Over
the years I've had the WWSL located in a spare bedroom in a bachelors
officers quarters, a spacious attic, a large garage and most recently I bought a basement - with a house above it - for the latest location of the WWSL. The layout started small and as fortune and space presented itself the layout grew.
Layouts are often found in garages, basements, spare bedrooms, family
rooms, etc. It is humorously said that the layout location is often
determined by the negotiating skills of the modeler with his significant
other!
I had a choice at this location. I had a two car garage and a basement. The garage is unheated and does not have a entry door either to the outside or to the house. Both are negatives when it comes to consideration of locating the layout. I did it with the WWSL version 2 and it was definitely a 2 season layout.
The basement is a grand 30' long by 25' wide. It has entry from inside the house and of course its heated and cooled.
One square = 1 square foot
As basements go, its an ideal design for any large layout. The utilities (furnace and hot water heater) are located in the lower left hand corner. The stairs are at the lower right corner and the set tub, washer/dryer location and circuit breaker panel are at the center right wall. Two lally posts are located along the center line. This allows 3/4 of the basement to be used for the layout - and the other 1/4 is convenient for utilities and crew lounge/workshop. Minus the mechanical configuration of the basement (furnace, water
heater, stairs and utility room area) the basement provides a footprint of some 575
square feet of space for railroad modeling.
Conveniently, its rectangular shape permitted the WWSL version 2 to 'drop' into it with no changes. The addition of 6' in length and 12' in width allows 8 additional
modules for operational improvements, extended running, and greater
scenic possibilities. A crew lounge and work area can be included in the final design.
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