O Scale Shelf "Layout"


R

riverotter1948

Midwest Alliance Rail Sys
I'm not sure if this actually qualifies as a "layout", but I am planning to build an O scale around-the-walls shelf-style layout that will occupy a shelf about 9" wide, about 66" off the floor (eye-level for me).

I'm thinking about using right-angle shelf brackets to support the shelf.

The wall studs are about 16" apart, so I could put an angle bracket at each stud location, but I'm wondering what material would be a good choice for the shelf given that it has to support heavy O scale equipment?

Foam board seems out of the question, for example...

Thanks for any and all suggestions!
 
riverotter1948, In my humble opinion, it all depends on how much your willing to spend on it. We looked at doing something like what your talking about when we moved in here. We don't have enough room for a layout anywhere, so we talked about a shelf layout around the living room/dining room. I do HO scale so the weight wasn't as much of a concern as it would be for you.

I didn't want to use pine because of the warping problems associated with 1" X 4" boards. Then we started to price oak. That gets expensive real fast. I was thinking of using the wooden shelf brackets that would match the bottom of the shelfs, and staining everything the same color. Needless to say, after pricing over 80' of oak 1" X 4" boards and all of the hardware to go along with it, we never built it.
 
I would suggest MDF board. It is a little heavier, but from what I understand it doesn't warp very easy, and it is really durable. And if I remember correctly it isn't too expensive.
 
Nothing takes the place of good quality 1/2" plywood if you're talking O scale. You can get quite a load per square inch with O scale trains and plywood is still the strongest material you can use for the price.
 
Good Morning:
Jim is absolutely right with the plywood. In fairly narrow shelves you are speaking of 1/2 inch plywood will easily support O scale equipment. The MDF will sag over time. BTW your plan meets all my definitions for a layout. Let us know how things progress.
Old Fat Robert
 
Oldrobert said:
Good Morning:
BTW your plan meets all my definitions for a layout. Let us know how things progress.
Old Fat Robert
Click to expand...

I will definitely keep this thread alive as things progress. I appreciate everyone's comments to date; please feel free to continue making suggestions, etc.:D
 
riverotter1948 I did mine with 1x6 pine because we wanted a western look. I was lucky I was able to plan for this when we built our house. I had a header put in all the way around the room.No need to find a stud. I used 1 1/2" ell brackets to fasten it to the wall. It is only On30 so it will weight less than yours but just add some more brackets. The wooden brackets in the pic is only for decoration.

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