Space...nothing but space...

Its been a busy month since I last posted to the blog. I wish I could say that it was because I was working on a layout plan - I wasn't - or that I had an epiphany and know what I am going to model - but I don't. Most of what I have been doing is some measuring and modeling of the layout space.

What I have is what I would consider a textbook definition of a phased space. The space lies in our walk-out basement and consists of two areas. One area is a 300 square foot space adjacent to our basement level family room (aka the crew lounge). This space is separated from the crew lounge by a double sided built in bookcase. Another plus, I have a perfect spot for my train books.

The two areas are connected by a common wall, and there is a door between them. The second area is a 940 square foot, double tandum garage - of which my wife has graciously allowed me about half of the space, probably the back half, which makes the most sense. This means that I have about a 5 foot common wall plus the existing 3 foot doorway to the garage to connect the two spaces...someday. I have a diagram shown below.

Available Layout Space (Garage on the Left)

So, there is eventually about 750 square feet of layout space available. But there are some challenges. The garage will need a dividing wall, to claim the back half and climate control it. Splitting the garage in half puts that wall through the middle of the door. So, the wall needs to go on one side or the other of the door. I'd prefer to have the door on the layout side, even though that means that there needs to be access from the layout room to the garage. This would allow operators to follow trains from one room to the other without an exit to the garage.

So, you may ask, why not add a door, or completely remove that 5 foot connecting wall? Well, it doesn't look feasible. That five foot wall sections contains plumbing to most of the house. I think that there may be a 24-30" section in the clear, but I have become ever less hopeful as I studied and examined the wall. So, the existing door looks like the best option for people egress. I think I can find enough gaps to run a mainline through the wall though.

Okay, so, what else is there - well, on the garage side there is a water heater, which my wife wants to replace with a instant hot water heater (yea!) and 400A of electrical panels, not all of which are in use (also yea!). There is also a sump pump, a utility sink and a washing machine, but I can work with those - I think. But all of that is down the road. We aren't going to redo the garage for a few years.

So, there is the existing interior space, which is about 132" by 333.5". Not a bad space, but again, not all is perfect. One wall is the book case - which is untouchable. So this also means that there is a necessary aisle-way along that wall. The wall on the right is against the staircase, but also contains AC ductwork, so I could attach to it with care, but there is some need for access. The upper wall is a foundation wall, and has a set of closets for much of its length, along with another sink. The sink can go, and the closets too - but neither immediately. Furthermore, there is a crawlspace access along this wall, with access to a second water heater. Access needs to be maintained. The last wall has the inside swinging garage door. All told, this dramatically reduces the room footprint to about 51" by 286" - assuming 24" aisles along 3 sides and 36" for the garage door side. So, my 750 square feet is currently only about 101 square feet today. I've made another diagram of this room below.

Interior Room Diagram

So, right now, I don't have a lot of space options - and so Phase 1 is limited to about a 100 square foot layout. But, Phase 2, the removal of the closets and sink in the interior room would make this space closer to 225 square feet. Phase 3, the back of the garage would add another 470 square feet. So, as I said a space for a layout to be built in phases.

My initial thought is actual to approach it this way:

1. Built a Demo/Test layout in the current 100 square foot area (phase 1).
2. Redo the garage and built phase 2 in the garage space
3. Then, either connect the two layouts together in phase 3, or remodel that space to be an addition to the phase 2 layout; and
4. There is even a phase 4 possibility, where perhaps more of the garage space can become available.

But that is the plan - look at the possibilities of a 100 square foot layout to test out construction and operational ideas, until and while the remodeling of the other spaces becomes reality. So, with that, perhaps some discussion of my design givens and druthers should come next.