I have kato double stack well cars (3-pack), and they will run under viaducts on 2" piers. It's close clearance, though!
If I run well cars that’s what I will do. But when it comes to the final buildout, I may just lift them another 1/4” so I clear with no issues. This is going to depend a lot on my incline set when it arrives.
My main layout for a little love tonight! I received my incline sets from Walthers/eBay and I set up the inclines on both sides of the layout. I was able to run a train all the way around the layout, after I re-engineered the reverse loop section. I was originally planning on having a large section to include part of the mainline as the reversing section to allow for longer trains, but then I realized I would only be using the reverse section during ops, and ops would be short trains… so… now I can run around the layout. More planning is going to be needed for the raised sections, and I have decided to raise the viaduct a but more to clear double stacks, just in case I want to railfan some. West Middle East
It’s been a while since I have done any work on the Cascade Southern. And I really haven’t don’t all that much, but I have done some. First and most obvious is the pink foam. I put down 1” foam so I can do scenery below track level, which hasn’t been decided on yet. I marked out where I want power drops, I need 20. I’m still debating on the power handling. I have PM42s and. PM74 but I’m not convinced I’m going to need that much power management. I have one reverse loop and honestly I’m only ever going to be able to run one train at a time here so using a device with 4 channels and only using 2 may be overkill. So I know I have an AR1 laying around, I would just need to find a single PSX board. I have acquired a set of 2” and 3/4” risers to make my elevated areas a bit easier to construct. I need to glue the pink stuff down and make the back drop next. So stay tuned.
Gots me some work done tonight. Enough that I can run test trains again! So this time the risers are glued down and are in their forever homes. I got really close in one spot, I moved a riser back a bit so the double stacks could clear the viaduct but I moved it back just a smidge too far and created a clearance issue in what will become a tunnel in the near future. But a little creative shim making and some foam core and all is right again. Oh yea, I also changed the track configuration around a little bit. I removed the tram line, and changed the entrance location of the yard, which also allowed me to make the yard longer. This configuration looks and works much better, and moves the yard away from the reversing loop. West side of the layout, I need to trim back the foam a little to give the tracks below a bit of breathing room. You can also see the difference in the location of the yard. I may shorten the yard a little too, I haven’t decided yet. The southern most track it going to double as a programming track. Center of the layout, with the bridge piers now glued to the pier blocks. East side of the layout, not much changed here from the testing. This is the clearance under the east crossover. It looks like it’s almost touching but it’s about 3/16” and this is the tallest car I have. Here is the original location I was trying to gain some clearance under. I move the riser about 6” or so father back, but it should have been 3 or 4” instead. Oh well. And now I have plenty of room, about 1/2”
Wow, that looks great. If I can offer one suggestion, I used the WS risers myself on my Unitrack layout. I discovered that by adding some shims to create an easement at the start of the riser, it smoothed things out a LOT.
I made sure to put the risers in the middle of a length of track and I slightly bent the track to create the easement. I did have to shim the east incline a bit even with the slightly deformed track.
I know you all have seen the pics of the layout, well tonight I put together a quick flyover video with a DCC train running on it. This is the first time I have connected my Zephyr to the layout and it runs great. Previously the trains I have been using for testing have all been DC trains. Stay tuned for more, I will have a longer video with a voice over showing my benchwork and also going over my overall plan for the layout.
My plan is to just use some ballast as ground cover, maybe raise the floor level a bit with balsa or styrene, I haven’t decided yet.
I have been running the layout and practicing some operations to see how it works. And it’s ok. I think things will be better once I get the track locked down and the reverse loop wired up. Oh, since I’m going to be rigging the layout to be both DC and DCC I have had the idea creep into my head about making the reverse loop work in both modes… I hate when ideas like this creep into my head, I have A.D.D. And these things tend to hyper focus… so… stay tuned for that. Now back to the needs a reverse loop. Well to get this all the way I want it, I need to glue down the track, and in order to do that I need to get the drops dropped for the switches as well as the tracks. So I got to work making them. Since this is Unitrak I didn’t want to solder them to the rails, and why should I when I can make rail joiner drops just like Kato does. So here’s what I did really quick. For a more detailed explanation check out the Workbench thread where I go into more details. First you disassemble the metal and plastic parts. Next add some solder, and a wire, and reassemble. Oh, yea… almost forgot, I put up some of the backdrop the other night. At least the parts that are hard to access. Here is the link to the Workbench Post. https://www.trainboard.com/highball...on-your-workbench.45048/page-390#post-1291231
Sad news… kinda…. I have decided to take my layout in a different direction. There is a couple reasons for this. First of all I never really liked the east side of the layout. Having the elevated tracks making a kinda bubble would have made switching in that area difficult at best. Also while I thought the shape was kinda cool, it also limited me way more than I anticipated it would, and took away from things I really wanted, like the ability to run 2 trains. So it’s with a heavy heart that I am disassembling this current work and starting over. These modules will be repurposed back to their original intended purpose of being a set of N-Trak modules. I am going to actually go back to a design I started a while back that I took apart due to me forgetting a key feature as I was building the framework, which made all the work I did do useless. It’s based on a 3x5 layout that Steve from Steve’s Trains did a couple years ago. I have always liked its simplicity and the potential for lots of scenery. It has the same number of switching options as my 3x10 has and it can run 2 trains. I already have all the pieces needed to build it, I just need to get busy. I plan to start a new build thread for the new layout, as it will most likely confuse people of I start it in this one. Hopefully here soon I will be able to start building.
