Run a shelf around the room

[Top Track]

I am looking to reuse my old HO trains in my sons room by running a pair of parrallel tracks around the perimeter of his room. Any tips or gotcha's I should keep in mind?

[trainhead]

Top Track, here are some must haves for shelf type layouts:

1) Install track rerailers after every turn. This helps to rerail the rolling stock which tend to derail on curves.

2) Install a flexi glass or wire rail guard. A derailed train smashing on the floor can be very expensive.

3) Use a track cleaning car more often. High level tracks tend to get dustier and rust quicker.

4) Paint your baseboard black. This will highlight everything on the black baseboard.

Hope this helps. Check out this video for some inspiration:

http://www.homodeltrains.info/homodeltr ... -bart-cars

[Top Track]

Thanks Trainhead,

I will use that info. Now that I have your attention, what is your view on laying the track up there. In the old days when I was a kid we used little nails (tacks) to hold the track. I anticipate caulking is going to be my adhesive of choice this time around on a cork road-bed. What is your take on this?

Then comes powering the tracks. I'm going to use my old DC power supply as it hardly will be worth an expensive DCC configuration (save that for the big track project). The goal of the track is to get my son into trains and hopefully help me later on the bigger project.

[ry_trains]

In the reply to this post it mentions a "rerailer " In the UK the only rerailer is a plastic device marketed by Hornby that is intended to lay on top of the track to help rerail stock is there another type available in the USA? if so details wuold be helpful as I have an extensive layout with lots of lines underneath other lines
regards ry_trains.

[Carroll]

ry_trains

The re-railers are made by Bachman, Atlas, LifeLike, Model Power and other companies that make and sell inexpensive train sets and thyey come in the set. I guess you could call them Toy Tain sets. They have their own section of track, Brass track I believe and besides re-railing a car they are also designed to look like a highway crossing. They have been available for 40 yrs at least in HO/OO Scale in NA and in other scales too.

At times on eBay.ca there will be a bunch of brass track for sale and there's usually 2 or 3 re-railers included. I just did a quick check on eBay.ca now at this address " http://cgi.ebay.ca/HO-SCALE-TRAINS-ATLA ... 4ce3924579 " there is a 2 pack, new, for $6.75 US and it's a "Buy it Now" item and there are 8 available.

I should add that I just typed in 'rerailer' when I did the search on eBay.ca and came up with 36 hits. Not all HO scale though.

Hope this helps.

[craftsmaster]

The views for your train are indeed a great help in terms of artistry with constructing your own copies. Construct it so it would look bigger than its normal size. The positioning of your trees and small cut grasses would basically help if you try to place it in order. You could even place hilltops or mountains in the view you are creating. As for the fields, you can even place makeshift rivers and lakes bordering the parts of your views.

[Gandydancer]

Rerailer track is available from Atlas (www.atlasrr.com). the item code is 0155, the name of the part is HO Code 100 rerailer, and they run $2.35 each.