Michael, just found this thread, the plan looks pretty good, I would have had a longer yard lead, but it looks like you can still work the yard from the inside main, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. I've never attempted the spline roadbed, looks like you're doing a good job. Sweet additions to your fleet as well!
It has been a while since I last made a post about my layout. I am still working on it. I have the spline roadbed done, and wired the layout for DCC. I am using an NCE PowerCab. However, I am not quite happy with my plan. I would like to have better staging, and I might change the yard and adopt more of a plan like Charlie Comstock's Bear Creek and South Jackson #1. So here is my idea for hidden staging. All of the hidden staging is at 2% grade, the visible tracks are at 1.5% grade. Please tell me if you think this will work. I listed the elevations at the overpasses. The minimum clearance is 2.65 inch the max clearance is 2.8 inches. I do have access from the bottom. I would like to be able to do some switching and then have the occasional train come up from staging and end up back in staging. Maybe make use of some interchange action. Also, I left out all of the interior tracks for clarity, but you can see where the one turnout leads to nowhere in the lower right. I was also going to add a second crossover in the same area as the existing one, lower center. I have not fully decided on this, so any comments (good or bad) would be appreciated! Thanks, Michael
Looks like it will all work. I don't think you'll have any clearance issues even with double stacks but I don't model the modern era so could be wrong. My only concerns would be the proximity of tracks to the layout edge/fascia and that it looks like your staging tracks will be on a grade. I try to always keep turnouts and sidings on the level - but that's just me. Could be I'm just superstitious. Really enjoy seeing your progress, keep up the great work!
AZ, Thanks, I have been contemplating expanding the fascia. I do have some room on the left side, and the edge of the drawing is not accurate. But I would like to add about 3 inches the whole way around. Regarding the staging being on grade, I hadn’t thought about that. However, I do plan on having an engine attached at all times. They would basically be trains in waiting. I would have one train as a southbound and the other as a northbound. I’ve been enjoying your 3 x 9 as well. I really like photoshop images with the topography and clay. Thanks for the comment. Michael
I was able to expand the layout about 2 inches all around by simply removing the supports from the fascia and allowing the fascia to naturally curve out a bit and then added the adjusted supports back in. Here is the completed plan. As I said it borrows from Charlie Comstock’s BCSJ 1. He states that a couple of things he felt he did wrong were “Lack of Staging” and "No way to turn a locomotive”, I addressed both of these issues. Thanks for looking, Michael
I've made some slight modifications to my layout plan. Here is the latest image. I basically just flipped the direction of the upper and lower staging ladders to eliminate the overlay of main line to staging in the lower center. This also gave me a longer lead-in to staging from the lower center which resulted in a slightly longer run and slightly shallower grade throughout the staging area. I'll be working this Saturday and Monday on the roadbed. Comments or suggestions are always welcome. Thanks, Michael
I made some progress on the railroad over the weekend and Monday. Here are some photos of the new roadbed being installed. The inner plywood loop is the staging area. This is the first spline leading up to the inner main loop. It is just temporarily attached by the clamp until I get the radius correct. Another angle. One more angle. Thanks for looking. Michael
One last shot showing how I joined the spline to the plywood. I used my circular saw to make the cut, the width of the spline is just slightly more than the thickness of the blade, so I had to make two passes. I glued and clamped the spline in place. The spline being 3/4 inch is slighly thicker than the 3/4 inch plywood, so I had to make sure it was flush with the top of the plywood. The block adds a bit of strength to prevent the spline from snapping where it enters the plywood. This is a shot of my power connection. I am using a heavy duty extension cord to the wall. Michael
Here are some shots of the DCC wiring that I had previously installed. I am using an NCE Power Cab. This shot shows the Power Cab's Power Cable on top and the NCE CP6 circuit breaker below. The CP6 provides protection for up to 6 main bus lines. I will also be adding an Auto Switch to power the programming track and the USB Interface to attach to my PC for use with JMRI and DecoderPro and hope to eventually control my layout with my iPhone and iPod wirelessly. At the bottom of the bench work you see the green and red wires of my main bus not yet attached to the CP6. This shows the other end of the main bus with the ends terminated using RF Filters. The white and blue wires are for the local bus. This is the connection from the main bus below (red and green) to the local bus above (white and blue). I used blue Posi-Tap connectors for the connections. I will be using white and blue feeders from each section of track to attach to the local bus. I am using orange wires for my turnout points. Thanks for looking, Michael
I have not posted in a while , but progress continues, somewhat. More like one step forward and two steps backward. I had started laying track down, but I did not like the results I was getting. I did not like the cork that I laid down and I was not to happy with the Micro Engineering turnouts. I know a lot of people like the ME turnouts, but I had originally wanted to use FastTracks, and the look of the MEs was disappointing to me. I also found them to be very fragile. I installed a few using clear caulk. After deciding I did not like the positioning, I found it very difficult to remove the turnouts without pulling the track away from the small plastic fingers on the ties. I used sheet cork for my roadbead and was not at all happy with the ballast profile that I was getting with a razor blade, or the uneven width of the top surface. I also found that my spline sub-roadbed was not flat enough or level enough to give me the results that I was looking for. It seems the slightest unevenness in the subroadbed shows up in the finished results. So, since this is my Practice Railroad... I pulled up all of the cork roadbed that was covering the spline sub-roadbed. The remaining cork roadbed is on top of plywood in the hidden staging area, I think I will be able to use it as it is. I decided to use drywall spakling on top of the spline sub-roadbed to even out any irregularities in the spline. After drying and sanding I was able to get a very flat and level surface. Using an 8 inch sanding block helped get rid of any peaks and valleys. I decided to go with a homesote product called homabed for the roadbed. It is available from a company called. California Roadbed Co. Inc. Their website is http://www.homabed.com. They also sell Arizona Rock and Mineral Co. ballast. Homabed comes in strips like standard cork with either a 45 degree profile or a more prototypical 60 degree profile. It is much more expensive than cork, however. I have only laid a few strips so far, but I am very happy with the results. It is very easy to work with and no mess at all. I am not in anyway affiliated with California Roadbed Co. Here are some photos: This first picture shows the overall layout with all of the cork removed and the drywall spakling sanded smooth and level. The homabed comes in straight or curvable pieces. I didn't buy any straight since I have very few straight sections. Scarfing on the edges allow the homabed to follow the curves. The pieces have the scarfing on opposite sides. You have to be careful to keep the scarfed edge facing the outside of the curve. This picture shows the start of the first curve section. Since I could no longer see the center spline, I used a compass to mark the center of the spline. I applied clear caulk to the bottom of the homabed and set it in place. You could also use nails instead of caulk, but I thought it would be difficult to nail into the splines. This is a close up of the homabed with the 60 degree profile. After installation it is recommended to cover the homabed with a thin layer of spakling to hide the scarfing and any nail holes, then seal with paint. The second strip from the right is not glued down yet. This shows how the top of the homabed roadbed matches the width of the ties. I will be adding supper elevation to the spline using 1/4 inch tape that is on order. Then the outer section of homabed will get installed and spakling will be used to smooth out the top of the homabed. I am looking forward to receiving my order from FastTracks to come in so I can start on my turnouts and finally get some track laid. Thanks for looking, Michael
Looking great Micheal.I've been absent from the board for quite sometime and just read your entire thread.Very imformative.I,too,am about to start a "practice" model railraod tho mine will be even smaller.Lookin at 28"x50" or a small switching layout.Anyhow I'm gonna keep an eye on your progress for possible ideas:thumbs_up:
Thanks half-pint! Glad you enjoyed it. Good luck with yours, I'll keep an eye out for your post. The great thing about a practice layout, you can and should tear up what you don't like. That is the only way to learn what works for you. Thanks for looking! Michael
Hi all, Finally some more updates. I have completed installing the Homabed roadbed on my mainline. I have decided to lay some track on the mainline before proceeding to the branch line so that I can finally get some trains running. These first two shots show the the Homabed installed and the spackeling sanded smooth. I really like the Homabed it is very easy to work. This third shot shows how the superelevation turned out. I started out using 8 strips of 1/4 inch tape along the outside edge of subroadbed (spline) but the elevation looked too steep. It may have been due to the placement of the tape being too close to the center of the splines, maybe my spline subroadbed is too narrow. To correct the problem I added two layers of 1/4 inch tape to the inside edge on top of the Homabed. I was planing to level the top of the roadbed with spackel anyhow, so adding the two layers on the inside was not a problem. You can just see the 1/4 inch tape below the engines inside wheel. More to come shortly. Thanks for looking, Michael
Last update for this week, Here is the Homabed after sealing with grey paint. I chose grey since that is close to the color of the ballast I plan to use. This nice straight section will be the area in the lower center of the mainline. I will need to fill in the areas where the turnouts cross between the two mainlines, but that will have to wait till I make the Fast Tracks turnouts for this area. Here is a picture of some poor planing. I somehow managed to get my splines too close together in this section. I had to trim the edge of the roadbed back a bit to make sure it laid down properly. Look at the right edge of the left roadbed. It should not be too noticeable once the ballast is put down. One area that I might change next time would be to use 45 degree profile Homabed for the outside edge the superelevated curves. The 60 degree profile ends up being pretty flat after the edge is elevated. I think the 45 degree edge might flatten out closer to the desired 60 degree profile. See my previous post for a better picture of the superelevated curve. I've also started a new thread in the Layout Design Discussion with some possible layout changes. See here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=131637 Again, comments and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for looking, Michael
That superelevation is pretty steep, but I think it looks darned good, too. That engine looks like its at high speed even just sitting there.
Hey Michael! Glad to see you making more progress on the layout. The sub-roadbed looks excellent! Any predictions on how soon before your golden spike ceremony? Looks like it could be very soon!
Kaiser, Thanks! I hope it is not too steep. I guess only time will tell when I get some trains finally running. It was a bit steeper before I added the extra two layers of tape to the inside of the curve. I think that was a good idea. I subroadbed was level before I started laying the Homabed. Thanks, Michael
Thanks Mark! I have been working on it steadily for the past year. Sometimes one step forward two steps back. My train work is limited to about one night a week per negotiations with my wife. I do get other track work time in here and there, but Monday evenings is all trains. I actually had my golden spike moment, but I did not like the outcome and decided to remove the track and the cork roadbed and start over. I had 7 ME turnouts laid and one piece of flex track. The removal was a mess, but I think well worth it. I decided to make certain that the sub-roadbed was smooth and level throughout. One issue was that I have not been and still am not fully satisfied with my plan (see my other post). I need more room than I have staked out. I wish I could just take the whole room that the train is in, but those negotiations have not gone too well. I decided to add the hidden staging after the spline sub-roadbed was installed. This meant changing elevations and forcing the spline to go where it had not been originally set. I think the change in elevation changed/twisted the top profile of the spline, because it was no longer level in many placed. Thus the need to get out the drywall compound and set things straight... or, level that is. I also made sure all elevation transitions were as smooth as possible. Also, the lower section where all the crossovers are had a slight elevation change between main lines. I thought this was multiple derailments waiting to happen. I hope to have my next golden spike ceremony in the next week or so. I am waiting for my shipment from Fast Tracks, and after I get a turnout or two made, I will get them laid and start working from there. I have my Fast Tracks PC ties ready to use as my rail joiners. Thanks for the idea; I am looking forward to giving that a try. Does anyone need any slightly used ME #6 turnouts? Thanks, Michael
Well I got my Fast Tracks order in yesterday. I started building my first turnout. Not much done yet. I made two guardrails and cut one PC board, I haven't gapped the PC board yet. Here are some photos: The PC board and guardrails are just sitting there for now. I will have to re-check that left guardrail. I don't remember it looking that long. Boy these things are small, have to get a better magnifying glass. Thanks for looking, Michael
So here is my first frog. The photos are not that good. Boy n scale is small. Thanks for looking, Michael
