Adding a staging yard, part 2

No model railroad ever seems to have enough staging capacity.
Regular viewers may remember the Keeweenaw & Scenic Valley railroad build series from a couple of years ago. When I first started designing this layout, the customer was skeptical about the advantages of a staging yard, but he trusted my judgement and allowed me to incorporate a good sized staging yard under the layout.
As soon as he started using the railroad properly, he understood lust how valuable staging capacity is, and asked me to return to add another large yard under the railroad.
Part 1 of this series can be found here: • Adding a staging yard,...
If you are in the market for a custom model railroad design and/or build, please contact me at: www.superiormodelrailroads.com

[@KandWRailroader]

Thank you for showing me that soda cans can work just as well for glued-track weights as canned goods. Sometimes once I get an idea in my head, it is difficult to consider other options until they are presented to me. My wife will be much happier when I return all the canned goods to the pantry from where I stole them!

[@legotrainchris]

Silly comment, I know, but turning out the lights and closing the door as you leave is a nice touch!

[@user-zb8yh7yr9e]

Peter, you do museum quality work. I hope your customers - and everybody else - appreciate that! I sure do.

[@mpeterll]

Thank you

[@cncpgreatlakesdiv4896]

you do awesome work thx so much for sharing 😊😊👍👍

[@roady1710]

I watched this whole very good video.... And guess what..... I didn't go away

[@victorrojas8798]

This video is brought to you by: Mountain Dew. 😂😂😂

[@HotRodRodney25]

use soda cans for track weights and than drink the weights and recycle 🤣😂🤣😂 looks awesome peter

[@BaronvonBavert]

good job Peter !!!👍🤟

[@PeterTillman3]

Looks great Peter - very cool layout. I really like the colour on the facia.

[@mpeterll]

It's just plain old flat black. It's hard to keep it looking good as every speck of dust shows up. Eggshell or satin might be a better choice.

[@PeterTillman3]

@@mpeterll I really prefer a dark colour but point taken on cleaning.

[@steamfan007]

Interesting idea for cutting power to stub ended sidings without the need to cut the track; the more I think it through, the more I like it. Still not sure how you managed to get all the turnouts properly aligned and laid in such a tight space! Nice job.

[@mpeterll]

That same method can also be used for double-ended staging tracks, provided the two ladders mirror each other.

[@derekalexander4030]

That was quite a bit of work. How many days did it take? I think I would have tried to add another day to have you tackle an area that needed some rock work with fascia painting in between, lol.

[@RLYates]

Like your compound ladder arrangement. Looks really smooth. I'm working on something similar. What track spacing did you use on the straights?

[@mpeterll]

I generally use 2 1/8" spacing on visible track and 2.5" in staging yards. The extra finger room helps if you ever have to re-rail a train on hidden track.

[@paulhayton3423]

If anyone can do it then you can.

[@mpeterll]

I had a big advantage over anyone else in that I built the railroad so I knew exactly how it was put together and how it works structurally.

[@donstratton6343]

As always, a superb job. Not being technical myself, I'm still curious about the overall amperage drawn by the layout even when no trains are running and how you design for that as well as any voltage boosting. Imagine that the electricity supply must be more than just plugs in convenient outlet sockets. I'm guessing that there is surge protect in there somewhere. Finally, risk of fire and the impact on homeowner's insurance. Can you comment?

[@mpeterll]

Evan a large layout can be plugged into a normal outlet. Whenever a room is being prepared specially for the layout, I suggest that the owner have multiple switched outlets installed with separate wall switches for each - one for layout power (on a separate breaker if it's a very large layout) and a few for lighting (allowing for multiple lighting zones to be switched independently). The layout power supplies are plugged into surge protector strips as needed. There's no more fire risk than anything else one plugs in to an outlet. There is one thing of relevance to homeowner insurance however. A professionally-built model railroad could easily exceed the single-item limit on most policies so it may need to be declared separately.

[@donstratton6343]

@@mpeterll Excellent, thank you. I'm having an electrician come in to install track lighting around the room. I'll ask him about replacing my current 15A outlets with switch outlets.

[@AsdfAsdf-uo1rj]

Looking great. Where do you get that black foam rubber roadbed from?

[@mpeterll]

That is the same roadbed that I sell in my on-line store. Go to: superiormodelrailroads.com Then open the store and look under the "miscellaneous" tab.

[@richblacklock]

Who takes care of Zeus when you’re away?

[@mpeterll]

He stays at the local dog hotel.

[@ScottTaipaleRail]

When you do double level layouts how high do you prefer to put layers off the floor and height spacing between them?

[@mpeterll]

In most situations, I like to get about 20" separation, allowing for 4" of benchwork and a 16" gap. The height depends on which deck is the main operating deck. If the main operating areas are on the lower deck (generally preferable if it can be arranged), then the upper deck can be at or very close to eye-level for watching trains run through the scenery. For a client around 6' tall, 44" and 64" are good starting points. If the main operating areas are on the upper deck (like this one), then I drop these elevations by about 6-8". There are other factors that go into it, but that would be too much to write here (probably enough for a full-length magazine article).

[@ScottTaipaleRail]

Thank you for the reply. I’m 6’1 so that might be about right for me!