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I’m tired of walking around the BRIO track on the living room floor, so we’re moving it to the basement. Will a 3/8″ plywood 4×8 sheet be thick enough, or should we go to 1/2″ to avoid warping. We’ll probably build legs [That means…, shove lengths of 2×4’s under it :^)] so it’s about 18″ off the floor. TIA Hey, has anyone figured out how to “murphy bed” railway track. I’d love to glue the track to the plywood, and put it on giant hinges. Fold it up to the wall.
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Replies
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Yes, there are lots of fold-down rail-roads, some very extensive, around. Check at a hobby shop for "track plans" and I'm sure you'll find one that you can adapt.
*I'd use 5/8" OSB. it will be thick enough, and should be a lot flatter than plywood. I set our track on a door slab on milk cases when our kids were really small. Worked well, but it limits how big they can make the track arrangement.
*Flatness and stability come not from the plywood but from the two by framing you put it on.-- J.S.
*most cookie cutter roadbed .. if you are going to use plywood... is done with 1/2" any grade.. overlay it with 1/2" homosote.. and cut your roadbed with beveled sides...so it will duplicate the profile of real roadbed you can spike your track to the homosote, but it is very difficult to spike track to plywood..as far as the frame goes.. most model railroad frame is made with 1x material.. a popular technique is "L-joists" or "T-joists"...with a 1x4 for teh joist and a 1x2 glue-nailed to the top & 2x3's for legs..any good hobby store has lots of books and magazines on all of these techniques...
*Any plywood will warp.MDF will lay flat.What in the world is a BRIO track???from context it sounds like an HO RR track type setup or an exercise machine.
*Brio is a wooden track train set for the 10 and under crowd..lots of pieces and possibilities for layouts...duplicating the profile of a real roadbed might be overkill, though.
*As a BRIO dad, I understand the situation. Like J.S. said, anything will warp, especially a full 4x8 sheet. To prevent the warp, you need to build a support system like joists under a floor. I would strongly suggest not "murphy bedding" the system because permanently affixing the system kills the fun for children. Adults might like a permanent system, because they will meticulously build stuff around it. But for kids, it's all about tracks and cars and moving around inside the loops (remember, they can't reach as far as you can). IMO, keep it on the floor and buy a thin rug to put it on if you don't want to have it on concrete.-Randy
*Thanks for thoughts guys. One reason i'd like to have it about 18" off the floor is so that all the model horses (about 20, of varying sizes) can have a "barn" under the track. You're right, Randy, half the fun of having Brio is being able to reconfigure it endlessly. With our small house, though, a space that big needs to do double duty.
*Martagon, if you built a big shallow box very low to the floor with casters, could you store it under a bed? Probably wouldn't solve the barn problem, but it might keep you from tripping over it...
*Hi Cami: Thanks for thought. But I think that we're gonna go with a 4x8 sheet, and just forget about having that space in the basement. There's a couch that we could get rid of :^) It'll be soon enough that the kids don't want to play with the brio, and then they'll be gone, and then I'll wish I had the train tracks to trip over again.
*Martagon, Dude you brought back some memories, I had a very extensive set in my early teens, learned a lot of basic skills and patience. Did't think people got into that sort of thing anymore, wouldn't mind locating some like minded folks to chat with. Found a couple of pictures just the other day.
*another photo
*Marklin ?buildings = Faller ?
*Phill, Right on Bud, not many people would recognize that, believe it or not I still have everything packed in boxes, it's been 36 years since I had it set up.
*Armin: WOW!
*What's left of my HO equipment is being excavated from boxes after about a 40 year hibernation since I gave my 8-year old a train set for Christmas. It's not in as good a shape as I imagined (e.g. I have all sprung trucks, the little springs are mostly shot and many just break up when you test the trucks).
*Model railroads were a big part of my youth and I still enjoy reading about railraod history. My dad was a fireman for the German railroad, my mother took me to the roundhouse when she brought him his lunch. According to my mom I was always fascinated with steam engines. I was to little to remember but somehow steam railroading must have gotten into my blood. The set in the picture was about 12 x 18ft and ran on three levels. that was my third and final layout,started when I was 13 and almost finished it by the time I turned 16. After high school the train room was needed for a wood shop so I packed it away. Someday I hope to rebuild a smaller version.The photo below is the train yard, the only section that never got finished.
*Martagon, How about gluing sheet magnet to the bottoms of the rail pieces and then you can a)use an old refrigerator door b)put a sheet of metal over the plywood or c)use magnetic paint on the ply. Then you should be able to 'murphy bed' it without taking away the fun of rearranging it.
*I like Amy's Magnet idea. But be careful, the magnets under the track may interfere with the operation of the trains, since they are all magnet based, as are the accesories.
*Thanks for suggestions, I think we'll just go with a sheet of plywood, but we'll re-inforce the bottom of it with some 2x2's. I guess a triangular pattern would be best, eh? Given the weight of some of the pieces (bridges, crane track,) I don't think the magnets would hold it.
*Just remember, a 1/4" piece of play epoxied to a 2" piece of foam will be stronger, lighter, and stiffer than 3/4 ply (which is what was the standard in the '50s), And it's cheap too !
*The Advantech square edge sheathing we buy is less expensive than plywood, more dense than plywood and dead flat. It is not perfectly smooth like AC plywood, so for trains you would want to cover it with something a little more finished.
*In the basement you could rig up 4 pullys in the corners. When kids want to play, you can lower it to the ground onto some milk crates or something. This gives you the murphy-bed convenience without having to glue the tracks or box up the componants every time. (If it'sa nice finished basement you wouldn't want this plywood up on the ceiling all the time though). The 2X frame is definitely a must. I like the 2" foam idea though.My kid is just starting to get into Brio. I think I've boxed up the tracks 200 times since Christmas already....I feel your pain!
*I bet that the people who make train sets like that these days, and the people who do needlepoint, make clocks, and so on, all spend about 1/5 the time watching television as the rest!
*Kerr, Try 1/10 the time.
*Phil, Phil, why didn't you tell me this earlier. My DH ordered the ply today. Not sure what he ordered, but knowing his over-kill, it's probably 5/8. Would have been so much easier. I'll ask him in the morning, see if he can change it before it's delivered. Stray, I love the image of hoisting the whole platform straight up, but my ceiling is already too low.
*Sorry, I thought one of the current RR buffs would have mentioned it. Long ago when I made layouts for Christmas displays and for sale, they were made with bulkheads and screening between strips of ply; now the whole thing is made out of structural foam. I'm teaching my little guy to build a diorama over his vacation for his grade 3 project on medieval castles - the whole thing is a foam landscape base, cardboard structures, paper-mache contouring, and grout mixed with Weldbond for surfaces. Not quite up to sculptured structural foam, but he hasn't the skills to use the foam-cutter freehand yet and I want him to learn some of the classic methods first.
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I'm tired of walking around the BRIO track on the living room floor, so we're moving it to the basement. Will a 3/8" plywood 4x8 sheet be thick enough, or should we go to 1/2" to avoid warping. We'll probably build legs [That means..., shove lengths of 2x4's under it :^)] so it's about 18" off the floor. TIA Hey, has anyone figured out how to "murphy bed" railway track. I'd love to glue the track to the plywood, and put it on giant hinges. Fold it up to the wall.