Making staging look sensational

After 3 weeks of sawing, sanding and varnishing, (and a weekend away from any model train projects to go to the Gold Coast for my Mother's 70th Birthday), the staging shelf for Philden is now finished and in position in my apartment. Never one to do things by halves, I turned a simple staging shelf into something that now resembles a railroad art-piece, thanks to sticking to my goal of giving my small bookshelf layout a museum quality finish.

The 730 mm long staging extension was built to match the main bookshelf layout section.

Even a model railway staging yard deserves an authentic railroad presentation.

Always one to trawl the pages of eBay in search of interesting yet small collectible railway items, I had some aluminium station indicator name signs and a 520 mm long Countrylink station sign pointing to the coaches bay, set aside for such an occasion. With my staging shelf needing to be confined to a dimension of just 730 mm x 320 mm, it was time to turn my relatively small staging area into a part of the layout.

Following the same process I outlined in my previous post (improving rear layout views), I first turned my attention to the 3 mm MDF panel board that would fill-in the gap at the rear of the staging extension. I had already measured, cut and painted what would be the inside face of this panel in the same satin black water based enamel I used on the underside of my layout. So it was just a matter of covering the viewing side in the same steel-checker-plate vinyl wrap as I had previously used, and trimming the edges with a sharp hobby knife. After spending the best part of a week painting, staining and varnishing the staging shelf to match the rest of my layout, it was time to bring the finished staging extension up the 5 flights of stairs to my apartment, and give it the finishing touches.

This time I was able to hide the LED lighting power pack away from view.

Before gluing the now finished steel-checker-plate panel into position, I first had to mount the coaches sign into place on the black backdrop using 2 x 25 mm cup head bolts and washers (as you can see in the above photo). I also mounted the control pack for the LED strip lighting away from view inside the cavity of the framework. The LED lighting strips were then attached beneath the overhanging pelmet for what will be the staging shelf for my upper level extension. For this project, I scored a free LED lighting pack from Arlec, sent as a replacement after reading my previous post installing LED strip lighting. This time there was no problem with any non-matching white lighting strips, and I didn't even need to cut a strip to size, 2 x 300 mm strips fitted perfectly beneath the pelmet.

This final view before I glued the steel-checker-plate panel into position shows the ample amount of room I have inside the cavity of my double-deck staging extension. The LED lighting power pack, the mouse-hole door from my layout proper and any future wiring or DCC receivers can all be concealed within here.

Here is the finished view of the rear of my layout. I mounted the Woodford station name sign on this side, and also two signal box plaques I had left over from my project where I turned awful into awesome by using some railroad artifacts to disguise an eyesore. The varnished timber on the top level is the same height that my upper-deck extension will be built to. The black painted strip of plywood is to screen the trains on the upper-deck staging from view. At this point, the upper level layout will be open-aired, without any backdrops positioned in place. For what is essentially just the back of a model train layout, I think it looks pretty appealing.

I next did a swap-sie with the end panels that support the layout. Readers may recall that I initially built two of these in my post replacing legs with panels, only to stain them in the wrong colour Jarrah stain and have to start again by building two new ones. Well, they were sanded back and re-stained as best I could and are now in use as the two middle panels. This enabled me to move the panel with the Butlins girl metal advertising sign to the outside of the layout where she can remain visible. The above side-on view also shows the importance of having your levels line up on a project like this, and I am happy to say that the track level transition between the layout and the staging extension is millimetre perfect!

My staging shelf was only supposed to be a place to park my trains away from view, and be removable so as to pack it away when I wasn't operating the layout. Somehow it has ended up looking like this. In a small apartment where I didn't really have any room for a staging yard to begin with, being able to hide a 2 car Xplorer train from view without impeding on the space required for us to move around the apartment is simply an added bonus. As my desk was already there to begin with, building my bookshelf-style layout above the desk has only taken up the amount of room required for my staging extension to stand beside it.

Staging only creates the illusion that your trains go somewhere, but with a night view such as this....

At night time, with only the layout lit-up, this is the view we enjoy from our apartment at the top of Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

....those tracks can be anywhere I like!

Finally, with the coaches railway station sign protruding 12 mm from the black staging backdrop, I need to fan the 2 staging tracks out a little to allow enough room for my hands to add or remove trains from each staging track. For a small layout I think that it's big on presentation.

Avoiding space sapping staging

If you have, or are planning, on building a small HO scale bookshelf layout like mine, then chances are the last thing you want to do is build a staging yard that is as large, if not larger than your layout itself. If a bookshelf layout with point-to-point operation is the only layout design that lends itself to your present living environment, then not only do you have to get creative when planning your layout, but you need to be extra creative when planning your staging yard to maintain the illusion that your model railroad tracks are imaginatively connected beyond the borders of your bookshelf. That can be as simple as hiding a siding within a warehouse, or like I have, extending the tracks through a mouse-hole door beneath an overpass, to a hidden shelf that will store the train from view. Chances are, if your bookshelf layout is around 6 feet long, you'll only be running relatively short trains anyway. But turnouts, switches, points.... whatever you like to call them, sap up huge amounts of space.

So after paying close attention to what goes on behind the scenes on some great pint-sized model railway layouts at some recent model train shows here in South Queensland, I set out to design a staging yard that wouldn't impose too much in my living room. As you can see from the above photo, I really only needed to park a 2 car Countrylink Xplorer train that measures 580 mm long away from the public's view anyway. In trying to contain my entire staging area to less than 750 mm in length, I needed to explore options such as sector plates, traversers and cassettes, something that in a small apartment will prove to be a huge space-saver!

My staging extension will match the timber frame of my layout, while the tracks need to line up with the mouse-hole door.

After once more drawing a life-sized plan to see what was possible, I drew a track plan on a separate piece of paper to see if there would be enough room for a three track traverser shelf. A train arriving on track 1 would need to be able to slide across to depart on track 2, and vice versa. The third track comes into play as a storage track, and the geometries of the track work needs to ensure that any of the 3 tracks on the staging shelf will always line up with the 2 tracks exiting the layout through the mouse hole door. 

While this would have been brilliant, it just wasn't possible given the dimensions of the timber framework, rather than the dimensions of the space I had avaialble. So once more having to compromise my grand ideas on account of a lack of layout space, I arrived at a plan for a 750 mm long removable staging area. The framework will measure 730 mm long x 320 mm wide.

My focus is now to get Philden finished to an exhibition standard, and the staging area is paramount to my layout operating as I originally intended it to. So with my best laid plans in hand, and all the timber I need to complete this project at the ready, it's back to the garage for another weekend of sweat and sawdust. Only this time I plan to use the two panels that I incorrectly stained when replacing the legs on my layout. After all, they're just sitting there, ready and waiting, (although stained in the wrong colour varnish). But as usual, that's a story for another day.

See also; Using PECO track templates

Using Peco track templates

Recently I had someone ask how I drew up the track plan for my layout. The answer was; I downloaded and printed out the Peco track templates that are available on their website. Designing the track plan for Philden was the subject of my first blog post back in May 2015, (setting plans in concrete). Using Peco code 100 rail and medium radius turnouts enabled me to design a fully self-contained layout in just 6 x 1 feet. So when thinking about adding an upper level extension to my bookshelf layout, I once more turned to Peco's website, printed out their HO scale turnout plans, and got to work designing a track configuration that hopefully when finished will resemble a Sydney suburban railway station.

When using Peco's track templates, making sure you print out the turnouts at the actual size is paramount. Really its as simple as un-checking the 'fit to page' option on your printer's settings. The scale ruler printed on each template easily allows you to check that your printer has printed this correctly. Cutting each turnout to shape with a pair of scissors then enables you to try as many different configurations as you like, without having to first purchase the actual turnouts.

What I needed was a track configuration that would route passenger trains through the neck of the yard to either platform 1 or 2 as needed, while still allowing access to a freight siding. I also wanted to use large radius turnouts instead of the medium radius turnouts that are in place on the bottom level. An island-type platform was also a prerequisite as it enabled trains to be viewed on the bookshelf from both sides. However, when you're working within the confines of 6 foot by 1 foot, it soon becomes evident that there are only so many combinations of left and right turnouts that are possible. So below are three of the best that I was able to come up with.

Playing cut n' paste with Peco's track templates shows exactly what will fit into your layout space.

Back-to-back large radius Y turnouts were one option, but I didn't like the single track neck that this created. A single Y turnout would work however if you were modelling a single track Sydney suburban line.

I just kept fiddling around to see how many track configurations I could come up with.

With the curved platform in the distance, arranging a right hand large radius turnout as the centrepiece of the station throat gave the track approaching the staging end a centralized position. It was about this time that I came across a British OO trackplan called Trewartha Quay that was posted on a model railway forum. It was essentially the above design, only reversed. It seems there's no beating the Poms, and British modelers are surely the masters of small layout design.

This track plan would work if I could fit 3 tracks leading to staging, and all with just 4 turnouts!

No matter how much I tried to tinker with the track plan, it soon became a case of trying to reinvent the wheel. Reversing the crossover points gave what will be the dedicated passenger track to the right, access to both platforms 1 and 2. While the track to the left would provide freight access to small industrial siding and ensure that the locomotive would have to travel the full length of the layout and utilise the platform road to gain access to the siding.

Moving the right hand turnout also enabled a short siding.

The curved platform gives the 1 foot wide bookshelf layout some character while opening up a large portion in the middle of the layout to the right for modelling some sizable structures. Adding another right hand large radius turnout to the throat of the yard allows for another short siding. I am extremely grateful to have used Peco's printable track templates. When it comes to layout design, they make life just that little bit easier for us modelers.

Small pencil lines between the sleepers give you a dot-to-dot pattern to fill in later with pen.

To draw the life-size track plan, I first sticky-taped the turnouts into position before slightly offsetting a stretch of flextrack in the shape of where I wanted the track to flow, and placing pencil lines between each sleeper. After taking the flextrack away, it was just a case of joining the dots.

This design ended up being the winner, and with just 3 turnouts! So I taped it into position.

Creating a double-decker layout in such a small space would be a challenge. Although I didn't end up proceeding with the upper level addition in the year that followed me writing this post, showing you how I use the printed track templates is perhaps the best way of discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't. Until next time...