Hi, As mentioned previously, I had purchased the lumber and started building the benchwork. I have now completed the basic benchwork and am transferring the track plan to the surface. Not as easy as it sounds. At the same time, I am marking where I will be cookie cutting the wood. And this is even harder - figuring out what aspects are going to be at what heights and marking everything accordingly. The right hand side is nearly completely marked up (just need to add the freight yard track markings. Will then move on to the top section ... The left hand section will be fairly easy but will wait until I have finished cutting, elevating and laying the track on the other two sections as I do not want to give up my little roundy-round just yet. Phase 1 is the double main and the reversing loops. It will also include all of the switches off of the main into the passenger and freight yards. So naturally, I have ordered more switches (and Tortoises & Wabbits). I expect that by mid September, the track will laid and at least basic wiring will be in place.
Maybe not an advantage, just a different way of doing the same thing. The plywood cookie cutter approach allows you to nail or glue your track to the sub roadbed versus only gluing. It can be cut to the exact width of a single, double or triple track mainline/siding as one piece versus gluing multiple WS risers together side by side and then trimming. I have also found it useful for super elevating curves by rotating the riser on the underside of the sub roadbed. A down side is that if you mess up cutting out the piece of plywood then you get to start all over again versus filling in with scrap foam pieces or plaster. Jerry
As my Dad always said "Measure Twice, Cut Once". This is going to be measuring multiple times, a lot of visualization and then a very careful cut. Jerry, I heve been thinking about implementing the super elevation as part of the roadbed, just have to work out the math to get the exact differences in height for the inner/out rails (I know it is a very small amount). Go Yankees!!
The downside to twisting your riser is that your joists will have to all be perpendicular to the rails for this to really be consistent through the curve. A problem that I would also see is that in the case of double track, you are lowering not only the inside rail but the inside track. If this is a passing siding, that may be what you want, but, if it's a double track mainline, only the inner rails should be lowered, not the entire inner track. On my layout, I used strips of masking tape under the outer rail to raise it several scale inches. By staggering the ends of the tape approximately 1/2" (think stair steps), I was able to transition into the superelevation. I used five or six layers of tape, and the effect is fun to watch. Please ignore the extremely rough cut scenery base that still needs a lot of carving. Dave Foxx
Dave, Very good point. I would need to split the subroad bed and super elevate them separately. I am thinking your technique will be easier to implement for the double main Thanks
Finally I have pictures to post! I have all the Tortoises and Wabbits installed and working properly. Some of the Tortoises are not making great contact so I will be buying some slightly stiffer music wire for them. I wired up some temporary SPDT (on-off-on) rocker switches (a friend had a bagful) to control the Tortoises manually even thought the Wabbits have all been programmed with addresses. I set up Auto-Throw on the top section and will probably do the same in a few more areas. Now I am going to have to lay the track for either the Freight or Passenger Yard so I have a place to park my expanding inventory.
