As you may (or may not!) recall, my son was given a Thomas starter set for Christmas last year by his Grandparents. He was interested, but I was hooked!! By March I decided to build my first permanent layout. It is small (6 x 8) but I had some very specific requirements: it needed to have multiple levels connected by grades (<4%), have a mainline with reversing loops, have at least 4 sidings, and be able to run two trains simultainiously contontrolled by two different opperators in conventional mode. Not an easy undertaking in such a limited space!!! Here's my progress so far:
This is a shot of the layout plan (not the original, but what evolved from the original as building continued):
Here we are in March - just begining: The benchwork is designed to be modular and light. I wont be living here forever! It's also on wheels so that I can move it away from the wall. (Lesson learned - the smallest cheepest casters at HD are not good!)
April - Here's the first layed track: The track is laying on 1" foam board. (Lesson learned - foam board laid over open framed benchwork is LOUDER than 3/4 inch particle board. The foam resonated like a drum skin.Something would need to be done!)
May - The layout begins to take shape: Notice the layout is not the same as the above plan. I experiemented with converting a siding into another loop, but didn't like it in the end.
August - Scenery and layers are coming to fruition (Lesson learned - finding the right glue is important. I bought Liquid Nails For Foam at HD and it worked great! Also, a foam cutter from the hobby store is priceless. For $40 it left no mess and was fun to use. It has limitations, but is easy and quick.)
And the beginnings of a control panel:
September - Time to address the noise, NoIsE, NOISE and cover up the foam: (Lesson learned - two layers of felt deaden the noise of Fastrack very well. Finding the right glue for foam AND felt can be tricky. Rubber cement can work, but only on the first layer or with excess amounts. Hot glue guns are the women's version of duct tape!! Hot glue is incredible for attaching felt to foam. It wont move and allows you to pull and manipulate the felt to follow the contours of the land.)
Below you can really see the felt mold to the foam. You are looking at a curved railbed coming into a turnout with the foundation of a road crossing. I am really happy with the way it covers.
That's where I stand now, with about 40% of the layout covered in felt. I know many of you will cringe at the felt (it's not prototypical) and I hope it wears well with age, but if it doesn't, it just gives me an excuse to start all over again with a new layout!!! The noise of the foam was reduced dramatically when I began to glue down the additional foam for scenery. I believe the felt will reduce the noise even further.
Don
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
RIP Chewy - best dog I ever had.
That's a very good way to make a layout. Well built, thought about and solid. You know that the track also needs to be glued (not nailed or screwed) if you want the noise to stay away? (nails or screws tend to guide the vibrations through the felt, so the felt has no use anymore if you do so.)
It's a very good thing to make preconnections for the electricity before building the tabletop! What I do miss though is a buswire which additionally keeps power up across your layout. When using felt or other sound deadening insulation the track is not laid solid. It can move a bit up and down when a train passes. In time, connections between tracks will loosen up a bit and built up resistance. The result is that the point which is the opposite of your transformer hookup will have less voltage on it, so the train looses speed.
On my layout built of old Märklin tubular track (we don't have a hobby shop selling 0 gauge 3 rail in Holland) the power drops about 10 volts in 8 feet length of track, so I need to run a secondary power wiring underneath the layout to keep them running with a connection to the track about every 3 feet. I know that this is a dramatic drop in power and it would take a long time before it will show this dramaticly on your layout, but since you're still building it could be useful. (not only on old track; on a friends temporary layout the new MTH realtrax had so much power drop that trains won't even run thanks to those tiny connection strips)
A big compliment though for your thorough and well thought way of working; really professional!!
Technically seen the noise can only go through the screws into the base of the layout if the screws can pick up the vibrations. That means you have to tighten them. I guess that if you don't tighten the screws but leave them a few millimetres above your trackbed that the vibrations can't be picked up by them. You could also use some filt to make a rim where your track is in between. Also that only on some places to keep the whole layout there where it should be. You don't have to use screws, track can easily be taken away, but when it's on it's place it can't slide away.
_____O/ I I I\O_____ (The flat left and right is the filt on your tabletop, the O is the filt rim, the slashes and I's represent the track, seen from the front)
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