Table covered with 2" pink panther foam - 10'x3' except one small section (1.5') in the middle where it is only 32" wide. The table will be viewed from three sides with the back against the wall. I want one large main to run around the outside to maximize radius for longer cars. This outside line can be under ground around the back and on one side of the table. I want an inner line on an incline maybe doing a loopty-loop. Thinking it will climb up to the town (below) or have the outer main serve the town. My daughter want's a small town: I have several buildings from early 1900 to 1950's including: 2 churches, a small town, 10 houses or so, a few buildings (brewery, machine shop, loading docks, + more), three depots, a small roundhouse and locomotive coal tower, plus more. I'll have a trolley running end-to-end (3.5') in town with on an optical sensing polarity switcher. I want the town to be 2x3'. I have Atlas Code 80 flex, snap, around 15+ atlas turnouts, a Peco Double Crossover some X crossings, a Y's, a tri-Y, a switching X, etc., some trestle, The town is a need, one large radius line is a need, and another line is a need. Ideally, I'd have a town with little houses on a mountian with a loopty-loop around/thru that mountain, & the Walther's roundhouse because I like parking engines (I don't need too much long lines to park trains). Too ambitious for the size? If I don't get a plan, I'm going to start laying this thing ... HELP, or stop me ... I dunno ...
I won't attempt a track plan, as that's not "my cup of tea", but I do have a suggestion........I have built about 6 layouts, all the way from module to room size, and I LOVE the pink foam, but......here's an idea - use a layer of ceiling tile (the kind that's used in drop ceilings), glued over the foam. I use "PL300" foam adhesive. This gives you a good base for the track ( you either glue, or nail ), and the stuff is made of recycled paper, so it takes paint & scenery materials well. That way, you have thickness to carve terrain, but not the pain of trying to attach track & roadbed to the foam ( I never found a good way to do that) Get the better quality ceiling tile & put it upside down, as this will give you a smooth surface. The "better" stuff is tougher & better made. Good luck with your layout. Keep seeking answers, they will come, and remember - "Google" is your friend!!
Thanks, I was a little curious about this. I've seen posts about the foam being great, but now am not sure if that was when using Kato track. I laid a little flex track on another small layout and used spikes to lay it then hot glue, then ballast. It seems secure. I'm not sure I want to cover the whole surface, but that might work in certain areas. I'll consider that.
It is N scale, but the table has two main lines and is running trains now. After a few days with only one comment I laid the outer oval with the Peco double crossover and started running trains. After a day or so of that, I branched off the crossover with a loopty-loop using 2% risers circling around (in an eight) with a truss bridge at 3.25", then back around the other end and down under the truss bridge on 3/4 foam, then around again and back under another bridge and down the 3/4 back to the starting level and into the Peco double crossover. The inner line climbs and does a figure eight and a loop. There are five turnouts on the inner line that allows me to park one long train and four really short trains but these are not finished. I'm definitely not done, and will have to decide if I'm going to have enough long lines for parking trains to make me happy. I can put in a turntable and build a town with what I have now. I knew that without a diagram this was going to be a boring thread, but I work on computers all day. When I come home, I have not wanted to work on the track planning software. I'd get started okay then get stumped and not spend the time to get over the learning curve. Maybe I'll get a diagram posted. The table can be moved away from the wall so that I can tweak it easily. At least I've had fun running trains already and have 5 trains parked in various places on DCC. They run multiple laps successfully without too much work. The Katos without any work. The Atlas turnouts are hit or miss even though they are new. In fact, they have been disappointing. The Peco double crossover works well with all my decent locomotives and I have not even wired it. So far it seems like it was worth the money.
I would like to be able to put up schematics and such but I too do not want to have to spend the time to learn it. If I want to put up an idea I draw it on paper and take a picture. Like this I use tinypic to host and it works great. Since you are in charlotte as well, what part of town do you live in? I am in the university area. I also belong to a semi local web based N scale club that does Ntrak modules. Here is our web forum. CCNScalers - Index We will be at the Charlotte train show at the end of the month with a pretty good size layout. Come on out if you get a chance. Ryan
Thanks for the info about the Carolina Group. I registered. Regarding the software, I installed Atlas' Righttrack and have played around with it, but always got stumped so I'de leave it. I also installed xtrkcad on my mac, but can not get it to run. With these issues and the table just sitting ready, I decided to go hands on see what I come up with. I used online track plans for ideas. Its fantasy line anyway so ...
I'm not happy with my layout. I've had some fun running trains, but I'm going to re do this. I NEED A TRACK PLAN! I've got 50 hrs of using a mouse this week and it'll stay that way for a while so I don't foresee me learning the Atlas software or Xcad, etc. because I need to rest my arm. I'm going to have to either get a vision or just pick a door layout I like and stretch it.
You may need a track plan but we need some more information about what you want to do. What I recommend is that you come up with a rough idea of what you think you might want and then have us work with you on refinements. Don't worry about the various track cad software for now. As someone who uses CAD sometimes several hours per week I can tell you that it has its limitations, and, personally, I think it tends to be a little too rigid at the earlier stages of design anyway, stifling the very creativity that should be flowing at that stage. Even if you have to scribble it out on a piece of tracing paper and then scan it at least we'll be ahead of where we are now, which is that you've told us how big your table is and given us a bit of a list of what you already have in terms of track and buildings and other equipment.
A miniminal amount of glue was used and the track is only held down by spikes so this can all be pulled up; however unfortunately, several of the track joints were soldered so I'll have that to deal with. After having played around a little with the Kato track I'm considering using that some. I don't know if these pics will help, but I've learned some things: like: I want too much for this little space.
I wouldn't put that to bed quite yet. You seem to have a good list of needs to get started, but I dont see quite how they have been incorporated in the current design, other than the outer main and inner figure 8. Another tip to help in the planning, I use XtrkCad, but I only use the Unitrack Library. I find its the easiest way to quickly get the concept down as you dont have to worry about splines and alignment of free-hand pieces. Then when it comes time to build the layout, just use your track of choice instead. I have some ideas brewing on this, let me see what I can come up with real quick...
Does the roundhouse need a turn table? This will be the hardest fit as turntable/roundhouses take up a LOT of real estate.
Ok, here's what I came up with using elements from your needs list... The grades (Green overlay) are going to be in the upper 2% range. The red overlay is a viaduct across the industry district of the town. The coal tower will be on a hill since it's off of the high point in the line, so I put the coal pit next to the round house. Cars will be able to dump coal down the steep hill into the pit. I left as much space as I could between the inner and outer horse shoe on either end so that you could put the outer horse shoe under a tunnel with out having to worry about the inner track that much.
Thanks Mark. Last night I had to run off to see a 1 hour old new neice that took my evening. I'm headed to a trainshow this morning here in Charlotte. If I find the Walthers turntable for a decent price I'll probably by it and then of course be forced to make it fit. On your advice I downloaded XtrckCad to the PC. When you use the Unitrack library, does that just use Unitrack parts, or can I start with a kato layout design and then start editing it? I found some layout "examples" that downlowded with XtrkCad, but not many. Can designs be imported into XtrckCad?
I pulled up most of the track and foam leaving only the outside oval with the double crossover and the inner line going up the incline. Here is a cell phone photo of a quick sketch. The incline is on the inner line coming off the double crossover going up the right side, around, and coming down the incline in the middle (not yellow). The yellow part will be 2-2.25 inches high. The idea being that the area in the middle will be foam and large enough for essentially a long door-sized layout with another line. Total of 3 trains running continuously. Your thoughts will be appreciated.
I had the Whalter's big roundhouse, cut her down to three stalls for my old Milwaukee road layout, and had 2 switches with tracks into the 3-stall.
