I took advantage of a golden opportunity of visiting the dumpster on a
weekend many years ago. It was filled with pile carpeting that looked
fairly new. I hauled it home. I think it might have been cut for a
mobile home with a long 3' hallway and a couple of bedroom sized
chunks. I actually used most of it with little cutting so now visitors
to my layout walk on it today. It's not fastened down so I can actually
remove it to clean.
For those with duck-unders, I borrowed a suggestion from a HO friend who
had one. He bought some yellow rubber ducks that hang as a warning not
to become upright too soon. I also bought several from the 99 cent
store to remind everyone to duck!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi Dave --
I should stay limber for a long time then. I rarely put the drop
bridges down that allow one to duck and walk into the layout. It
does help that I have plush carpet throughout the trainroom (protected
by throw rugs or other things in areas where I do work). I have had
to crawl under other layouts with hard surface floors, and that is
hard on the knees. I can recommend that anyone with a crawl under
put down some nice plush carpet with good padding underneath. It
should extend beyond the crawl space far enough that you can be clear
of benchwork before and after going through and still be on the
carpet. It also helps if there is some sort of grab to help one get
up again!
Have fun!
Bill Winans
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For those who don’t know, to operate Frank’s layout, you had to crawl
under a section of the layout. When I first met Frank, he said if he
couldn’t get in there it was time to stop model railroading. BTW, he
did widen the section you had to crawl under later, but what’s a few
more inches when you’re already down on your hands and knees.
And those track planning gurus complain about liftouts. I think you
stay more limber if you crawl under your layout regularly.
Dave Heine
If I may add one other thought regarding Frank...when I started to
unpack my gear and crawl around under the layout I was having some
back/muscle issues, but Frank, who must be 20+ years older, was having
no problems moving around under and around his layout--he stayed
healthy for a long time even while his working life wasn't a cake walk.
Bob
