New Locale, Less Space

 My new office has much less space for my trains. Sad, I know, but in 3 months I will have a new house with a dedicated train room! I still won't let my office stay train-less, so I build a small display shelf. It is a simple L-shaped shelf made from leftover shelf-work from the cubicle layout.

Instead of just slapping the track on the shelf, I created a tiered sub-roadbed from Expanded polystyrene insulation sheets. Yes, Styrofoam, not the pink stuff (Extruded polystyrene). If you have read my previous posts, you know I try to find the cheaper way to do things. However, this was not such a good idea. I should have listened to others' advice and avoided Styrofoam like the plague it is. It doesn't cut well, it gets static clinging pieces all over the place, and you can't get any detail out of it. I had to paint it to make it not shed its stuff anymore.

 But, now that its done, it is light, and looks good for a simple display shelf. I am not sure what kind of things to add besides trains and track. I was thinking about learning to do rock walls for the different tiers. This would be a perfect place to learn and try different materials and techniques. If you have any ideas for how to make the display look interesting or even a prototype area to look at, feel free to drop a comment!

 Hopefully over the next few posts I can start sharing some of my ideas for the new train room along with the progress of this display layout.

Thanks for reading,
Peter Lieber