H all, I hope all is taking care of yourselves and your families, as they say and it's true, we are all in this together!!!!!! anyway, my question is this, I always see a two level layout with a spline bench work, that's if your using a around the room plan, can one also use inclines and risers from woodland scenics to make it to the next level?? I was thinking of using this method, thanks for your input!!!! Take Care MRRDER'S .........Trainsrme1
You should be able to use any method you are comfortable to get from level to level.
Plywood on risers, woodland scenic risers, anything else. Each has advantages and disadvantages.
I used 4% WS risers to do a swirch back to a mine. I recommend filling the spaces in the risers before adding cork.
Are you doing a double deck, or one area that is higher off the floor, but no layout under the raised area?
multi-deck layouts typically use plywood to keep the benchwork as thin as possible.
even the bottom deck needs to be flat to maintain a distance from the upper deck
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Never did a multi level layout,just thinking outloud.
Your gonna need/want 12-16in between levels ? How high will a set of thouse risers get you? and then whats gonna hold the 2nd and 3rd sets.?
Wouldn't it be better to use a piece of plywood, foam, or even a 1X4 ? as long as needed.
Ooof, an all caps thread title.
I do not see any way to make WS risers work as a transition from one level to another. You would need to stack them very high just to get 10 inches, which is pretty close for two levels.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Davidmurray I would like a around the room going up a constent incline
I use Woodland Scenics risers (or portions of them) for modest changes of elevation on my layout. But down below there is flat plywood, not L girder or gridwork. I got mine cheap because it was damaged packaging at Walthers' showroom. Even if the Woodland Scenics system could be made to work I think it would be a very expensive way to do things.
I am also aware that there are those, with experience in fire fighting, who really do not like to see the amount of foam plastic in confined areas that modelers use. So I am not lavish with it.
Dave Nelson
Amended post : the objection of firefighters to so much foam plastic is not flammability. It is the quantity and nature of the gases given off if heat from a fire reaches a certain level in the vicinity of the plastic, even if the plastic isn't burning itself.
Another thing occurs to me - the advantage of the cookie cutter approach is that there is an automatic "easement curve" for the vertical curve that is created. With the WS risers, you go from dead flat to whatever percent rise is involved, 2% or whatever. That can be a challenge to track and equipment. But plywood just doesn't bend like that, so a gentle easement curve is created automatically.
TrainsRMe1 Davidmurray I would like a around the room going up a constent incline
would you want to disconnect the loco from the train to do some switching ................ on a constant incline?
figure 50%
Sure you could do that but I would use regular foam under the different levels of inclines to save on cost. Foam on a layout is no more flamable than your couch. I have personaly tried to set a peice on fire, tried a burning wooden match, soldering iron, electrical short, they all went out by themselves with little damage, took an open flame from a torch underneath to do any damage, even then it tended to go out (this was for beaded foam, never tried other types).
Hi Gregc, No, any switching and towns will be on level benchwork,
This is how I go from level to level.
Open grid frame for using risers to support either splines or cookie-cutter roadbed. Where you want flat/level expanses, simply cover the joists and braces inside the open frames (where you don't have rising/descending roadbed) with MDF, plywood, or extruded foam.
I would not consider using the pedestal incline pieces because cookie-cutter is so much quicker for me. Splines take more work.
selector...I would not consider using the pedestal incline pieces because cookie-cutter is so much quicker for me....
I agree - pretty-much all of the main level of my layout, and the 45'-long climb to the partial second level, is cut-out 3/4" plywood roadbed on risers.
The upper level track is mostly on cork roadbed, and the only grades there are the slight ones for industrial spurs, where the track is directly atop the plywood.
The main level varies in height, the lowest being the area under the partial upper level, but the rest of the main level is at varying heights to accommodate access to both the lower and upper levels without resorting to extremely steep grades. I managed to keep the major grades at 2.8%, but they do tax the locomotives due to the fact that most are on curves.
This is the highest portion of the main level, with track at two elevations, the upper one leading to a separate multi-track staging yard, the lower one to on-layout industries and a couple of staging tracks representing industries not actually modelled....
...as the track leaves town, the upper one descends, and the lower one rises, the two joining just before reaching the next town...
...and as they leave that town, the track splits, with one descending to the lower level, through a tunnel, the other rising on about 45' of curving track on a peninsula...
It's not possible to show the peninsula in one photo, but this view of the not-yet-covered portion of it shows some of the risers needed to gain access to the partial upper level...
This LINK shows some of the work needed to add that partial upper level.
Wayne