Well construction has started on the new South Massey Railroad. The benchwork is a combination of N-Trak modules and Ivar shelving from IKEA. I still need to make some mounting brackets and also secure the shelving units together. The layout is 10 feet long and the ends are 3 feet and the depressed middle is 2 feet by 4 feet. I do not have a track plan yet, I just have a few ideas. It will be a continuous loop with operations at various points. I want to do a tram or subway if possible. Here are the modules laid out on the floor. Here it’s on the shelves. These were 70” tall but I cut them in half to get the size I need. The middle piece will be even with the sides when all is said and done.
Yes they do! And us railheads make really good use outta them. Saved me prolly near $100 over what I was planning on making so no complaints.
More work done on the new layout. My hands are really sore. I assembled the 3 pieces with dowels to help with alignment and to make it more rigid. I didn’t want any flex so I didn’t sand them down any. I did round off the ends to make them go in easier but that was it. I figured it was just gonna be a little pressure with the C clamp and bingo… WRONG! my C clamps became a manual press and I had to slowly work the pieces together. I did put in a couple of screws just as insurance but they are prolly just overkill. Next step is to secure it to the shelves below and then start building. Access to the underside isn’t going to be easy so I’m thinking my wiring will be in channels through the scenery. But until I decide on the mounting system I won’t know for sure. Here are the clamps holding the first part together. They are really not needed at this point there is so much friction from the dowels they are solid. I did use a hammer and center the dowels after I removed the clamps. Here is the second side getting the squeeze. It was a couple turns of each clamp and rinse and repeat until they were all together. The dowels are 3/4” diameter. Also not shown is how I held the shelving units together. I was going to use a 1x4 along the back side and call it a day, but then I remembered I had some furniture plates from my days doing furniture installations. Those worked great and you can’t see them unless you really look for them. Win win. Here is the layout set on the shelves, I just need a method to secure them now.
Massey, You have a great article here. Lots of good description and wonderful photos on the the complexities of joining modules and how you solved them with dowels and clamps, well done! - Tonkphilip
So a sorta update. We have been doing some renovations in our house and my layout has become storage for everything that used to be in the pantry. Well it was, we got the pantry put back together so all the food and cooking implements are all back where they belong, but the house still isn't right so there are things not put back still in the living room. It's getting there! But in the mean time I have received a 3d print from a friend that had better luck with the print than I did and I now have a new house to finish building and painting. It was from Thingiverse and it's called "Aunt Lois' House". The model is intended for HO scale but by reducing it some 54% and change you get an N scale version. There are some really fine details that are going to be fun to remove the supports from but I will have to manage. The next update is to my own printer. Er... I got the parts at least, and this is going to end up being a full rebuild of my print bed. I have new springs with a higher tension to help prevent the adjustment from going away, and I new magnetic PEI bed which should help with the heat transfer as well as adhesion. The corners of my prints pulling up has been a pain in my tail almost from the beginning. It's only happening in certain parts of the bed but it's enough to cause issues more often than not. So lets see what happens here. I will keep you all informed.
Well the renovations are almost done, just some trim work is all that’s left so I decided to take on a bit of train layout prep. I fixed the drawer so it opens up more and I can actually get inside it now, and I took out most of my Unitrack so I could get an inventory of what I have, so I can plan on what I’m going to do. I still have some set aside for a 3x5 layout inspired by Steve’s Trains that I may build someday. So now that I know what I have I can better plan what I want for a track plan. My goals are: Continuous running Twice around, or 2 trains running at the same time. Commuter train and a tram Some freight and switching mostly for a local train.
That's a bigger selection of Unitrack than by LHS has! I've got a decent selection myself, but nothing like that.
This is a collection built up over 7 or 8 years from buying collections and cheap eBay auctions. I have a ton of #4 turnouts, but only a couple of #6s so I will most likely still need to buy more. Oh well.
I have been thinking about selling off most of the Unitrack, save for some key pieces needed for my upcoming T-Trak modules and go with flex track and Fasttracks hand laid turnouts. I love Unitrack, it's a great system but flex track has the ability to be anything anywhere. Granted Flex it more work but the cost is roughly the same as Unitrack when you consider the cork and other stuff needed to bring it on the same level. Not sure yet, I guess I need to play around with some track planning software next to see if I can make something fun or not, then see if I can build the same with the Unitrack I currently own.
Got a bit of work done tonight, mainly I was looking to build the support structures for the benchwork and discovered I really couldn’t do it with everything how it is right now. As much as I like the idea of using the IKEA shelves as the benchwork supports, I just don’t think it’s going to work. I can't get underneath or in between to get good measurements and then there is the problem that will arise with wiring which will not be available either with such little space. So... I took off the tops of the 3 modules and I am going to build a new framework that will compliment the shelves as well as carry the weight of the layout. This will allow me to also display the layout without the shelves if I ever decide to get crazy and move it somewhere. Now you may think this is going backwards, but in reality this is a step forward. First off the wood used for the deck was 3mm door skin and it wasn't very supportive, it had a lot of flex in it, especially in the center module. I will be using 1/4" birch ply to replace the tops with, that should provide much more support. Here is the framework without the top in place.
You might try hand-laying a turnout or three, before you commit to a whole layout's worth of them! Same with flex and roadbed. If you like it, great; you should be able to sell your Unitrack to fund some of the new layout. I especially like the ease with which one can employ grades, fly-overs, etc. with Unitrack bridges, viaducts & piers, even on a flat surface (an old kitchen table pulled from the attic to start, or a hollow core interior slab door later.) I can mock it all up and run trains on it before I commit to building the terrain up underneath it. Of course keeping a mind to what that terrain might look like is also required as I go. On the other hand, I might already be done with the layout if I couldn't run trains on the mock-up!
While I have not done hand laying or flex in N scale, I have made several turnouts in HO using Fast Tracks jigs and it was super easy. As well I have also done all my layouts in HO using flex track. I can’t imagine it being all that different from it’s HO variant.
So I got some work done on the layout finally. I built a frame underneath that will support the layout much more securely than just sitting it on the shelves. The main problem with the shelves was the layout didn’t rest evenly on it. It was a bit awkward. Had I built the modules with the shelves in mind from the beginning we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But I didn’t build the 3 modules that make up my layout, I bought them from a fellow modeler. They are N-Trak modules if I didn’t say before. So now the layout sits about a foot taller which will be great when we do operations, even though it will make some of the building a bit more difficult. Speaking about difficult building, how many of you need a head lamp or a drop light when working under the layout? That many… huh… well I won’t have to worry about that. I bought some 12” LED strip lights from Amazon and they showed up yesterday… perfect for me since I finished the new framework yesterday. I installed these under the layout against the front beams to the light will be directly in front of me facing the same direction. This will prevent the light from being directly in my eyes while I work, but still giving me lots of light. These also have a dimmer module so you can change the brightness or shut them off as needed. here is the new framework and legs for the layout. The layout actually sits on top of the frame and can be removed with 4 screws. Here is the Underside with the lights at full brightness. This really will make work/maintenance easy. Here are the lights. I did hardwire them to each other. From the factory they come with a little 4” wire with a little barrel jack. There were extension cords but not really enough.
Well my selection of Unitrack was reduced by a bit today. It is now making a twice around layout with a small stub yard and 2 industry tracks, room for a passenger station and a tram line thrown in for fun. So the first industry is under the upper line and just has a small access track that will be a tank car delivery to replenish the fuel oil or whatever is in the big white tanks hold. I have 2 tracks for the second industry but I don’t yet know what that is going to be. There is a reverse loop that I have isolated and will be feeding from a PM42. I’m not sure yet where I am going to put power districts, if I even am. This layout is only good for one operator and there isn’t a whole lot of switching to do so… I would have liked to have some type of industry in the upper level, but the limitations of my space prevents that from happening. I may change things up a bit, I don’t know yet. I need to make some risers so I can properly run a train and find out. Standing on the westernmost end looking east. Eastern end. Middle. West side.
Very cool. Looks like it will be a lot of fun to run on. BTW, those big white tanks look like propane tanks to me.
I like what you’re doing, Massey. The mainline is interesting with lots of switching possibilities. One question, do the double stack intermodal cars clear under the viaduct sections using the 2” piers? I know they will run under the girder and truss bridges but I don’t know about the viaducts.
No, they don’t. But I’m not going to be running them on the layout. They were just the easiest rolling stock I had to test things with. The high level box cars do fit tho.
