Designing layouts to be portable

[PaulRhB]

Having done a few shows over the years you see everything from the layout that folds up into a briefcase and takes minutes to set up and take away through to the monsters that seem to take 2 or more hours to assemble.

Obviously you can't fit every dream layout in a car so many hire vans and I've seen some ingenious solutions to protecting the layout, making it quick to (un)pack and load into your chosen vehicle. The Widnes lads even had roll cages to stack stuff in to make a quick exit but unless you have a clubroom they might be a bit difficult to store.

My current layout just fits in a Transit by stacking the boards in pairs and as I'm now thinking of the next project I thought I'd share a few thoughts on possible alternatives.

Here are a few views of it all crammed in the van.

 

 

 

Now here's some ideas based on a solution I saw on a layout at Warley where they had a series of trollies that joined together. I adapted it by using the same idea but putting a second board stored underneath and some stock storage. This would require a van or trailer but if the layout is big this will be a requirement anyway. Hopefully the drawings show the idea best.

 

I then considered how to adapt it for a car boot.

Splitting the trolley into two pieces so you can still wheel it around easily. Lifting out the wheeled section and then stacking the second bit on top. Once in the hall the other sections can be pulled out and then set up attached to the trolley as in the previous idea.