Saying Hi

[davidstrains]

Returning to the forum and looking over the past posts. It is going to be a while. I remember a lot of the "fallen flags" from when I was active on the old board. Sorry to hear and read of their passing.
Is anyone into shelf layout track planning? That is where I am headed.

[TMo]

Returning to the forum and looking over the past posts. It is going to be a while. I remember a lot of the "fallen flags" from when I was active on the old board. Sorry to hear and read of their passing.
Is anyone into shelf layout track planning? That is where I am headed.

My own layout isn't your "classic" shelf layout, but it runs around my office at eye level and it's depth is (for the most part) less than 28 inches on two levels (the lower being the storage level, upper being the viewing level).  I guess my question for you is how much space is available, and how deep and wide is your "shelf"?

[davidstrains]

Thank you Morris. The space I will have is about 12' X 10' on 2 walls. I am in N-gauge and I believe that I can use 36" to 40" on each end to turn the trains and then use 18" to 24" for shelves. One of my "Druthers' is to have a 3 or 4 track staging yard under the long side with a ramp to the running level. I am not sure if that is doable given the space available.

[TMo]

I'm not an N-gauger myself, but it seems like that is enough space to do something substantial.  I like the lower-level storage idea.  Mine is approachable from two ends of the layout so that I don't have to run loco consists back to the tail end to bring the train back out of storage.  Maybe on the two ends where you're turning back onto the shelf you switch down to the lower storage level.

[BR60103]

David: I'm in OO, but I have what might be a shelf layout.
I used IKEA's Ivar shelving for the base.  It has shelf depths of 12" and 20". I don't use the shelves for the layout, but built an L-girder variant above them that fits sort of an inverted U. 
The layout overhangs the shelves a few inches (more than a few in some places). I made mine very flat, which suits me because the top is just about at my arm height.  The shelving comes in several heights. I picked it because it gives a better appearance than my carpentry and was faster.
There are corner sections. Mine is a U shape with turnback loops of 30" radius -- the third wall has 4 door/stairs openings in it.
There is a lot of shelf space under the layout.

[Tyson Rayles]

My layout is 32' by an average of 12" and is N gauge. It is based on the Murphy Branch of the Southern RR and is called the Nantahala Midland. It is proto/freelanced. It is single track mainline, point to point. You should be able to do a lot in that space David.