it Z, N, TT, S O, OO, O27, or HO) you’ve chosen. Troubles with that first attempt often turn people off for the rest of their life. Then, one discovers girls, gets involved with a career, and trains get forgotten. This hobby has been fighting a battle of popularity with Computers and Computer games, and, while not losing per se, it’s not exactly winning, either. Part of that comes from our society’s infatuation with “instant gratification” and our ever-increasingly faster lifestyles have made the effort of taking time to do something very difficult to do. Careers nowadays require much more of a person, sapping out a lot of the ambition many of us used to have. Sitting down in front of the TV, Xbox or Nintendo is far easier to do, and, in some cases, much more relaxing, than trying to scratch-build a building for your layout, or trying to lay out a track plan. We Americans are working longer for less, taking away a lot of our free time. Oh, running trains is still fun, believe me, but its even more fun if you’ve built the layout and all the “stuff” that goes with it.

That said, on to “Where Do I put my Layout?” and a story

If you’re married, and your wife has very little of a sense of humor, the answer to this question may not be what you want to hear---or attempt, for obvious, painful reasons. However, in about 70% of cases, the layout will end up in the basement of your home. Now, this is not a bad thing. Most newer homes today are often built with a partially finished basement, however, if you live in an older home (as I do), the basement could be a dark, drippy, dank place with inadequate lighting, water leaching in through the walls, and, of course, plenty of SPIDERS. Don’t ask me where they come from, but they’re there. I don’t hate spiders (Lord knows I’ve been bitten by more than a few) but I don’t like a maze of cob-webs strung all over the place in an area where I plan to do something. This brings me to telling you of my recent (summer 2013) experiences of nearly spending myself in to the poorhouse fixing up the basement to be a clean, bright workspace. You may or may not face the same thing, but the methods and the products the same.

In May of 2013, the Hub City Central received a letter of eviction from the persons we were renting from for our Clubhouse. Now, because of my late Mother, I did all my modeling at our Clubhouses---either the first located on Central Avenue here in Marshfield, and in our Second Clubhouse. I really couldn’t do much at home, such as painting; some of the paint I emit fumes that made Mother sick. So, what to do? Well, I took advantage of the Clubhouse and did my modeling there. I made a Hell of a mess, but I had someplace to work.

Now, it had been in my mind for some ten years to do some work in the basement, like seal and paint the floor, put in Phlorescent Light Fixtures to replace THREE bare light Bulbs, to make the basement more user-friendly. Problem was, there was no way on earth my Late Mother would have allowed me to do any of this. The Basement was “hers” and that was that, no “if’s”, “and’s” or “but’s”. It was HERS, period. Needless to say, I wish I had done this work before she passed away. I think, after all the work, she would have appreciated it.

Comes the news that the Hub City Central was getting evicted, “Opportunity” came knocking in several forms. First, I needed lights and we had 13 4 ft, four bulb phlorescent fixtures to sell. I bought six. Then, the company I work for began “downsizing” and a self-built (by company maintenance men) work bench comes available. Well, it happens it ended up in my basement. I don’t know how.

Then, I began buying Ugl masonry water proofing paint, along with Hydraulic plug for filling holes, and I had them. I’m very well versed in stopping water finding it’s way in where it shouldn’t be; I struggling for how many years in the Hub City Central’s first clubhouse closing up leaks in the walls there (only to get evicted after I had succeeded) so I knew what to do and how to do it. First, I found out years ago that you don’t follow the directions when using Hydraulic Water Plug material, no matter what firm makes it. The instructions are a fallacy! I found that if I simply “throw” the compound dry on the leak with a spoon, the leak with stop itself. You use a lot of water plug in this manner, but it does stop the leak---or, rather, the leak stops itself. Then, you go over it with wet sponge to activate the dry plug, and you get a seal that holds.

As for using Ugl’s paint, just follow the directions. This stuff goes on hard, and I was using something close to a broom to put it on. Now, when Gene Greenwald and I did this in our first clubhouse, the walls there were in no way as rough as what I encountered in my basement. Ugl recommends three coats, and it took just about one gallon per coat. I was literally holding on to the brush with both hands! By far, the worst of the walls was the south wall that divides the basement. I was able to do this wall, with three coats, using regular Latex Primer, and got by with one gallon. Since this is an interior wall, I wasn’t worried about water-proofing it.

Once I had the walls done, then it was time to go after the floor. The floor where I live was unsealed, mostly finished concrete. I wanted to seal it for years, but since mother’s passing, I have become amazed she was able to keep it as spotless as she did. Three coats of Water-based sealer were applied, followed by epoxy-based floor paint. Just painting the floor brightened the whole area up.

I followed that by wiring in new lights. Since I don’t have plans to build a layout, I wasn’t terribly fussy where I put them. However, if you plan on building a layout, now would be the time to pick and plan where you want your light. Once the layout is far enough along, you’ll be addressing lighting yet again if it flits your fancy.

Now, if you plan to do ever more, the next step would be to add furring strips on your walls, and the board you plan to use for your backdrop. I don’t have real plans to build a layout at this point because of lack of funds, but, maybe someday. If you aren’t as financially restricted as I am, this is the time where you line your walls with what will become your backdrop.

The most common method for this is to put up 1/x “furring strips”, screwed to the wall. If you plan on making your “layout room” also serves as a kind of “recreation room” now is the time to plan on what you choose to panel the wall with. This is where planning comes in, and at this point you’ll need to decide if you want to “forget” the areas that will be hind/under/unseen because of the layout, or, if you plan on “facing” the outside edge of the layout in a certain fashion and you wish to blend it in to what style you chose for the rest of your walls beyond the layout.

For a Backdrop medium board, I recommend using Masonite of about 3/16^th thickness. It paints easily enough, and has enough flexibility in it that you can curve it in corners to avoid perfect 90 degree corners in your backdrop. The late John Allen used Linoleum for his backdrops, and there is nothing wrong with that. It made a great backdrop for two of the three versions of his infamous “Gorre & Daphetid” layouts.

I recommend, however, that you put on three coats of primer before you attached anything to the walls. This is more of a protectant because basement walls do sweat because of the temperature differential between outside and inside. Sweating in moisture; moisture promotes rot. Rot likes un-protected wood surfaces. You don’t want it.

The standard rule of thumb it to place furring strips at about the same distance as wall studs---16 inches. Once you have your furring strips up, then you can begin putting up your backdrop board. You’ll have something to nail to because of the furring strips in place.

In Part 2:

In Part II I’ll broach the subject of Benchwork for your layout.

Keith