# Layout Expansion Failure.



## Water Stop (Apr 18, 2015)

Hello,

Today I began tearing out the layout expansion on my HO railroad, which runs around 3 walls of a 25'x20' room and totals 128 feet of mainline length, plus 11 feet of siding. 

The red area on the layout plan is what I added, but I'm tearing it out for 2 reasons: 

First, it prevents the game room door from opening fully, and second, it forced me to lower
myself into using a 36" radius curve, instead of the 43" and 48" curves on the original layout. 

The whole effort only gained me 7 feet of mainline length...a stupid move for a retired aerospace engineer!

The other pictures are of the teardown of the "red" area and the original layout. The materials are what I used to build the red section.

Cheers,
Water Stop


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## sjm9911 (Dec 20, 2012)

Stuff happens hopefully you'll get it to where you like it. I still think the around the room shelf layout is for you. Good luck!


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## Water Stop (Apr 18, 2015)

HEY sjm9911,

I've had an around-the-room layout for almost 3 years now, starting with O-Scale 2-Rail and recently converting to HO. (I still can't get used to how small HO appears compared to my former O-Scale equipment!)

My layout was built on 2 structures that support the loops, plus extra-heavy wall brackets that support the shelf portions of the layout.

My supporting pieces consist of a total of 180 linear feet of 2x4 lumber, plus seven 4'x8' OSB panels, and many steel angle plates and brackets, with the crossbeams fastened to the thirteen 2x4 legs and wall headers with 3/8" bolts, and with many 3/8" lag bolts going into the wall studs of the Game Room, making it even stronger due to the stiffness of the layout structure bolted to it!

I built my supporting structure using all 2x4's, which will permit everything remaining rigid while I crawl around the top surfaces with my 210 pounds, laying and re-laying track. No screws or nails are used except for the nails fastening the OSB panels to the 2x4 framework.

That popular Westcott "girder" construction would collapse if I had to crawl around on it!

Water Stop (Some of the pictures are from my former O-Scale 2-Rail train.)


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## SBRacing (Mar 11, 2015)

Try N scale :laugh: you will get more trackage in and it will be even smaller.. or you may never see it comming.


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