Olie
Active Member
Hey all. New guy here and wanted to share my latest adventure. I caught the MRR bug and man it's bad. I wanted something a bit different so I opted to do a wall mounted "ceiling track" that covers my living room. This is HO scale. Here's my starting point with Scarm
I ran into a few hurdles along the way and in hind sight, I would have done the build out of solid wood planks. Cost and lack of knowledge became my nemesis. I did, however, get it started. Here's after the first corner piece with some track down. The whole set up is Atlas Super-Flex Track code 100.
At times the work would go quickly but then I'd hit a snag. I did manage to get the first track installed and made a complete loop. Installing the second track was a bit easier. I elevated it with 1" foam board so the train would be easier to see from the floor.
I made all of the corner radius 22" so I can run larger sets. As you can see, the wiring was done from underneath. I ran 14 gauge main bus and 22 gauge feeders every new section of track. I orginally did this thinking it would be hidden by the crown moulding. This past weekend I realized that once the crown is up, if I run into electrical issues, I'd have to remove the crown to repair. So, Saturday I rewired the entire layout and hid the wires between the tracks on top of the shelf.
After the rewire, it looks much cleaner. Now we are testing LED light strips to see if we can get the type of lighting to not only make the room look nicer but accent the trains.
So far, it's been a lot of fun and I really enjoy the trains running above us. A few things to mention. The lower track is mounted to cork board which is then glued with white glue to the MDF shelf. It transmits the track noise a bit more than I'd like. The upper track is cork board on 1" foam board then the shelf. All glued down with Dynaflex 230 silicone caulk. It is much more quiet. Luckily, the fireplace brickwork give me a "step" to be able to reach the tracks for loading and unloading trains. Having a little taller step stool or ladder would make it easier. Track cleaning is a bit of a chore. I posted in another thread about the CMX cleaning car and the DAPOL car. I will invest in those in the future but for now I'm running a DIY cleaner. All in all, it has been a lot of fun and we enjoy the trains.
Our current stable is:
BLI PRR K4s (Man I love this locomotive)
Bachmann Spectrum K4 DC version. (Display mode only until I get a DC power supply)
Bachmann Spectrum PRR coach cars X 3, Combine car, dining car and observation car. Found the set at a train shop for a good price.
Lionel Polar Express Locomotive with tender (haven't had it a month and it's shipping out for repair) and 4 Polar Express cars.
Bachmann Echo Valley Express set. 2-6-0 locomotive is my wife's favorite. "It's so cute" she says.
I run all of it with a Digitrax DCs51
Well, there it is. My first build. Any suggestion or comments are welcomed. You can't hurt my feelings.
I ran into a few hurdles along the way and in hind sight, I would have done the build out of solid wood planks. Cost and lack of knowledge became my nemesis. I did, however, get it started. Here's after the first corner piece with some track down. The whole set up is Atlas Super-Flex Track code 100.
At times the work would go quickly but then I'd hit a snag. I did manage to get the first track installed and made a complete loop. Installing the second track was a bit easier. I elevated it with 1" foam board so the train would be easier to see from the floor.
I made all of the corner radius 22" so I can run larger sets. As you can see, the wiring was done from underneath. I ran 14 gauge main bus and 22 gauge feeders every new section of track. I orginally did this thinking it would be hidden by the crown moulding. This past weekend I realized that once the crown is up, if I run into electrical issues, I'd have to remove the crown to repair. So, Saturday I rewired the entire layout and hid the wires between the tracks on top of the shelf.
After the rewire, it looks much cleaner. Now we are testing LED light strips to see if we can get the type of lighting to not only make the room look nicer but accent the trains.
So far, it's been a lot of fun and I really enjoy the trains running above us. A few things to mention. The lower track is mounted to cork board which is then glued with white glue to the MDF shelf. It transmits the track noise a bit more than I'd like. The upper track is cork board on 1" foam board then the shelf. All glued down with Dynaflex 230 silicone caulk. It is much more quiet. Luckily, the fireplace brickwork give me a "step" to be able to reach the tracks for loading and unloading trains. Having a little taller step stool or ladder would make it easier. Track cleaning is a bit of a chore. I posted in another thread about the CMX cleaning car and the DAPOL car. I will invest in those in the future but for now I'm running a DIY cleaner. All in all, it has been a lot of fun and we enjoy the trains.
Our current stable is:
BLI PRR K4s (Man I love this locomotive)
Bachmann Spectrum K4 DC version. (Display mode only until I get a DC power supply)
Bachmann Spectrum PRR coach cars X 3, Combine car, dining car and observation car. Found the set at a train shop for a good price.
Lionel Polar Express Locomotive with tender (haven't had it a month and it's shipping out for repair) and 4 Polar Express cars.
Bachmann Echo Valley Express set. 2-6-0 locomotive is my wife's favorite. "It's so cute" she says.
I run all of it with a Digitrax DCs51
Well, there it is. My first build. Any suggestion or comments are welcomed. You can't hurt my feelings.