Door in the way ???

[Tim K]

I have decided that an around the room layout would offer
a lot more layout than what I was doing (12X5 layout) , my only
problem is I have a door along the one wall .

How have people tackled this problem ?

I was thinking of a simple liftout with dowels to keep it in place but I would like to see or hear what others have done to overcome this problem.

Thanks
Tim K

 

[MilesWestern]

Perhaps a pocket (sliding) door instead of the one on hinges...I'd add a little more space to your layout! Not sure how much work or money it'd take though....

 

[jim currie]

there was a thread on that awhile back some used hinged some drop in sections i would strongly advise not to do a duck under(have scars on back from one)

 

[Tim K]

I think it would be much easier to make a drop in , there will be no ducking my wife would not be impressed if she had to duck to get into the cold cellar .


Pocket door would not help because it is an issue of using the door not a space problem.


I will do another search maybe I can find the old thread on this.

Thanks
Tim K

 

[LR&BRR]

hmm cover over the door and use a trap door elevator in the center of the room

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Do you have room to make a wide section on each side of the door to allow a turn around loop at either side of the door? If you need to cross the doorway with a lift out, I would suggest a swing away bridge. Put a lock on the door that you can latch from the inside and a door bell so that if you are operating your trains no one opens the door while a train is blocking it. You might also put a window in the door so that if your wife wants to come in and rings the door bell, she can see you respond. That is why I suggest the swing out section. You can have trains operating and if someone wants in, you just shut down the railroad with the bridge cleared and swing the bridge section out of the way to let them in. I think a lift out section is a lot more awkward.

 

[Tim K]

The door that is giving me problems is for a cold cellar.

It may get used a couple times a week.

I will give the swing bridge some thought and no there is not enough
room on one side of the door for a turn around.

My only other option is to cut two holes in the concrete and run the train through the cold cellar .


Tim K

 

[ezdays]

The door that is giving me problems is for a cold cellar....
My only other option is to cut two holes in the concrete and run the train through the cold cellar .

Tim K

Being from the SW, I have to ask, what is a 'cold cellar'? I'm assuming that it is a room within the cellar that is purposly not insulated. Something like that wouldn't work around here.

But a bridge or duck-under are two ways most people handle a doorway, but usually it's an entrance door to the room the layout is in.

Could you build part of your layout on the door such that when you opened the door, that section would open with it? Just a thought...

 

[MasonJar]

Don,

A cold cellar is pretty much what you describe - it is (sometimes) insulated from the house, but not from the "outside" to take advantage of the cooler, more constant ground temperature. Sometimes called a root cellar as it was historically used to store root vegetables through the winter and spring until the next crop was available.

We used to have one in the old (140+ yrs) house I grew up in... it was at the far end of the low-ceiling, dirt floor cellar with no lights - used to scare the out of me...

Because the humidity is usually higher, I would not recommend putting holes in it to run the trains through. It might cause some problems with the trains, and lessen the effectiveness of the cold cellar.

Tim -

Can you post a picture or diagram of the room?


Andrew

 

[ezdays]

Andrew,

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought. Around here though, we would call that a solar bake oven , or a slow cooker...

 

[Tim K]

Good descriptions for a cold cellar .


I can't post any pics but the area is a very simple 14X18 with the door along the one wall for the cold cellar.Two wall are 18 and the door wall is 14 .

I cant move it away from that wall because the other area of the basement is out of bounds.

Tim

 

[Tim K]

I also need to leave the center of that area open for my other hobby racing radio controlled boats.

That is were I will work on them .

Tim K

 

[60103]

Tim:
I built a removable section on my railroad across a doorway (sliding door) and a stairway. (Thread with pictures called "Spline roadbed".) The doorway is to the laundry room and since it was my wife's suggestion, we generally just duck under it -- even when it's removed.
I made mine so that it just sets over the last board in the framework and the roadbed fits into a slot in the homasote that's been removed. I only remove mine when we have major stuff being moved out of the basement storage.
You have one point on your side -- no one is likely to go into the cold cellar and stay for a couple of hours. But you need to make it so the rest of the family can go in when you aren't there.

 

[jim currie]

Tim is the door into the cold room full size ?

 

[Tim K]

Yes the door is full size.

I do have one other option .

My wife suggested that I clear the one side of the basement and build there .
What I would end up with is a long O shape roughly 25X6 but I don't think that would be as appealing visually as the other which is more around the room style.

Plus it would still require a duck under or swing out to acsess the midle.

Any thoughts?

Ill figure this out .

Thanks
Tim K

 

[MasonJar]

Good descriptions for a cold cellar .


I can't post any pics but the area is a very simple 14X18 with the door along the one wall for the cold cellar.Two wall are 18 and the door wall is 14 .

I cant move it away from that wall because the other area of the basement is out of bounds.

Tim

Tim,

Even a crude drawing in MS Paint with the dimensions indicated would be helpful...

Does it look anything like this...?

Andrew

 

[Tim K]

That is prety much it Andrew

I spent a little time masking out both ideas I have and decided pretty quickly
that the around the room layout was not only more appealling visually but it
also gave me a lot more room for my boats.


Plus my wife agreed that if I wanted to expand in the future I could still use the other area that I was thinking about.

Thanks guy's again for all your help

Tim K

 

[jim currie]

one option for the door Tim a fold up was looking at a old rr mag and someone did a fold up section to go across a door opening.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not clear on what the door is used for. Is this leading into a root cellar that your wife might want to occassionally access while you were running trains? Would she be walking through the layout room to get to the root cellar? A door that is used occasionally from inside the layout room is easier to deal with than a door from outside that is a constant potential source of foot traffic.

 

[Tim K]

I'm not clear on what the door is used for. Is this leading into a root cellar that your wife might want to occassionally access while you were running trains? Would she be walking through the layout room to get to the root cellar? A door that is used occasionally from inside the layout room is easier to deal with than a door from outside that is a constant potential source of foot traffic.

Yes the door is only to enter the fruit cellar (another name for it ) it is used maybe a couple times a week.

That is the only reason I would do this because of the low traffic.

Tim K