Beautiful paint job! I live in southern Vermont near bellows falls where steamtown started. Wonder if this type of engine ran around here back in the day. What model is this stock? I love the sounds and whistle on it. Do you know the Lionel part number for it?
As another south Jersey resident the blue comet hold a place in my heart also. I have it in MTH RailKing, MTH Premier 2-rail, Broadway Limited HO, MTH tinplate tradition Proto 2.0
Hi Eric, great plans I see and a great space you have to work in. Some comments I hope may help - Your black surfaces I think are absorbing a significant amount of light, particularly the garage doors. When I painted my steel skin garage door gloss white what a big difference it made to the lighting (reflects light back in) also cooler in summer. On my basement layout I have my mains fed LED ceiling lights on a dimmer thought I had enough, but found, once I got a selection of models and buildings out had to supplement with further LED strip lighting (12 V 16.5’ runs) for which I can adjust colours/ dim to get best effects and remove shadows (made worse by my low false ceiling). Also can change the colours, dim etc to suit the time of day, weather on the layout, or perhaps if recovering from a hang over ha, ha! It’s the humidity swings that can be a big problem with soft wood framing, temperature swings main effect is the track expansion. My basement layout goes down to circa 22% in winter and over 70% in summer, I have used Baltic birch ply and get a length change of 4 to 5mm over a 19 foot run across the seasons. My pine chest of draws I had to plane off some 3mm when first moved to where we are now as got jammed in the first year here. So unless you have control of your humidity swings be prepared for significant expansion contraction in your softwood frames. As you there is a lot of work in getting the railway room prepared if it’s going to last, be reliable and comfortable. Enjoy the build. All the best Stephen
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I agree on the lighting, it’s the black. So I’ll just have to add more LEDs. Your humidity swings are huge! Do you have humidifier or dehumidifier? I haven’t had too much issue keeping mine at 40-55% RH. Otherwise, I agree the humidity is definitely an issue!
@@erictrainman Good to hear about your situation and see you can manage OK. Have a heat recovery and ventilation unit that runs 24/7 and a few air purifiers (great at removing fine dust particles), because of the severe winters (to -40degC ... outside) our house is well sealed and thus gets quite dry. I envy your humidity range!
I just would not consider a garage as living space with any kind of temperature/humidity control. My finished garage for charished cars still has more variation than I think my Lionel trains would like. The over head doors are not the “quality” of a solid wall. Energy consumed to over come outside conditions will be more than I wanna think about.
To each his own but It’s certainly not designed to be living space. You’d surprised about the energy consumption, its minima. It holds temperature better than my 15 year old house.
You have done a great job on prepping your building. I love how so many modelers are using garages and sheds and other alternatives to the “basement” layout. I look forward to your continued progress. Dave
12:44 I went the other way. I can tell you now from a 40 degree c day down to a 2 degree winters evening it’s alway perfect. Big cost yes BUT putting a commercial grade 3 phase solar system and what me worry. Most I did not want the failure that a splitty can offer in layouts as I see all the time here in Queensland Australia like blocked condensation lines then a dump of water on a layout etc. Anyway that’s just me know you will have a HOOT HOOT!
Hey Eric! New subscriber here. Not sure about your track plan but will you be able to reach the center of those tables should derailments occur? Anxious to see the layout come to life! - Brian
Thanks Brian! The tables are about 12x12 so I won’t be able to reach the center. But that’s intentional and okay. My goal was to maximize the space and the center won’t have much (if any track). The layout is built to get up on
Best of luck I bet the baby is now walking around I miss seeing your collection I just wonder about how you fastened the legs I noticed plywood cleats/ gussets.carpenter terminology Is that temporary? When I built my table I cut legs to the same height as the horizontal lumber and then assembled with nuts and bolts Bolting and screwing is stronger than nailing No criticism intended My mentor was Sicilian and taught me to build things that will outlive me😊 I can't wait to see the finished product
I think there’s probably hundreds of ways you can build benchwork and have it be sufficient for holding trains and myself. I’ve done the screw style as well. I used the cleat method on my last layout, it worked fine. Started doing that here as well but ended up changing to what you mentioned but with screws
Congratulations again Eric. This has to be exciting for you young man. You are doing everything the "right way" whatever that is. Look forward to your progress.
That looks amazing, great progress, I agree with you about lighting you can never have enough. Really looking forward to seeing what the track plan is going to look like.
The black garage doors, the black slotted ceiling, the can lighting and the dark carpeting gives it a very sophisticated, cohesive look. Kudos to you Eric!! Can't wait to see what's next...
I wish a company would make a true D&H Ho scale steam locomotive and not one from another line just renamed. My understanding is the D&H ones where slightly different from the others.
I dread the day I have to pack my trains in their boxes. It must have been so boring to pack. Are installing security cameras and alarms? Will you be reusing wiring, plywood, etc. from your old layout?
I don’t have an air brush. This is a lot easier and neater. No overspray to deal with. I bought the same ones you mentioned from Amazon. My track looks awesome. Thanks for sharing.
May I suggest not to put the train layout against the wall itself but leave space so you can walk all the way around the layout. This way you will have easy access to the layout throughout the lay out. If train goes off track you can easily have access to it. JH
