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Track Distance From Wall
Lester is building his HO layout and asks.
“I’m planning my L girder benchwork with plywood sub-roadbed and need to know how wide it needs to be. I want enough space for thin backdrop structures but need to know the minimum possible distance from the drywall (plasterboard) to the center line of the closest track to the wall. Good to hear your thoughts please.”
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5 Responses to Track Distance From Wall
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You could get your widest loco/car on a straight piece of track and take a measure from its position. If you have a curve, again get your loco/car with the biggest overhang and test on a piece of track with the desired radius. If you then add 10mm + max depth of your structures to these measurements you should be OK.
Robert
I was surprised that when I put my 2-8-8-4 on a 24″ track, the cab stuck out more than the boiler.
Thank you.
Caution: Do not fasten your layout to the wall UNLESS – you can easily reach every inch of track incase you need to fix an issue or decide to make a change. I did ‘open benchwork’ and could reach derailed rolling stock, etc. from under the layout, even under the mountains as I made them the ‘old school’ way.
I had track joint buckle and had to disconnect the 12′ x 8′ HO layout from the wall and pull it out 18″ so I could get to where the joint failure was and fix it.
Good luck!
I can add only what I did. All I had was 12″ for a shelf. The foam board is attached to metal brackets that are attached to the wall. So the foam is about 1/8″ from the wall. Enough so that a piece of poster board/thinner than 1/8″ can actually slide down. The track is barely sufficient to allow a flat. So all structures against the wall are flat. And where the track is a little farther, the “flat” building can be slightly thicker, or set back from the track. But that is not ideal. And if you have the room, do allow for this. A flat building on the wall, but far enough from the track to allow for ? loading dock, or other such. In one area, I have 2″ and was able to put a road next to the track, going past the building on the wall. It just takes some experimenting to get it right.