Ceiling to train room

 I have spent the last 40 years or so in train rooms. I have found that the environments I like best are the ones that are nicely finished. I recently was in one train room that left all the ceiling joists, plumbing, and wiring exposed, BUT, everything from the top of the backdrop up was painted flat black. That room was stunning. Generally basements or train rooms with exposed plumbing, wiring, a/c ducts, etc are not that pleasant. Normally I’m distracted by the operations itself, so this is ALMOST never a deal breaker, but a clean, finished train room environment is much more desirable.

When I looked at the ceiling in my basement, well it’s pitiful. I’m supposed to be some sort of professional carpenter, well propmaker anyway, and looking up at that mess makes me sick. So I gave some thought to the ceiling. I didn’t lose sleep, or spend long hours comparing different products, I simply looked up, thought I need something that I can remove so I can make any necessary repairs or improvements. My Go-To would normally be drywall, but that’s a none starter if I need access. This immediately diverted me towards a drop or T-Bar ceiling.

I’ve built tons of these for movie sets. I’ve made it so the entire ceiling can be swung away, in one piece, for access by the shooting company. So a permanently installed T-bar ceiling isn’t a problem. It fits my skill set.

A long main plumbing soil pipe runs almost the entire length of the basement and this will need to be concealed. My plan here is a small 2x4 pony wall suspended from the ceiling, parallel to the pipe, just big enough to clear the bottom of the pipe by about 1/2”. Then ridged, paintable panels screwed to hard points along the run of the pipe. In a plumbing emergency these panels can come down easily.

This will also creat a soffit the length of the basement, dropping head height to about 6’-11”. Not high, but not terrible, none of my potential crewmen come from the NBA. the remainder of the ceiling can “soar” up to about 7’-10”, respectable. 

All these restricted ceiling heights are because my original plans were for a stand alone building for the trains. 36x70 metal building. Of course the best laid plans of mice and men are often upset by cats and women. My wife suggested, in a moment of weakness that the trains would be better off situated in the basement. I was exhausted from building the house, we both were experiencing severe construction fatigue. So the basement sounded REALLY good to me.

It still does. There’s just a few challenges to overcome.

Anyway the soffit will be an excellent attachment point for the T-bar ceiling along that side of the room. Around the perimeter of a room you need to attack a piece of L-metal that the T-bar cross members tie into, and it also catches the ceiling panels at that point. I’ll attach the L-Metal to the walls around the perimeter and along both sides of the soffit running down the middle.

The majority of this soffit will be over the main yard, so it will not, strictly, be an issue over the layout.

There’s still lots to do. In between days I’m working on projects to finish off the house, or make improvements to the existing structure, on rain or snow days I’m down in the basement doing layout room prep. Currently I’m running the 110v outlets around the room. Once they’re done and the wiring home runs are run back to the panel, I can start the ceiling.

In any case I’m looking at the drop ceiling as the next big project in the train room.