Good day to all. I have laid the track work for my 30 x 96" Western Maryland line. It is in track testing mode right now, which it appears to be passing just fine. This photo shows a portion of the layout, with some cars along the spurs, locomotives on the storage tracks, and car card envelopes taped to the side of the thing. I have added some brown cardboard between two of the spurs so as to elevate the town of Westminster closer to the level of the tracks. Should I do this in most places on the layout? Or only where there are buildings in town?
Only where you need the tracks to be at grade with the buildings. Main lines are, usually, raised above the surrounding area, where possible.
I like to sand the cork down to table level when it leads down an industrial track, and lay the far end right on the table. That differentiates the main from the sidings, and no trains run down the sidings fast enough to make a bunch of noise anyway.
Industrial sidings also never--and on most railroads, yards seldom back in the day--got beautiful ballast like the mainline. The more you make them look like they're sinking in the mud, the better they'll look.
Your layout is looking very nice, Cactus. It's obviously being built with CC&WB operation in mind. Can you show us an overall view so we can see the whole track plan? Regards, Ron
Hi Cactus, It's more of a judgement call. Some industries have well maintained siding and others are covered with ballast for easy access of trucks, equipment etc. Here are a couple of examples from my layout. Sorry for the so-so pictures. At this first location, Medusa Cement, I wanted a fairly well maintained siding, so the siding is on cork and the building, parking lot, etc. are at ground level. At the next location, Vulcan Steel Fab, I wanted the track and buildings to all be at the same level. Instead of mounting the track to the ground level, I laid cork roadbed on the entire area, since my layout is small I did not want any abrupt rises or dips in the trackwork, for smooth operation. I then covered most of the lot with N scale ballast and used Micro-Trains "Pizza-cutter" wheels to cut flangeways for the spur into the unloading shed. Again, sorry for the poor quality photos, hopefully they will give you some ideas for your industries.
Your photos are fine, Rich. They show me exactly what you're talking about. I hope I learn over time to model as well as you do. Thanks!
Raised road bed is to help allow drainage. Helps keep the track more stable for longer periods of time.
Here it is, Ron. I had to stand on a ladder and use the panorama function on my phone while leaning out over the layout. Three outcomes were possible from that exercise, two of them deadly: 1) I could get a usable photo, 2) I could fall off and destroy both myself and the layout, or 3) my wife could kill me for trying that dumb stunt. ;-) The shaky panorama caused some distortion, but I think you can see that the 30" x 96" layout has a perimeter main line loop with a yard up front where I can reach it for switching operations (plus a turntable to get locos to the storage/repair tracks). I imagine part of the yard to be in Hagerstown, MD, and part in Baltimore. Then there are two facing spurs originating at the back of the layout. The spurs cross in the middle because I couldn't think of a better way to fit everything in the small space. The spur beginning on the left and ending on the right terminates in Frostburg, MD where there's a coaling operation and some businesses serving the town. The one that begins on the right and ends on the left serves businesses in the Westminster/Union Bridge, MD area. This arrangement gives my imagination a railroad center of operations (Hagerstown), an off-layout shipping/receiving terminus (Baltimore), a major source of production (Frostburg coal), and other manufacturing/consuming businesses (Frostburg, Union Bridge, Westminster). The assorted businesses on the line are ones that actually exist (or existed) in those locations. I have changed some of their names on my line to honor past members of my family, whom I can remember when a train pulls up to a business they now own. I have set up a homemade car card/waybill system. The buildings on the layout are just some old things that I have had for years. Most or all of them will be replaced as I learn some scratch building technique. Yellow post-it notes represent prospective businesses that I'll have to construct. About the two spurs. I operate trains head-on into the spurs. This serves several functions. First, car set-out is more complicated with a locomotive trapped in there, I like the switching challenge. I also put a caboose on each train, which adds a complication on each run because I want the caboose to trail the train going in and going out. I allow locos to run long hood forward on my line because I have no way to turn them on the spurs. Cramped quarters aside, I want this layout to mimic prototypical operation, and I want the scenery to be as prototypical as possible. Thanks for the compliment.
You may want rethink using the cardboard , it will probably warp . Foamcore is much better and will not warp .....Mike
Also, consider WS foam sheets. Also, Hobby Lobby and others sell cork sheets. They are thinner than the cork roadbed and you can sand down the transition and be a little lower, and still have some sound deadening.
Hi Cactus, and thanks for the photo. I like the way you've built your yard - it should prove to be very functional like that. I think I would have done two things a little differently: 1. I would have replaced the crossover between the arrival/departure track and the mainline with a simple turnout, making the arrival/departure track as long as possible. I'm not sure that you'll need the pocket at the end. 2. I would have added an extra turnout at the end of the yard ladder, and extended that track to join into the loco service track between the turntable and the engine facility (if that's what it it), and not connected that last yard track directly to the turntable (did that make sense?) If you get tired of the switching "challenge", you might also consider adding a double ended siding between the turnouts at the rear of the layout, parallel to the mainline. Even without these changes I think you'll have many hours of operating pleasure with your layout. Regards, Ron
Thanks for the suggestions, Ron. I agree with all of your suggestions. I wish I had installed that extra turnout in the yard ladder -- something I'm likely to do before much scenery goes in that area. I left that pocket at the end for caboose storage, but am feeling the squeeze you mentioned. We'll see. So, too the double ended siding at the rear. I have been operating this arrangement long enough to see the wisdom in making those changes.
