Like most of us, we received our first model train around Christmas.  I was five and that Christmas morning I woke up to a Lionel train set and over track plain.  I played with it for hours and days.  I remember laying on the floor with my head facing the track and the train coming at me.  It was just a great time.  A couple years later I was either 8 or 9 and I went with my father to Alexander’s department store on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, NY.  On the way home I noticed my father was carrying a shopping bag and in it was a Lionel ZW transformer.  At that moment I realized that Santa Claus was my dad.  That same year  my father and I went to the local lumber yard which was advertising a train board – all it was a 4 x 8 piece of plywood that had 2 inch banding around it.  My dad and I carried it home 5 blocks to our small 2 bedroom apartment in the Projects.  There I set it up on one of those folding card tables and built my first layout from one of the Lionel catalogues.  Life was great.

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I continued to mess with Lionel trains until my 20s, got married which put my hobby on hold.  As life progressed we had 4 children and while in Tacoma, Washington due to space and cost I decided to explore HO Scale.  Tyco was my choice at that time and my kids enjoyed them.  At one point we moved to Colonial Heights Virginia where we purchased a 5 bedroom house.  I picked up one of those Atlas magazines (Six Model Railroads You can Build) and constructed one in my spare bedrooms.  I had a Y6B from AHM and a PA from Athearn.  I remember those engines ran great! 

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Unfortunately we moved again to Allenwood Pennsylvania and was never able to do any scenery on the layout.  Between work and raising a family, I found very little time to explore the hobby any further until the late 90s.  At this time I lived in Northern Virginia and joined the local model railroad club.  I was introduced to DCC which really excited me to the point that I had to get back in the hobby with both feet in.  I am fortunate to belong to a monthly operations group in my area which I was excited about not only having your own layout but to able to operate it with your fellow model railroaders.

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My wife Marie and I decided that it was time to relocate and downsize to a smaller house with a first floor master suite.  This gave me the opportunity to fine at basements with enough space to allow me to build the railroad of my dreams.

Luckily we came across one that met my wife’s needs which had an unfinished basement of 1,500 sq feet.   

Now what!  I got what I asked for, an unfinished basement but where do I start.

While the house was being built I started to some research on the internet to get a feeling from fellow model railroaders what there did with a space this size.  I decided to use the peninsula approach which allowed me to optimize the space (36ft x 34ft). 

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Once we moved into the house, I found myself with an unfinished basement and I decided to prep the basement to meet the following layout construction needs.  Below is a list of items I decided to identify in prepping the room.

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• Electrical Subpanel:  Layout space with its dedicated power

• Lighting:   Control layout lighting and aisle lighting separately.

• Valance:   Hide the fluorescent fixtures in the ceiling.

• Pre-wire for DCC:   Provide a dedicated circuit for DCC

• Power Districts:   Divide the layout into 5 districts and eliminate extra wiring under the layout

• Low Voltage:   Provide a dedicated circuit for lighting structures and other low voltage through the layout.

• Tortoise:   Provide a dedicated circuit

• Layout footprint:  I laid a layout footprint on the concrete floor

• Fast Clock:   Pre-wire 5 locations throughout the space.

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First we framed the basement.  Then with my sons help, I laid a layout footprint on the concrete floor with painters blue tape.  This gave me a feel for the aisle space and allowed me to visualize see the radius for the track plan.  By transferred the measurements to the ceiling, gave me the ability to strategically install recess lightning in the ceilings over the aisle and fluorescent fixtures over the layout.