My Little Layout - By Finno

Hi All,

I don't have a lot of space at my place so I had to be creative with this compact Plarail layout. It's on top of an old TV cabinet in our spare room and I actually have to stand on a step to access the track at the back. 

As mentioned elsewhere my collection is smallish and I slowly add to my layout piece by piece when I think of something that would look good. Currently looking to add some more clear tunnels and underground tunnels.

[Super]

Nice use of limited space Finno. How many trains can run at one time?

If I may ask: What arcade machine is that on the left?

There are 4 separate tracks with a few turn offs on the ground track. if I'm feeling nimble I run 2 trains on each of the bottom two tiers - just have to keep an eye on their speeds and spacing. So all up 6 trains.

I made several attempts to build a multi tier layout and finally came to this one which dips at the front because I like to keep a view of the tracks along the back.

Arcade machine is a home made Mame cabinet. I can post some pics of it. Somewhere on the internets I have a blow by blow photo tutorial from when I built it many years ago. Will see if I can find the link.

That’s very impressive! You’ve made really good use of the Plarail “stackability” to maximizing your operating space. I appreciate when others do that well because it’s a feature I rarely use on my own layouts.

[Super]

You built the whole cabinet and the game system inside it too? Wow, yes, I would like to see the blow by blow Link.

@Finno... Awesome layout !!!

You built the whole cabinet and the game system inside it too? Wow, yes, I would like to see the blow by blow Link.

Here you go:

How I Built an Arcade Machine Cabinet in 65 Complicated Steps

https://finnosworld.blogspot.com/2016/03...et-in.html

[Super]

WOW!!! Very impressive, it looks like a professional cabinet. Excellent work for someone who admits to having no experience do things like this. One of the many things I am impressed with is your diligence in documenting every step of the entire build. The graphics are amazing, did you take them to a professional printer shop once you finished the design?

Yes. I used photoshop to combine community made graphics (mostly the game characters) and added some glow effects, a nice font and the shapes for the controls layout.

Then took it to a local printer as high quality PDF's. The control panel is on thick sticker stock. The side graphics are actually adhesive vinyl and the marquee is a thinner, but good quality paper stock so the light will still shine through it.

It was a fun project. It took me several months. Because I'm not a pro I just researched everything methodically and went slow.

This Layout has now been retired so here is a little video to remember it by:



I have some ideas to use some different scenery. More on that later.