Preparing the train room

One of the comments that I have read in the magazine articles and How To books is preparing the room BEFORE you begin to build the layout. The current layout is an unfinished basement, which I did not want to spend the time or money to finish before I started building the layout. It still looks very nice and is more function over form, but it did put some constraints on the railroad. For example, the L-shaped layout is a series of 2'x4' or 30" x 4' modules bolted together with L-shaped, height adjustable legs. The sky backdrop is masonite attached to the back of the layout (see my either blog post on the fun I had attaching this!) Finally, the lighting is mounted on supports behind the backdrop across the entire length of the layout.

But live and learn. This week, I have been spending the evenings preparing the new train space in the house on Helenwood. This room behind the garage has a poured cement floor and drywall so once I detached the old workbench and (with Lisa's help) dragged it out into the main garage, I washed the walls and spackled them. Today, I stopped at Lowe's for another gallon of sky blue paint for the walls and a special cement paint for the floor. I plan to mount the layout right to the studs behind the drywall with either angle braces or at least recessed legs so I don't trip on them. The drywall will be the sky board and I plan to mount the light valences again directly to the wall about 18" above the layout which is the same distance as the current layout.

Above the lights will be an around the room shelf  for books, memorabilia, a TV for watching train DVDs and speakers for my train sounds - none of my locomotives are sound equipped and since the room is so small, train sounds coming from above should sound good.

I will be busy over the next several days with other commitments but I hope to begin painting the room sometime next week.