help wanted

[whughes]

i would like to mount an ho scale railroad , single track, around the celing of my toy room. any help would be nice, never attempted this before. thanks

 

[Selector]

It will be hard to appreciate it, depending on how high. HO scale does not do well from further than about 3' away. We have what we call the "three foot rule" in HO scale. What you can't see from that distance is unimportant. Except that it really is important to most of us at least part of the time, so we soon learn to keep things up near eye level and close.

Just some thoughts for you.

Your engine and cars will want very carefully constructed tracks so that you don't have them hitching over bad sections that may occasionally cause a derailment. A derailment close to an edge could spell disaster. So, you will need to think carefully about where on the shelf your tracks will be. Further back? Then you will have the forward edge of the shelving blocking your appreciation of the trains if they are too high. See what I mean?

Also, curves. At each corner of the room you will have to have a curve. What radius? What reasonable radius would your engine and your longest cars need? And depending on that answer, what width of shelving would you need in the corners?

Etc, etc, etc,...

 

[bobwrgt]

I have put G , O ,and HO scale trains around the room on a shelf up high. You don't have to use the ceiling. Put a 1x2 furring strip around the room screwed to the studs level. This will support the back of your shelf. Then take 1x3, 1x4, or 1x6 for the shelf. Screw the back of the shelf to the furring strip. In the corner you will have to bridge your curves. Works fine.

Bob