Once More Unto the Breach: Starting a Layout (Again)

[jhugart]

Hello, all. A little over ten years ago I posted a thread on here about a small layout I was making for my then 3-year-old son, with the help of some friends. It stalled out, mainly because it was just a loop of track: we used an N-scale sectional track that had roadbed included, and there was also some binding. It was mostly wood and plaster, and heavy. My son lost interest in it, and it got taken to a recycling center (who set it aside thinking someone else might want it).

I decided that this time, I would make a small layout with switching interest. I'd been introduced to the Timesaver layout by a friend (that link includes an Model Railroader article scan), and it seemed like the right option. Also, I had some HO track, structures, and rolling stock I'd inherited from a friend, so I could deal without the extra strain of staring into an N-scale space.

This time, I resolved to use the Woodland Scenics Subterrain system. The goal is to produce a small, 2'x8' layout that has the Timesaver switching puzzle and decent scenery, with lighting. (My twitter feed has this picture.)

My older daughter and I got the lumber and built a basic table with six, 4'-long legs (made as L shapes). A quarter-inch plywood top provided the basic surface. I was able to use sectional track I had to put it together, with a fake mainline in the front of the layout. Once the track was assembled, I outlined it on the plywood top and removed the track. (Twitter has this picture of the traced out track.)

Then, on to the hobby shop! I bought the Woodland Scenics hot wire cutter, low-termperature glue gun, and 2" risers. I decided I wanted my mainline a little lower, so I used masking tape as a guide for the hot wire cutter. (Here's a picture.)

This gave me enough basics, and I had a work session with some friends, where we cut holes for Tortoise switch machines and Kadee electric uncouplers, and installed the rest of the foam following the track outlines. I pinned some of the track back on, yielding this picture.

Some lessons learned from all this:

1. The wire cutter leave a nice edge, but it takes a little practice to avoid making divots and scallops.
   
   
2. Save every single piece of foam you have leftover. A small sliver you probably won't use, but you'll want a bag of longer pieces and partial sheets, and a box for small bits. You never know when you'll want to fill in an area.
   
   
3. Installing a Tortoise switch machine isn't hard. You need to cut a shelf in the foam at the edges of the opening, because you will put in a wooden shelf which will be the mounting of the switch machine. The top of the shelf is flush with the top of the foam risers that are the foundation of your track's right-of-way. There will be a 1/4" hole in this shelf that goes where the points are controlled, this is what the wire goes through (you won't install the wire until you permanently install the track, so don't do any cutting at this point!); the main idea is that the wood shelf is for holding the switch machine, so marking where the points go is critical. The wooden shelf will adhere to the foam using the Woodland Scenics Foam Tack Glue.
   
   
4. Space for the Kadee Electrical uncoupler (309) is trickier. The best tip seems to be to use a section of straight, sectional track in the area -- this helps with uncoupling itself, later. You are going to have the track be long enough to reach to the foam or wood on either end of the opening for the uncoupler. Mark on the ties of the track where the coupler opening is, since it will be connected right under the track (I'm still puzzling out the best way to do this at the moment); it doesn't sit under the black-foam trackbed or cork trackbed, according to the instructions.
   
   
5. Have enough of the T-shaped foam pins on hand. You can pin track to the foam subterrain, and the foam itself to the plywood, to make sure everything seems OK, and even run trains. You may find you have too tight a curve somewhere, or need more distance in an area. Once you are satisfied, you glue the foam to the plywood.
   
   
6. Use sheets of foam cut for roads and building areas. Remember to leave space for parking lots or sidewalks and such. You can use thin foam with supporting legs underneath, all glued together.
   
   
7. A sharp hobby knife is useful for cutting straight lines in foam.
   
   
8. The Woodland Scenics foam pencils are useful for marking the foam.

On the whole, this is going well. I'll post a follow-up to this of the most recent adventure with this layout.

Jacob

 

[hon30critter]

Jacob

Welcome back to the hobby and the forums!   

Sounds like you have things pretty well worked out. I'm looking forward to your future posts.

Dave

[jhugart]

On the 4th of July, my friend Jerry came over. Jerry helped a decade ago with the first layout we worked on for my son, Thomas. The goal on the 4th was to finish installing all the foam roads, building areas, and the profile boards on the edge. All of this is Woodland Scenics products.

We were able to get the roads in place. In some cases, the track subterrain foam was in the way; we marked it with colored chalk, then pushed the cut road piece there. After lifting it off, we'd cut off the color section, and the remaining foam for the road fit snugly in place.

It is really helpful to plan out the building sizes ahead of time. I had used AnyRail's software trial (I've since bought it) to make adjustments to the track before I did anything with foam. But even after that, you still need to pay attention to things like where doors are on your buildings. Your road might lead to the building, but if the truck's loading dock is off to the side, it won't make sense.

This is a good reason to keep the scraps of foam. I was able to use such scraps to expand the areas for the buildings to suit such a "parking area" need.

You can, of course, adjust a model building, and I know I'll have to do that with some of the buildings I've picked out. I'm sure that will lead to future entertainment for this forum!

Putting in place the foam profile boards for the edge of the layout was very easy. I mitered the corners, though I can see the appeal in butting the pieces together at a corner. I intend to use plaster cloth over the fascia, so this should dress up the corners and other areas.

Jerry and I managed to get this finishing foam work all done with a few hours. We used the hot wire cutter to put some natural curve to the profile boards.

My immediate goal is to work out the leveling, but I'm in the middle of that, so I'll leave it for another post.

Jacob

 

[cheese3]

Looks good!  

Can't wait to see more.

[Anonymous]

Its looking good.  Have a suggestion: In the future if you decide to expand your layout, you may want to consider mounting the tortoise motors under the layout, and picking up some .062 wire (comes in 3ft lengths).  This wire holds up better than the standard wire supplied and allows you to adjust the positioning of installation.  Ill provide a picture example:

 

Also of note, should the worst ever happen and you burn out one of these (I think my club has only had one that failed and that was a wiring error)  you can easily unscrew it and put a new one in its place without redoing trackwork or scenery.

 

[jhugart]

I'm trying not to flood my Twitter feed, and the photos I've taken haven't gone public on trains.com yet, so I'll link to those later.

First, I'll respond to BMMECYC's point on switch machines: The Tortoise machines I'm using are mounted on 1/4" plywood bridges set flush with the tops of the foam Subterrain track risers. We cut holes in the plywood to make space for the machines, so it is still possible to remove the machines and such. I also got clips at my local surplus store so I don't have to solder wire to the switch machine itself. I do see the value, though, in having the entire switch machine below the top of the benchwork. I've also seen some old Model Railroader stories talking about using push rods, as from model airplanes.

So let me tell you how the leveling went.

First, I wanted to be sure my bechwork was level. My basement floor is uneven, and the layout has moved around a lot. I needed a way to level the layout even after the scenery was done.

First, I needed something better than using shins. I took sections of 2x4, drilled a hole in the middle from the end, hammered in a T-nut, then screwed in a 2-1/2" bolt. I made these leveling blocks for each of the six L-shaped legs of the layout. I put wood glue on two sides, clamped them to the bottom of legs, drilled pilot holes, and screwed in a couple of deck screws to hold them in place.

Second, I needed a way to track the level. I have a large carpenter's level which works well, but I needed a place to set it. I purchased straight brackets -- something you'd use to mechanically fasten two ends of 2x2, butted together, they have four screw holes on a zig-zag path -- and I screwed them to the underside of the 8' long rails of the benchwork, two feet in from the ends. I used only one screw in an end hole, so I could rotate the bracket out, or keep it under the benchwork. When rotated out, it provides a point on which the level can rest.

I did these brackets for the front and back of the layout, so I could level everything, and they worked very well.

After the benchwork was levelled, I had to make sure the track was leveled. Because this is a switching layout, I need to be sure that rolling stocks stays where I spot it. I had pinned the track to the foam track risers (the Woodland Scenics' Subterrain product) and run a boxcar around. The only places where I had trouble were in two of the spurs on the eastern end of the layout. Spotting a car at the end caused it to roll westward a bit. By spotting it every few inches, I could see where the problem began and ended.

I removed the track segments involved and used a sanding sponge. After working on that, I replaced the track and tried the boxcar test again. If there were still problems, I removed the track and sanded again. I kept going until the boxcar was dead, and stayed where it was spotted.

With the layout benchwork and track leveled, it was time to prepare for plastering.

First, I used crumpled newspaper. I used the Woodland Scenics' recommendation of crumpling a piece, then smoothing it out and rolling in the edges to make a sort of pillow. I put these in the gaps between the foam pieces, so there was a nice transition between areas.

The western end of the layout I wanted to look higher, so the profile boards defining the edges of the layout were cut higher. The paper wads I'd tape to the board to keep the shapes in place.

The center front of the layout I had a low part, which I want to turn into a small water feature with cat tails and such. I set the paper wads so they lined the track risers on a sharp slope, and taped them to the plywood benchwork top.

Once all the newspaper was stuffed in place and taped down, I used a large roll of Woodland Scenics' plaster cloth. A few words on this product: It works very well, but because of overlap, you will probably use a lot more than you'd guess from sheer mathematics.

An example: This Timesaver layout is 2'x8', for 16 square feet. A large roll of the plaster cloth is supposed to cover 30 square feet. That overlap, plus the verticial relief, meant I didn't get as much coverage as I hoped, and I had to buy more.

Some tips on using the plaster cloth fabric:

• Use a plastic tray or bin. It will be easier to break loose the plaster, later.
• Have some paper towels handy to dry your hands. While this isn't quite as messy as using plaster, your hands will definitely get messy.
• If you are going to do a large section, cut several smaller pieces, and have them laid out. Make sure the bumpy surface is on top. This way you can just grag a piece to get wet after placing the last piece, without cleaning your wet hands so you can cut a piece off the roll.
• Sacrifice a pair of scissors for cutting. Don't use good fabric or paper scissors.
• The instructions are right, you just dip the cloth in the water. It doesn't have to be saturated, the water adhering to the fabric will soak in and loosen the plaster as you smooth it out.
• Dip your fingers in the water try to get more water if you have a spot of the cloth that didn't get wet enough.
• Smooth the plaster out with your fingers. Don't worry if you don't get all the holes filled; this is why you do multiple layers.
• Be sure to overlap pieces 50% with the prior piece, for strength.
• At edges, have a half-inch hangover that you fold back over. This adds a bit more strength on the edges.
• You can always cut a piece in half, lengthwise, so you can get that extra layer for a starting piece.
• You can also place dry pieces in place, and spray liberally with a water sprayer, instead of dipping in a tray.
• Don't worry about plastering over turnout locations or vaults for uncouplers. As long as you have your holes cut in the benchwork or foam, you can mark these later (see below).

The plaster takes a while to dry, though it will set up fairly quickly. Be sure to smooth over areas where track will go, and where roads or buildings will go. Don't be worried about them being fantastically smooth: Later, you'll want to use plaster to build roads and building foundations, and the train track will have foam trackbed underneath it, so things will be higher.

Once you've plastered over the layout and it has set, you can use an awl or wire to punch out holes where switch machine control wires will go (that's the hole you see on the right in the image below), or to mark the corners of uncoupler vaults. I used a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to join the corner holes of the uncoupler vaults.

The next step will be to place the track again and mark the track outlines, so I can glue down the foam trackbed. Once that's secure, then the track is permanently installed.

While I wait for the plaster to dry, though, I'm giving though to the control panel, but that's for another post!