Yeah, but my idea of "hand laid track" is snapping together sections of Unitrack with my bare hands. I envy people with the skill and patience to hand lay ties and rail, let alone frogs and switches. But I subscribe to the "A man's got to know his limitations" principle of model railroading (and other endeavors).
CSX Robert thanks for the assistance. I haven't gotten into it yet. There's probably an online instructions. The last time was in early '90s. I was better at such things back then. Rich
Unitrack.....Track plans... PPppfffffffffffffttttttttttttt !! THERR RV was built with 100% Unitrack. No track plan...except what was floating between my ears. Just a vison. Lay some track. If it dont look right...unsnap it and try another way. Where is your sense of adventure....
So I have burned all my bridges, actually I just cut them all out and boxed them up. You didn't really think I burned them did you? They're made of plastic and would stink-up the place not to mention all the smoke would set off the smoke alarm. In addition, though technically I'm not adding anything to my layout so much as I am subtracting stuff. . . but I digress; I have after a week's worth of effort, finally removed the vary last . . . no, there's one I missed, oh and there's a couple that were hidden behi. . . very last vehicle from the layout. Also the last of the structures. At present I am looking to see just how much of the lumber I can salvage and trying to decide if I actually want to. I'm going out today to see if I can borrow or rent a Demolition Hammer, aka Power Scraper with which I can remove all of the scenery, ground cover, streets, parking lots etc. glued or otherwise attached, atop the base plywood. If I can do this I can then un-screw the base plywood from the bench work and save most, if not all the structural lumber, which is 3 1/2" wide strips of 1/2" cabinet grade plywood. I bought 4x8 sheets and had them cut at a now defunct woodworking shop for $5 a sheet. Can't get that done no more.
This last layout was built to a very rough plan in my mind. Almost 2 years ago I switched the entire layout to unitrack and had no issues making it work. There is a few areas where I made some flex track, following Fifer's article, and even made some unitrack flex out of curved unitrack to fit my needs. And remember plywood has two sides, scrape off the bulk from one side and flip it over to the new side with the ugly side now down. And with the gold, now wait platinum costs of wood nowdays, yes to saving and recycling wood. My layout is supported by unfinished kitchen base cabinets that I got on sale cheaper than the costs of wood underframing.
I've done similar with my early N layouts years ago. Tried to use programs for HO but found it difficult. So I'm thinking of using the various parts to try it that way again. But can't seem to find on line were to choose components of Unitrack. With displays of components. I'm also considering doing the layout in the smaller bedroom, away from the neighbors wall. So I don't disturb her. But were to buy
Most any model railroad vendor that supports N scale will have Unitrack. Start with the vendors that advertise here. That's the only ones we can post about here anyway. For pictures/descriptions, go to katousa.com, Kato's US website.
I have anyrail. Mine has unit rack. It keeps track of the elements your using & automatically calculates lengths of track. I found the library to be mostly correct
Why are you tearing down your layout. It has got to be a hard thing to just do with all the finishes your talking about.
Fifer Hobby >>>> https://www.fiferhobby.com/kato-unitrack-n-scale-track-and-accessories/ If they dont have what you need they can get it back in stock ASAP !!
If you place pink foam insulation on the plywood for your next layout you won't have to worry too much about getting the old layout scenery off the plywood. Just get what you can off and give it a few passes with some sandpaper and it should be good to go. I've done that 3 times with some of the modules I have, and it saves lots of time and money.
Saturday I figured out that when building this layout I must have taken into consideration that this day might come. All of the screws holding the risers to the plywood tabletop are easily accessible and no, I am not saving the tabletop plywood, if I ever build a new layout it will be built atop Blue Foam, nothing but Blue Foam from now on . . . So as of today about half of the tabletop plywood is on its way to the "Great Model Railroad Resting Place in the Sky" or more accurately the ground. The rest of it will be joining it next Tuesday though I expect to have it in the dumpster by Friday at the latest. At that point I can disassemble the legs from the L-Girders and stack the results out of the way while I decide whether I'm going to build a new layout, a much simpler layout one where I won't be detailing it to the point it makes operations difficult.
Short Round oh, did you get my message to your inbox? I can help you out with some spare unitract p power supply. Long ago someone on :-train board helped me. I wood like to pay it forward.
Got the message and replied. Thanks. I usually don't watch that much so it was good to let me know. You are the first to separate Shortround into the two words it's suppose to be. Understand it?