Why Your Model Train Room Needs Fascia Now!

And hello again, this is Mike with another episode of Toy Train Tips and Tricks. Very often when we are building a new layout, the push is to get the trains running, get the track laid, get the wiring done, get the trains running. And other things such as beautification of the layout, beautification of the train room itself, they get pushed off for another day. And another day someday doesn't come for a very long time. And the same was true in my case. The emphasis was on getting the trains running, getting them up, getting them running. And for way too long, my bench work was exposed. You could see the rafters and the lighting and everything else in my unfinished basement. And it was time to take care of that. So I want to share with you my system for this, I wanted not only to beautify the bottom of the layout, hiding the legs and the wiring and everything else, but still maintaining access underneath where I can still get underneath to store boxes that I don't need for a very long time, but I still want to keep. Also to have access for the electronics, for the wiring, for the Arduino boards, for switch controllers and bus lines and accessories and things like that so I didn't want just a solid panel I wanted to have sections that could pull down for access where I could reach in and get to those of my clients and in fact mount some of the components on the back side and then of course I wanted not just the bottom of the layout to be helped but because this is an unfinished space I have rafters with pipes and heating vents and dangling wires. I have the open windows over on the other side of the room. And all of those things can be distractions to the trains, the focus of our modeling. So I wanted something that, while visitors are standing, and myself as well, would block that view. Now from a low position, yes, you can see under this. But from a standing position. I used my own standing. I'm not quite six feet tall, so I put it just below my eye level to where I cannot see those things while I am standing. My material is one-eighth inch masonite board, paneling. It's screwed in place. If I wanted a continuous piece across the front, it would be easy enough to just screw into the top and let it dangle. However, since my system's a little bit fancier than that. I needed to do a little bit more bench work. So not only do I have a board running across the bottom where I have my seams of my different panels, I needed to add some extra reinforcement. So that's the main carpentry I had to do. I had to add these bottom pieces and some vertical pieces where I wanted these access panels. Painted a dark color. You want to go with a dark color so that the eye kind of ignores it. The eye can't make out the details of things that are dark colored, so not only does the eye kind of ignore it, but it also helps cover blemishes and things where maybe you didn't get the cut exactly right, or maybe you didn't get the angle exactly right. A good coat of dark paint will cover a lot of sins. In this case, I used some recycled paint that was available from my local Habitat for Humanity Restore, but any dark color will do. So let's go through the steps of how I made it happen. So for my setup I'm using two different types of panels. One type is fixed. I'm never going to move that one and it is screwed in place. And I have my hinged panels where I can mount electronics for easy access or just for easy access to choke points on the layout. A third way that I can do it, although I haven't done it on this layout, I've done it in past layouts, is a semi-removable section. Not hinged, but just a part that I may every once in a while have to get underneath the layout and access it, either for storage or for access to a switch machine or something like that. Have a panel that is just put up with Velcro on all sides and pull it out. You don't need to hinge it for work on the electronics on the back side, you just need it for access underneath. Velcro works great for that. So I have my cross braces in place ready for the panels. Now for my hinged panels, here is the trick. So I've got a piano hinge, a long piano hinge, and actually I'm going to use two of them, two 12 inch piano hinges on the bottom. And I want my panel, when I'm working on it, to fold out towards me so that I will be able to work at it from here, rather than if I fold it up then I've got to get underneath it still to access the panel so I want it to fold down. So the trick with that is I'm going to use this scrap piece assume that this is my bottom crossmember here I want the hinge to be on the bottom attach my panel here so that it can swing down and out down and out. Now the other trick with this is notice of course on our wood there's it's rounded just a little bit. It's not a square corner. We need to make sure that the hinge is square. If it is out of alignment because of that round corner, not only is it going to affect the angle at which the panel can swing, but it can cause pressure points against the hinge and it won't turn the way it's supposed to. So I'm going to put mine in place and as I'm starting the screws I'm going to clamp it in place to make sure it doesn't go anywhere. So I want to mount these on the bottom of my support brace. My panel will be screwed into this and that way when it folds out it will be able to fold down even if it's not perfectly lined up on the bottom it will still clear as it folds out. I've got it clamped in place so I can screw it and then I'll I have one on this side, one on this side, and then I will attach this to my panel next. With the hinges attached to my support board, I'm ready to add my panel, right? Wrong. First, I added some support to the back of the flimsy masonite boards with these burring strips, and I pre-drilled the holes for my hinges. So after the support frame is cut, then I screwed in my hinges to my panel. but instead of using the supplied wood screws, I use M4 by 10 millimeter machine screws. So rather than having the pointy end of the wood screws poking through the board, I have the washers and nuts on the other side. A little safer, a little less likely to slice yourself open and leave a trip to ER. Then to hold the panel up, we have Velcro tabs. Now the next panel, secure panel is much easier to put up. Unlike the hinged electrical panel here, this one needs to be steadily secured. So after putting up my end brackets, this one is going to be screwed tight. This one is going to be responsible for holding significant weight. A transformer using angle brackets and a shelf. What's next? A fresh coat of paint covers up all of my blemishes, my seams, the new shelf, all of my screw heads and bolt heads and makes it all look nice and shiny and new again. But Mike, you say that's great for the space between the layout and the bottom of this fascia board, but what do I do about from the bottom of the fascia to the floor? All it takes is some landscaping weed fabric. It's black, it's durable, and it's made to go outdoors so if you do have a slight problem with moisture in the basement at some point. It will not be ruined by an inch or two of water and of course most importantly it's inexpensive. To mount the weave fabric you can either cut it to length or just double it over and you're going to install these wooden clothes pins on the back of your fascia. These I got at Walmart in a hundred pack for like four bucks for a hundred of them. And then just take a little bit of hot glue, put it on the back of your clothespin, mount it to the back side of your fascia board, let it dry for a few seconds, and then you simply push this open, push your weave fabric into the jaws, let go, and it's held. Another advantage to the weave fabric is if I should change my mind about the look, I can tear it down in the spring, throw it in the garden, and upgrade with some real fabric. And while you're cleaning up the skirting underneath the layout, don't forget to look up. In an unfinished basement like mine, especially all of the lights, the joists, the HVAC, the windows, all of those things can be great distractions from the layout. So using the same principles with our masonite paneling, hang it from the ceiling to hide the stuff that's up above eye level. Now how you do this is going to be dependent upon your particular situation. In my case, I'm very lucky because this unfinished basement gives me access to the joists overhead where I can hang supports for the masonite. But now that I have this installed, at least when standing, I can't see the lights, I can't see the heating, I can't see the plumbing, I can't see the electrical, and I can't see the windows on the other side. Another tip is to cover seams in our panels, especially on the upper fascia board. You don't want the light on this side shining through and ruining the effect of your light valence. So what do you use to fill the seams? Everybody's favorite construction material, duct tape. Now make sure you use a good quality duct tape, not the dollar store kind, but put the seam on there, paint over it, nobody will know the difference. Oh, and by the way, when you do your light valances, if, like on mine, you can see this from both sides, paint both sides. If it's up against the wall, only worry about painting the front side. going around a corner or even an S-curve, this will bend accordingly if you secure it properly. And now everyone focuses on the trains and not on my unfinished ceiling. In the future I may put labels on the fascia to identify the different parts of the layout and let visitors and guest engineers know what's going on and where things are, or I may just decide to leave it flat. I don't know. And here I have easy access to my electronics that I'm going to mount in here to hold it in place. All I have is these little velcro strips. Now the failure point on these velcro strips is the adhesive. It's pretty cheap. So again, using the hot glue gun to reinforce the glue on both sides. The velcro stays in place and the panel stays where you put it. When assembling your panels, don't forget to paint around all of the little nooks and crannies around the outside so that when the panels come together you don't see bare wood in the seams. That would distract from the eye. So here it is a skirting system that both improves the look of the layout and it's functional with giving me places to store my electronics, places to perhaps mount pictures, and beautifies the underneath of the layout where I store all my stuff so that people aren't looking at all of the boxes underneath the layout. All they see is the black skirting out of sight, out of mind. So if you have tips about a way that you've done skirting on your layout, be sure to leave your tips in the comments. Like, share, subscribe, tell your friends, and tell your neighbors. Keep the trains running, and more beautifully. And we'll catch you next time with more Toy Train Tips and Tricks.