Layout Height Planning

[fishbelly]

I am at the beginning stages of planning my layout. The first step is getting the height. Due to a feature in my room, the height of the layout will be no lower than 55.5" off the floor. That puts it on me at mid chest height. That puts me just slightly looking down on it. Not a lot, but definitely not looking up at it. 

I do have a question though.

I want to shadow box it in. Meaning I want to put a roof on it. I was thinking 18" off the top of the layout. That should give me room for decent size trees, buildings and still be able to reach into the back just in case of a mishap.

So would you say that is a good height for the shadow box or maybe a little lower. I will be lining the inside fascia of the shadow box with LEDs so I can turn the room lights off and run with the LEDs. The front Fascia of the shadow box will be a few inches lower than the underside of the shadow box. So the fascia will be lower than the 18" off the layout frame.

Looking for some guidance here from those that have built layouts.

Brian

[Donnell Wells]

Are you dipping your toe back into the N-scale pool?! Last summer I constructed two pair of T-Trak modules (4 modules) from cardboard in an effort to get some type of layout going so that I can see some trains run at home!

Donnell

[fishbelly]

Jan 30, 2023 19:46:31 GMT -8 Donnell Wells said:

Are you dipping your toe back into the N-scale pool?!

Donnell

I have to in order to have the layout I want. If I build it in HO, I would not be able to fit it in my room. If I downsize it for HO, then it becomes really cheesy and I would be switching one or two cars at a time. N-Scale gives me the best usage of space and operation that I want.

[Donnell Wells]

I feel you man! I dream of handlaid code 40 with number 10 and higher turnouts, super-detailed locomotives with GMM handrails, and maybe even those N-scale Sergent clones you made several years ago!

[Donnell Wells]

Honestly, I believe this is where TT-scale (1:120) would shine brightly!

[hudsonyard]

Looking forward to what you do in N scale Brian.

I've always felt the best N scale layouts are ones where they are allowed to exist explicitly as a LAYOUT and not just an N-Scale layout, i feel like a lot of guys lose the plot in N getting caught up in big scenery, or deep scenes and end having right of ways and equipment that look toyish. Anything I would build in N would start at chest height, and the operator would be placed in the scene, just as I would do in HO. design and track planning concepts would just be scaled down from how i would do it in HO or O.