The majority shareholder of the Dogeared & Broken Spine RR has gotten over her acute case of Wegottamoovitis, so it's back to a layout for the office nook in the apt. Inspired by many of the switching layouts discussed over the past couple weeks, I've been working on a 9'6"x7' "L". Basically I combined & reworked two shorter sections: one Stein posted as an example of combination of elements (originally Byron's?) and the other called "Boxcar Haven" that the author cited John Pryke's Union Terminal as inspiration.
Thus, "The City" line of the D&BS:
The idea is that 6-8 car trains come in from either 1. the staging top left ( from D&BS mainline outside of town), 2. across the water (island / peninsula) on the carfloat or 3. the interchange at the bottom. Cars would be broken up / stored at the yard, then smaller jobs (like a coal job, or a dock job) created to service the industries (in green).
I'm thinking early 50's. Mainly early deisel (NW2s, RS-1, etc.) and some steam (2-6-0, 2-8-0). I've numbered the slots for cars at the industries. Also tried to make sure there is enough room along the 2 main routes for runarounds. The track is code 55, and most turnouts are #4.5s which I hope to handlay for greater flexability. I used the peco turntable (6") cause that's what Anyrail's got for 55, but I'd drop an Atlas (7 1/2") down in a pit, so it'd take up a wee bit more space than the plan shows (though I've left space around for it). The arrows point out the main viewing directions, as created by some industries and overpasses / elevated roadways. I hope two people can work this layout.
The layout will have to be moved at some point (hopefully a couple years), and so the benchwork is in three sections: a 3'6", a 4' & a 7' section. A portable desk (at 32") will go under the center part. The layout will be at 42", with a 18" backdrop.
My questions:--does the yard arrangement work? I'm planning with 4" cars. Does having on track double as freight work or create too many probs?--do the sidings work? enough space? both at the industries and out on the lines?--do I need the double crossing on the far left (originally I had a single, from the top right to bottom left)?--do I need the runaround at the docks? seems I would need for the engine to runaround the 1-3 cars depending on the placement, or at least would keep a train out of the main.--or any suggestions, comments, criticisms are appreciated. Smaller switching layouts need to be well planned out to work well, so I have no problem working on this for awhile.
Thanks for all your feedback!(and patience!)--Mark
M.C. Fujiwara
My YouTube Channel (How-to's, Layout progress videos)
Silicon Valley Free-moN
Or there is this version, with more of a yard and some industries flipped above:
... this layout is fantastic - I wish I could go into N scale, but my eyes and a slight tremor in my right hand don´t allow anything smaller than HO scale...
Build it, photograph it, post it - please!
I like it. I recommend you go with the larger yard scenario. You've got a lot of industrial tracks, which probably have more capacity than your yard either way, so your switch lists will have to be done with that in mind. Another solution would be to build another "removable" section that provides the yard space. I can see you moving 50 or 60 cars in a session. In a perfect world, your yard capacity would be around 100.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
mcfunkeymonkeyOr there is this version, with more of a yard and some industries flipped above:
Nice combination/adaptation of the two published plans (Jonathan Jones' Mid-Atlantic and Western, and John Pryke's Union Terminal RR), plus your own yard and engine service area - looks like it will be fun to switch and good looking in addition!
Smile, Stein
Thanks for the feedback.And thanks, Stein, for providing the original authors: as a lit. teacher, I'm always stressing the importance of citing your sources to my students, plus it's always good to recognize both the artist and his/her work.
A couple more questions:--some of the sidings / car placements are on curves: if I'm manually uncoupling the cars, does the curve matter? (like when coupling?)--do I need cork roadbed or can I just lay track directly onto the foam? or is it worth it to use 1/8" sheet cork to be even with the styrene I plan on using for the roads? I could use the cork and sand down the edges to more of a gentle slope to blend in with the dirt. I was planning on ballasting with cinders, unless there's any other suggestions.--I was thinking of a lot of lights on the layout, given how busy the City is, and the necessity for night operations. I read the MR last month about lighting, as well as David Nicastro's "The Industrial Belt Line" in Great Model Railroads 1995. Any other resources / advice for day/night lighting & operations?
Thanks again for all the comments & ideas!--Mark
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
It's AnyRail. I tried using Xtrak CAD and the Atlas programs but they didn't do it for me.
AnyRail is totally worth the $55. Easy to learn to use and set parameters for your layout. Takes care of a lot of thinking for you (if you want it to) so you can focus on the design elements. Buildings you have to build, so I'd get to know the Walthers catalogue pretty well for structure footprints (though you can always scratch/kitbash). The program also doesn't take care of track spacings & clearances, so it's good to know those (http://www.urbaneagle.com/data/RRstddims.html).
Watch out: it's easy to get addicted to AnyRail! I've definately spent more time "playing" AnyRail than any other video game (and that's including SimCity & Civilization from my college days/nights!). At least I'm building something real! --Mark
AnyRail is too expensive . And from what I've seen they're one of the cheast rial programs $$$ wise. But darn it all I was all set on mine with HO, then I had to come look at yours and now I'm not sure if I want to go back and do N scale. The layout I'm following would probably need alot more scratch building for N though, and it's very hard to get a list of materials and dimensions in HO to compare. The buildings were covered in a single article, 6 in total, so it wasn't really gone into big detail. Gonna fun
Been tinkering & thinkering around. Here's a new version:
I got rid of a turnout in the middle of the approach to the service area, which allowed me to lengthen the "A/D" tracks and the yard by a car each track, plus one more track.
The yard now holds 28 cars plus 3 cabeese. That's as big as its going to go without major redesign. The tradeoff is that the yard lead below is shorter by a car. I guess I could cheat and use the interchange as a yard lead, but I'd rather not.
The "A/D" track, near the yard, can hold 6 cars (more if DeQuincy Pharm. doesn't need access). 6 cars is the longest track in the yard, so that fits.
I also tried to straighten out some industry sidings: on the top right, the Candide Garden Supply ("The Best of All Possible Worlds") is serviced only at the bottom of its building (two spots), got rid of Nabbo Cough Drops and let George Sand Paper Co. expand and so now has separate incoming & outgoing sidings.
The RE:Joyce Brewery still has 3 spots on a curve. I'm manually uncoupling so that shouldn't matter, and, as far as coupling goes, a right curve still allows knuckles to pass over each other and couple. So is the curve a prob? What might be a problem is that if an engine takes 3 cars out of the brewery, it need to back up almost to the watertower to get out.
I think I'll leave the carfloat where it is: I'm imagining it's coming from an island / peninsula much like port townsend on the olympic peninsula to seattle, bringing specialized freight (lumber, fish, etc) and requiring specialized deliveries (finished goods, wheat, etc.). Other freight will arrive from either the D&BS mainline (top left) or the interchange with the Asyettobenamed Line (bottom right).
As for some of the redundant crossovers, I just thought the line would have them to allow easier running around and maneuvering of smaller cuts for industry placement. Otherwise, its going to look like a typewriter with the local job returning to the far left (or right) every time it needs to runaround.
All of yr suggestions are good to think about! Special thanks to Mark Smith and Greg (gpa) over on the trainboard forum for specific ideas on the industries and the a/d track. I'm still trying to wrap my head around some of ideas (like turnouts & direction of the main), so feel free to keep them coming! Thanks again!--Mark
mcfunkeymonkeyBeen tinkering & thinkering around. Here's a new version: I got rid of a turnout in the middle of the approach to the service area, which allowed me to lengthen the "A/D" tracks and the yard by a car each track, plus one more track. The yard now holds 28 cars plus 3 cabeese. That's as big as its going to go without major redesign. The tradeoff is that the yard lead below is shorter by a car. I guess I could cheat and use the interchange as a yard lead, but I'd rather not. The "A/D" track, near the yard, can hold 6 cars (more if DeQuincy Pharm. doesn't need access). 6 cars is the longest track in the yard, so that fits. I also tried to straighten out some industry sidings: on the top right, the Candide Garden Supply ("The Best of All Possible Worlds") is serviced only at the bottom of its building (two spots), got rid of Nabbo Cough Drops and let George Sand Paper Co. expand and so now has separate incoming & outgoing sidings. The RE:Joyce Brewery still has 3 spots on a curve. I'm manually uncoupling so that shouldn't matter, and, as far as coupling goes, a right curve still allows knuckles to pass over each other and couple. So is the curve a prob? What might be a problem is that if an engine takes 3 cars out of the brewery, it need to back up almost to the watertower to get out. I think I'll leave the carfloat where it is: I'm imagining it's coming from an island / peninsula much like port townsend on the olympic peninsula to seattle, bringing specialized freight (lumber, fish, etc) and requiring specialized deliveries (finished goods, wheat, etc.). Other freight will arrive from either the D&BS mainline (top left) or the interchange with the Asyettobenamed Line (bottom right). As for some of the redundant crossovers, I just thought the line would have them to allow easier running around and maneuvering of smaller cuts for industry placement. Otherwise, its going to look like a typewriting with the local job returning to the far left (or right) every time it needs to runaround.
As for some of the redundant crossovers, I just thought the line would have them to allow easier running around and maneuvering of smaller cuts for industry placement. Otherwise, its going to look like a typewriting with the local job returning to the far left (or right) every time it needs to runaround.
I really like what you have done with the A/D track and the approach to the service area - makes the tracks (and operation) flow far better !
Don't know the answer to the question about the curved loading docks at the Joyce Brewery, but the curve radius looks fairly big (for N scale), so it should be too bad. And you could always just use one or two spots there - even if you have three doors, you don't have to use all of them.
Nice looking layout - almost enough to make me change my prototype myself
Well, back to rebuilding the benchwork for the main city part of my layout - it is late enough in the morning that I can use power tools without annoying our neighbors too much.
Grin, Stein
Thanks for all the words, both kind & critical (all needed!)
If anyone knows about coupling on a curve (does right work?), I'd love to know. I've been playing around with mockup, and it seems to work, but any experienced feedback would be appreciated.
Now I'm also thinking about the dock area:
While imagineering my switcher (currently a NW2, soon to be GE44tonner, and hopefully some 2-6-0s or 2-8-0s, though it'd be nice to have one of those 0-6-0 bigassboilers-on-wheels, but current n versions are crapola, according to spookshow) & operations, I figured with all the different traffic from the docks (various bulkfreight from crane, the cannery, plus anything in customs / security at end) that a short runnaround to take care of the 1-2 cars from each siding would help keep stuff off the more main and help organize things sitting on the dock by the bay. Maybe that's making it too easy, and more of a real workout up one of the two mains would be better.Just figured that sometimes an empty would be ready for a load, and the ships came in out of order. Or it would easy loading the carfloat while the City Job was working the other side (Caskets / Tobacco / Freight).
Slowly creeping towards construction: I like to imagineer & mindrail a lot. If I get bored in my mind, then I'll definiately be bored with the layout. This one seems pretty fun, in terms of operations, construction & detailing. Having been brought up on DC PowerBlocks, I'm really looking forward to running with my new NCE powercab and focusing on the trains and not on the toggle switches!
Thanks for all the thoughts! All is appreciated!Cheers!--Mark
Thanks for all the help with the design process.Still tinkering around & finetuning the trackwork design, so please feel free to add any comments, concerns, jokes you got.
Now also designing the benchwork: will be clearing the space this weekend and start building benchwork next week.
Guess my question now is more DCC related: I got a NCE Powercab system. With a layout this size, created for 1-2 people, do I need a circuit breaker and do I need to divide the layout into 2 power districts? I can see two distinct areas of operation, but does "area of operation" equal separate circuit?
Seems like the layout is small enough "districts" don't matter, but, considering my DCC experience equals Randy Johnson's career wins minus 300 right now (go SF!), I defer to those more experienced & grizzled in the realm of dcc. And will it make a difference if I locate my power source at the ends (like I have indicated on ze map), or should I centrally locate the source, and have more equal (and thus shorter) bus wire "juice"?
Thanks again!--Mark
mcfunkeymonkeyGuess my question now is more DCC related: I got a NCE Powercab system. With a layout this size, created for 1-2 people, do I need a circuit breaker and do I need to divide the layout into 2 power districts? I can see two distinct areas of operation, but does "area of operation" equal separate circuit? Seems like the layout is small enough "districts" don't matter, but, considering my DCC experience equals Randy Johnson's career wins minus 300 right now (go SF!), I defer to those more experienced & grizzled in the realm of dcc. And will it make a difference if I locate my power source at the ends (like I have indicated on ze map), or should I centrally locate the source, and have more equal (and thus shorter) bus wire "juice"?
A layout this size may not need to be split up, especially if 1 person is running at a time. A circuit breaker probably wouldn't hurt, it'll trip before any damage can befall the booster-command station.
I would place the power supply centrally. Bus wires over 30' in length start to have problems. That is a long way for the signal to travel.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
WSOR 3801 I would place the power supply centrally. Bus wires over 30' in length start to have problems. That is a long way for the signal to travel.
By 30' you mean if I put the main plug-in & power on the lower right like in the design, the signal has to go the 6' up, 9' over, 9' back right, 6' down? (=30').
Would making the bus wires a larger gauge (18, 14?) help?
Or should I just have one plug-in panel in the middle? I just thought that two, spread out, would allow less crossing of cords when 2 operate.
Figure the bus wires lengths one way. 6' up, 9' over, 15'. Might work fine for you with the command station-booster at lower right. Larger gauge bus wires help, as does plenty of feeders. Been working on the large (16'x44') club layout, so my thinking runs along the lines of how to get that monster to work right.
The location of the plug-in panels looks good. I might think about adding one in the corner, right in front of the complicated area there.
mcfunkeymonkeyBuildings you have to build
I also really like AnyRail. I do have a question about the buildings. Do yours have those silly littke circles at the connection points? Mine do and it drives me nuts. Also I was not successful drawing accurate angles.
Any thoughts?
Bob
Photobucket Albums:NPBL - 2008 The BeginningNPBL - 2009 Phase INPBL - 2010 Downtown
You can control the size of those control points. Go to "Options" (where you set yr workspace area, tolerances, etc.) and make the control points smaller. If you make them too small, you'll have to do a lot of zooming in and out.
As for angles, I just eyeball. I found that zooming in to get the circle over the grid helps. If you want to do very accurate work, set up your grid at 1" or less (it'll look terrible zoomed out, but will help guide close-in work).
At the bottom it shows how long the line yr drawing is, so if you make the lengths similar, that also helps get the angles closer. Remember: it takes two lines to make an angle, but only one lime to make a margarita.
Progress!Between the end of the school year & the start of summer school, & with the wife & kids gone to Japan for the summer, I've been able to finish the basic benchwork & have finally brought it home & set it up for sizing.
I've turned this:
Into this:
I put a 1'x2' diorama with 2" foam that I'm playing with & making first handlaid turnouts on there to show final roadbed hight (minus the thin ply I put under the foam), along with chair to show operating situation (carpet to top of foam = 41"). Feels pretty comfortable, both sitting & standing, with good views.
There'll be 10" of backdrop (will come up to right below the outlet for the airconditioner we never use here in fabulous bayarea california) all along the back of both sides, and a 7" fascia in front, all of 1/8" masonite (any tips how to join edges in back between sections?).
The benchwork is in three sections: 4' table left, 3 1/2' bridge middle, 83" table right, so all can break down & fit in my scion xb (if we ever move, like in a couple years).
I also made shelves for under the 2 tables, which I'll install tomorrow. The lights are 75w bulbs on a dimmer (in photos, at about 70% bright). I'll get the foam this weekend (one 4'x8' sheet will cover it!)
Things going groovy! but if you see / think anything I need to do at this stage, feel free to remind me! First time building benchwork, so yr input is appreciated!
Happy Summer!Cheers!--Mark
Congrats, Mark!
This is going to be one fine layout! Please post more pics on progress as you go along1
Wish I could start also...
So over the last couple weeks (in between my "other job" teaching summer school), I was finally able to get all the benchwork cut, fitted & assembled:
The kicker was I got everything together, then realized I wasn't able to maneuver the backpiece against the wall past the molding of the bathroom door. So I had to take it apart a bit, chop chop, then reassemble.
But now it's fit & groovy!The fascia panels are just screwed in, as I'll need to remove them to cut to fit when I carve out the harbor & lowered roadway.Got the dcc panels in, the bus wires (16gauge) mounted underneath.Getting ready to transfer trackplan to foam.Also to paint foamtop.I got rattlecan flat black or maybe I'll go with some muddy latex housepaint.Something to keep the pink at bay (under the bay).
Soon: cork&tracklaying, with me long 1/8" drillbit to attach feeders!My 44ton, nw2 or 0-8-0 will soon be hauling gons & flats with ties & pc boards to lay the rails!Cheers!--Mark
dear Mark,
a nice RR you'r building, a bit late but I have a lot of comments or questions about your final trackplan. John and John oparated the gore defeated gasmeterszag 50 years ago, after a while even they were bored with those names. For a stranger it's far more convenient to talk about Alameda or Boston.
Now your layout. Suppose UP is coming in from the north, SF from the south and the ferry connects with SP. And suppose you'r building the Alameda Harbour Belt (AH), parented by the big three.
I do not like the SF connection, you could straighten it out around the turntable and let it enter the layout from the SE. It's making the stagingtracks longer and more conceiled.
Get rid of that turntable, only short very slow transfercuts will be run anyhow, usualy run by the first available engine. Why bother to turn them around; steamers can run backwards and slow speed isn't a major point here. The types you intend to run are made to run backward as well. Keep in mind that every connection is probable made twice a day. So your yard has to have A&D tracks, a main and a run-around-track. Divide your layout in "industrial" area's or zone's and you can calculate the number of yardtracks you'll need; one for every destination. ( 3 zones, UP, SF and SP is demanding a 6-track yard beside the other tracks named before) Not every destination will get the same amount of cars, and from day to day the number of cars per destination can be quite different. And in the fifty's non of the industries were of the one car a week type. That was their fate in the 80'ties. Imagine the Delmonte plant in harvest time. And Murphy's law states that at that very same moment disaster struck elsewhere and your tiny AH must deal with some bridgetraffic too; putting stress on your crew and infrastructure. I begin to understand why Jan Schoof, Byron Henderson and that French group all have huge and doublesided yards. You are the one who has to decide, you have to find the balance between something you need and something you like.
Carferry operation is very tricky. Put two heavy cars on one side of the ferry and it will turn over. Loading a ferry was usualy done by very short cuts. And of course you'll have the same problems unloading the ferry. In tidalports there also is a timeframe; the difference in height between low and high tide are such that the angles of the apron are becoming too large. Having a small relieve-yard next to the ferry is handy to say the least; with so much complicated drilling to perform an independent yardlead is welcome. The lead to the apron is very short too, an additional foot would help. I would also consider to place the UP-staging closer to the window, it conceals the connection behind a building and the tranfercuts don't interfere with the carferry-switching.
Sum it up and there is a lot to consider, but it's your lauout, you'r the boss, you should have the fun, i am just dreaming if it were mine.
Have fun, do not listen to strangers and go your own way.
From Holland with envy (and love) , Paul JAS
Paulus Jas Have fun, do not listen to strangers and go your own way
Umm - If you don't want people to listen to your advice, wouldn't it be simpler to just not offer your advice?
Grin, Stein, who understood that you meant to communicate the same as Fred W : "my advice, your choice"
Thanks, Paulus Jas, for all the thoughts.& thanks for reminding me to set up the yard in terms of zones / jobs.I have a general idea of how it works, but I do need to organize the operations a bit more in terms of scheduling & jobs, etc.
I also understand the argument for getting rid of the TT / engine service area in an urban area (space issues, etc.), and if I was doing a more modern era I'd totally agree. I'm thinking very early transition era right now (cause that's what motive power I got right now), but eventually I'd like to move more 1920s/30s & have some larger steam pull in from the D&BS mainline that cuts around the city, drop off its cars, get serviced while they're being classified & outbound organized, & then pull out with the outbound load back to the D&BS main.
Plus, ever since seeing misterbeasley's TT projecthttp://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/t/99558.aspx?PageIndex=1been itching to do something like that meself.So while many citys had their service further outside of town, I'm going to selectively compress.
This project is also a trying out of many different modeling skills for me:the TT projecthandlaid turnoutscarfloat (will scratchbuild)laying rail on wood (the docks)working with pink foamdcc
So I don't mind sacrificing a bit of prototypical operational realism to work on these things, or to create the "storybook" scenes I've imagineered in my head. (For example: carfloats look fab & are a good souce of limited influx of work. If it ends up I have to load a wee bit unbalanced, that's ok because the float will be on magic, not real, water & won't tip. But I'll try to keep things balanced!)
So now that the benchwork is done, I am revisiting my trackplan & doing serious imagineering to think of how operations will work, different jobs, turnout clearances & cut lengths. I'll start writing stuff down & developing the flow of work more.
Thanks, all, for all the ideas,Cheers!--Mark
hi Mark
In your first posting you stated you were building a fifty's layout. I understand you'r going back in history. Don't get me wrong but you are not modelling a city(centre). Harbour and docksides were develloped along the shore outside existing cities . Main yards and housing quarters were build further away. The price per acre were way too high. Bush Terminal (NY) and Alameda are prime examples. When your yard also has to be the terminal for your D&BS there are even more tasks to perform; building all the freights leaving town. You will need even more and longer tracks in your yard. The engines you have right now are very well suited to transfer- and switchjobs and you were talking about trains with 6 or 8 cars. So I guessed the main yards were somewhere else and you only had to deal with transfercuts.
After reading and rereading your last posting again, i still don't get the picture exactly. I think your D&BS engines would have dropped off their cars and returned "home" as soon as possible with a new cut of cars from the ready track. Why waiting? They had work to do. And servicing or just turning them around? Their home was round the corner and they could run backwards, even the big one's. So i don't agree with your remarks about earlier day's. At stake is what you are building. A D&BS divisionpoint-yard with a TT (are your stagingtracks long enough to handle these trains?) or a smaller "relief"-yard (without aTT) were short tranfercuts are split and divided into local jobs. It's my thinking, it's your choice.
Railwaystations and associated yards were also build outside existing city's. Look at maps from the first half of the 19-th century; railroads through (almost) empty spaces. Today all those area's are completely build in. Also in urban area's the railroads (or probably some Wallstreet wizards) made money by selling the surrouding acre's. They had to, there was a awesome lot of money to be paid for building harbours, tracks etc.. Environment was no big issue in those day's. And remember, part of your layout is Boston; you need (a wee bit) lower, but more scattered buildings if you want to represent a smaller city.
The choice between the things you love(TT) and modelling a real railroad can be heart breaking. Have fun doing so, and even more fun building and running your layout.
How big is your crew and what do you think about the other remarks i made?
I still have to build a rather small ferry, with one track and place for only 3 fourty-feeters. I am building in HO in a slightly smaller space then yours. A big ferry would overwhelm my yard and was not prototypecaly in Amsterdam.
From Holland, with love
Paul
First track laid!Finally got a wee bit o' roadbed & track down & feeders connected up to the bus.The D&BS RR is in operation!(at least for a couple hundred scale feet, for now).Here's some photos & a video (if I can figure how to post it):
(I got vinyl connectors for the backboard, & they all fit & painted same, except for back left corner, which sticks & so needs some sanding, & is of course the most visible. But backdrop foundation is done! & will be painted more detailed soon)
There's me work train. If I were hand-spiking, it'd carry me nails.As is, it's having hard time haulin' me caulk.
& here's a video of the overall, with worktrain in action:http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu99/mclitton/?action=view¤t=MOV05106.flv(can't seem to figure how to post/embed a video in the forum yet. will work on it!)
Been grappling with where to start with transfering the design to the foam & how to lay track.I've been playing around with flextrack & fasttracks turnout templates (which I will be building) on the foam.
It seems that the yard & other major turnout structures will dictate the track positioning (as opposed to laying track & trying to get the turnouts to conform), so I'll have to wait a bit to layout everything.
But this one section is sure, & fast, & is the first dcc train I got running.Nice to know everything works, & can concentrate on laying track.Looking forward to handlaying the turnouts too.Cheers!--Mark
First of all there monkey, you have an interesting layout developing! I look forward to following your progress!
mcfunkeymonkey. . . . . . . . . . Would making the bus wires a larger gauge (18, 14?) help . . . . . . . . . .
Ohm's Law states that P=E2/R . . . . . . that is the power in a circuit is equal to the voltage applied squared divided by the resistance in the circuit . . . . . in your case that's your buss wire. The longer the buss wire the the higher the resistance and consequently the lower the power is going to be. Since your voltage applied is fixed the only way you are going to get required power is to lower the resistance and that is done by using a heavier gauge wire. Using too small a gauge wire is called FIRE!!!!! This is the reason building codes mandate a certain gauge wire for wiring busses and it is also the reason they frown upon multiple outlets plugged into wall jacks.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Been laying out flextrack & turnout templates on the foam.Yesterday played with the yard, & realized it was 4" too far over to the right (which lost 1 car length on the yard lead).
Today shifted things around & layed out rest of turnouts, so now have a groovy idea how it'll all work.There's some shifting (& there probably will be more) but its nice to see "real" track getting down rather than a CAD drawing.
The TT will be lowered & pitted, eventually. Not all track is laid out cause I ran out, but all only "straight" sidings & runarounds are missing right now, so the flex is put to good use.
Hmmm... a wee bit fuzzy.Here's a video overview:http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu99/mclitton/?action=view¤t=MOV05123.flv(still working on embedding videos)I gotta say: I love t-pins & foam!Can play around, test out different set-ups, & know there's a bit of wiggle room (especially using caulk).Much more fun than the nails in the plywood mock-ups Dad & I were doing 15-20 years ago.
Next step: make some turnouts (#4.5, mostly) & see how they fit, then it's on to cork & yardage!Also need to carve out the harbour & lowered road, but want the track to fit fab before carving.AnyRail is groovy, but having the actual track down & physical is great!Will be working hard to have smooth rail joinings.Any advice appreciated!Cheers!--Mark
... I like your layout a lot and it is a great pleasure to participate in the "Making of... " in this forum.
Only this roundtable of yours -- must it really? .... or can it be replaced by something more realistic?