Fettler on the Roof

DB says - yes, it's me, that title is a little misleading isn’t it (bwahaha) : OK, hands up all those who, upon reading this early post of mine about building a layout, laughed and said “wonder how long that will last -he being with the attention span of a sandfly on speed?”

Probably not many hands given the blog readership at the time, but those hands were right, as that layout has been sitting untouched for six months.

To recap: like most NZers, I have no stadium-sized Grande American Basement. Indeed I've been bumped into a smallish 12x13 (or so) foot room for my playtime, with the door in one corner, a set of wardrobes on the far wall and a window in the wall to the left above the workbench. This leaves but one clear wall. Duckunders are always a pain, I didn’t want to block the window and wanted to maintain access to the closets... Hence that layout-in-the-middle.

But the 4x9 or so layout plus its 4x3 extension takes up so much space that it is a real obstacle course to get to the workbench (or anything else). And despite these hassles it doesn't even provide much running room, being a string of tightish curves linked together. Unsatisfactory. On so many counts. I only really like the staging yard.

Recent manifestusing had me wondering how I could fit in longer scenes by making better use of the room without intruding on a few things that I like – sun coming in the window, a bit of 'space' in the room, access to the currently unused wardrobes, being able to walk around the room without banging into things after an evening on the turps etc.

So... what about putting a layout way up high: around the walls of the room up above the door, window and closets? Its the one unused part of every room that has the most space and is completely free of obstructions. A visible staging yard above the closets could be accessed by stepping on a chair or three, and then mainline scenery around the other three walls. A full rooms-worth of running with gentle quarter-circle curves in the corners - all while hogging approximately zero square feet of floorspace. No more God-like viewing from a helicopter either. Sounds vaguely appealing. But impractical perhaps?

There are certainly a number of potential concerns.

Wouldn’t construction be a pain? I figure if the layout is made in sections on big insulation foam boards, it will be easy to bring one lump at a time down to a sensible level to work on and then plug it back upstairs when its finished. I've done this with the yard already - even on its 10 inch x 12 foot long board I managed to get it up all by myself. So to speak.

Won’t you see 'nothing' when viewing from standing height? As long as the track is on a 1cm embankment not too far back from the edge and is viewed from a few feet away it seems to be acceptable (the first two pictures here were taken standing firmly on the carpet, the track has no extra elevation and the rails are a couple of cm from the edge. And me with no shoes on either.) Alternatively, I could build Staircasey/Manawatu Gorgey 'ledge' type scenery.

What happens when you need access to rerail something or clean the track? I don’t think this will be a problem at all on the mainline. In the yard its easy enough working the nearest track but the rest could be a problem from ground level. I'm running trains though, not shunting. A small two/three step 'step-up' ladder in that locale would put me at a normal viewing height as well. Or a set of stilts. Or a pair of 18 inch stilletos. Or a permanent wooden box to stand on, which is probably the most sensible idea, as I'm not convinced I have the ankles for stilletos.

What if something goes for a tumble? The biggest ‘downside’ could become evident when something derails in dramatic fashion. I’m not sure what the terminal velocity of NZ120 vehicles is, but I’m not sure there’s that much difference in something falling from 6.5 feet vs 4 anyway. It's going to get hurt from either height.

Hmmm. Its an interesting concept that I’ve talked myself into investigating further. Madness. Anyone out in the cheap and recently quite quiet seats have any experiences, concerns, opinions, thoughts or suggestions?