FRED'S MODEL TRAIN TABLE: THE TABLE

This is the initial concept for a track layout plan. Town is on the left, train storage yard in the middle and countryside and a small mountain on the right. Nothing elaborate. The train storage yard is all on the base unit. That way I can park all the trains at the end of the day, then fold up the table and put it away. Now I don't have to pick up all the engines and cars and put them in boxes. I just leave them in the yard ready to go for the next time.

BUILDING THE TABLE.

Building the base unit. It is 8 feet long and about 3 feet square.

Adding casters to make it easy to move. You'll see why below. The hole in the end is where the control panel will attach.

Completed base unit. This side is open for storage. Some day I'll put doors on to keep dirt out of the storage area. For now I will keep boxes of items that will be installed on the layout (buildings, track, electrical stuff, scenery, etc). Later, I'll store extra trains here.

Building the 4X8 foot "wings". The first one is in the background.

Moved the project out of the shop as there wasn't room to assemble the whole table inside. The "wings" are attached to the base unit with 4 door hinges.

The completed table is 11 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Takes up a lot of space in my garage.

Here's the slick part. It FOLDS. That's why I attached the "wings" with door hinges.

The support legs are used to keep the wings in the upright position for storage.

When I'm done "playing" the whole thing rolls to the side of the garage with plenty of room to park the car.

When it comes time to add buildings and scenery, it's a long reach across 4 feet of table. So, by adding 4 legs to a "wing" it becomes a free standing table.

After attaching the legs, I lower it back down to the normal position. Then I pull out the hinge pins that hold the wing to the base unit.

Now I can work all the way around the table.

I have started working on the center section first. I removed both "wings" so I can get to every part of the base section. I glued down a layer of sheet cork first. This is the track road bed that supports the track and it acts as a sound barrier. If I put the track right on the plywood, it would act like a drum head and amplify the sound of the trains rolling on the track. Even though the trains are small, they make a lot of wheel noise as they roll on the track (just like the real trains). Here is the first sections of track. You'll see how these fit in the scheme of things as this project progresses.

This is all the tracks in the "yard".. The tracks on the left are for freight cars and the 2 on the right is where my long passenger train will park. The triangle with 3 tracks is the foundation for the engine house where engines are stored and serviced at night for the next day's work.

The freight cars, ready to roll.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC DAYLIGHT train ready.

The underside of the yards. Lots of wires running everywhere. The green boxes are small motors that move the switch tracks that guide the trains into the different tracks. These are all controlled from the main control panel.

All those wires connect into the back of the control panel.

This is the control panel. It has the speed controls (throttles), controls for all the electrically operated switch tracks and switches for all the lighting and signals. You'll note my railroad name is "Mesa Lines". Mesa is Spanish for table. This is the name my father used for his model trains more than 60 years ago.

Lets just say, I know what all those switches, knobs and lights are for.