So where are you going to place your toy train anyway? That looks pretty good but did you say it floods a bit in here when it rains. Yeah that’s the problem, isn’t it? It’s good to carefully think through where we place our setup. Here’s some suggestions:
Ground based plans:
Some people just set up their locomotives right on the floor. This preserves the time and effort of buying or making a hobby table, but it is not very good for tinier trains. It is one thing to have a g size train on the floor or in your back yard, but it is another to stare down at the smaller build of an HO train set. The bird’s eye view of the tinier sizes brings out the drawbacks of theses locomotives. Not to mention that your locomotives are much more likely to be smushed and damaged in careless moments. A higher elevation tends to foreground the strengths of HO and N size trains. Even O trains look better on a hobby table.
Built in display areas
If you’re really fortunate there is a location in your house that is already elevated and huge sufficiently that it can play a dual role as display area. This pre-existing shelf solves the problem of elevation perhaps and if you are extremely blessed can find the perfect place for our toy trains. Very few of us are this blessed however. You might try to fool yourself into believing that you have found the perfect spot but consider the problem aspects of this arrangement. These areas tend to be too small for a toy train track plan and they tend not to be configured in the right way. So instead of creating a space for your track plan, you are altering your track plan to fit the awkwardness of your space. Even if you are into the smallest kinds of hobby locomotive these areas tend not to work all that well.
Another lucky possibility is that you happen to have a spare table just lying around somewhere:
Some hobby trainers just use an old area they had lying around abandoned. This helps in that you can carry the table to the spot you would like, but the majority of areas that are not specifically designed for hobby training have other drawbacks. Not only are many such surfaces weak, but you still have to adjust your locomotive display to conform with the pre-existing dimensions of your area rather than the other way around.
A table that says “I’m cheap but I know the value of hand crafting”:
For the make-it-from-scratch crowd, nothing is better than imagining and building a hobby surface themselves. Often we handymen and women will expand an existing spot to make it work for the model train layout we had in mind. This is a great decision because it gives your model locomotive a unique platform and because you can configure it as you see fit. The obvious problem here is the amount of time and skill that it takes to make such a table. Just as large of a problem is the fact that such surfaces tend to be permanently one size and as your model training empire expands you have to go through the trouble of building yet another surface to increase your surface area. Such a project can be a very inconvenient drag on our time. I won’t put down homemade tables except to say that if your engineering talents don’t extend beyond hobby locomotives, trying to build a area can really be a black hole of time and effort that you may not have much to show for on the other side.
Domino style tables:
If you’re willing to spare the expense, the best kind of model train tables are probably the domino style areas. These sturdy but lightweight areas come in 2’ by 4’ cutouts that are designed to be connected together in any fashion that you would like so that multiple areas can be put together to fill any area. These areas do away with many of the spatial limitations that you might have had with other table options. They let you realize your mental plan as you saw it. Because they are so easy to track plan and move they are ideal for taking to conventions and for moving out of the way if you do not have a permanent spot to display your locomotives in. You can also more easily transport your table if you want to show your design around. In short, this is perfection in hobby surfaces.
With your table choice out of the way you are now free to really embark on your toy locomotive adventure. Bon voyage!
Here is more information on Model Train Track. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.
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