Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Decide upon a theme for your tabletop railroad display and purchase the necessary scenery and railroad cars to bring your theme to life. Choose an elevated surface in your home or garage which you can dedicate to your model railroad layout.
Measure the table that you have decided to build your model train layout on. Write down the tabletop's length and width in inches on the top left corner of a piece of graphing paper.
Consider the basic continuous and point-to-point track styles that you can choose from in building your track. Decide between a simple oval, figure 8 or folded dogbone design for a looping track that will keep trains continuously running on it. Or, select a point-to-point track design like a wye, reversing track, spur or ladder that you can use to run trains to a point on the table, then reverse them and run them back to the beginning of the track.
Draw your design in pencil on the graphing paper. Draw the track layout to scale. Write the scale in the top left corner of the graph paper so that you know your dimensions are accurately represented. Set each graph square equal to 1 inch or 1/4 inch depending on how large an area you are working with so that you can fit your track layout onto one piece of graphing paper.
Plan in grades, different elevations, access areas and aisle space as desired to make the track layout as detailed and complex or simple and basic as you desire.
Purchase sectional model railroad track according to your plan and lay it out on top of your tabletop. Make adjustments as desired while constructing the track. After all the tracks are laid out according to your plans and desires, use craft glue to glue them down to the tabletop surface, if desired, to secure them in place there. Add scenery and trains, supply power and start operating your model railroad.