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Thats lookin' great! (You're making me look like a slacker!) Thats going to be some real rugged territory there!
And to add pics, you could just hit the "EDIT" button to add info, but honestly, if you do that most people who've seen this thread already won't catch that you added new info to the original post. It's probably better to just "reply" to any of the posts and add the new info as a post in this same thread.
It looks like you're going to have a fair amount of hidden trackage. Now obviously, being the planner you seem to be, you've worked out the access to all the hidden areas? You know, the one area you can't reach is going to be the place where all the derailments happen, right?
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I was seeing pics......some of them were small, but they were there.
Looks like you've got the access thing worked out.
So is this basically a display type setup? I don't see a lot of switching, yards or staging.
I also see a fairily liberal use of glue. Is that the main attaching methos, or is it scews, dowels, biscuts, or something else along with the glue? I only ask because I know that glue alone will not hold as well after a couple of seasons of climate changes. You've gone to a lot of work here and I'd hate to have you find that it doesn't hold up over time, ya know?
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I didn't realize that was gorilla glue. For some reason it looked like regular wood glue. Sorry for the alarm bells. Gorilla glue is good stuff. I've not seen it fail yet.
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What you've got going is looking real good, and with some minor tweaking, it should come together nicely. And spending the extra time of the basic frame and overall layout of track is well spent. It'll make the track laying go that much better.
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I'm going to assume the two yards are set up as one for east and one for west.
Now, unless they are very busy yards you really only need one A/D track per yard. Also, you'd probably want the yard lead have direct access to the A/D track so it can pull or spot cuts of cars with the minimum amount of moves possible. Real RR's do this to save time, and time is money, right? Doing this should also allow you to have slightly longer yard tracks in a little less space (width wise). One last thing......making the yards stub ended yards would allow for longer yard tracks. The A/D track can still be a through track though.
This is an old yard deomonstration I set up, but it applies here. These are clearly "minimalist" yards, but they'll get the job done.
For a great primer on yard design, check this out:
http://macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Yards--freight_and_passenger
And also this:
http://macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Auxiliary_Yards
Keith: I caugth the link to this topic where PC had posted it in the Trackside Diner. ( to the Dier BTW, you won't have seen my posts unless you browsed a long while before coming in...I'm not frequently there of late.)
I'm writing because you are going to use flextrack to minimise derailments in those tunnels; a good strategy. However, as you know, flex has to be joined, and on curves this means trimming off the necessary number of ties, cutting the rail to length correct for each side of the track as it curves, and soldering the rail joiners while the track is straight, NOT CURVED. So, my concern is access to the roadbed in the tunnels for the longish lengths of pre-soldered track that will be necessary. You don't have a huge amount of space between levels. I'm supposing that you are glueing the track to the roadbed, as the same height restriction pretty much rules out nailing from above. In any case, all those vertical supports could give you grief in getting the lengths of track accuratly laid. Just a thought.
I chose to have hidden passing sidings in both my tunnels and my mid-way-point-of-a-dog-bone concealed loop. So acces hatches were my solution to the derail dilema.
with similar hatches for the turnouts at either end; that's the upper tunnel. The lower one is got at by removing facia sections as required, and the mid-point loop by removing large industrial buildings, Naturally, my layout, as yours is in Normal Scale! I know when the trains come to each end of the passing sidings by way of detector circuits I built years ago for my last Horribly Oversized layout. (Peter Thorne's Electronics books)
This layout of yours is going to be spectacular, judging from the attention to detail you've put in so far.
On the T-Rex, are you sure your name isn't really Calvin?
John.
"There are always alternatives, Captain" - Spock.
Sir Keith, you are my kind of modeler! Experimental as all get-out, and not scared of risks. Of all the adhesives you mention, I'd go for the water-soluble latex contact cement kind. You put it on both surfaces, The drying time is all pre-bonding, and there is a 24 hr. window of opportunity, which allows for a "Honey Do" - not a bad precaution!
My approach to your track siting question would be to put down the sharpest radius cork (your tacky spotting sounds very workable for this), and draw its position on the wood with a magic marker. Repeat for all the other tracks at their appropriate spacings. Remove (you did remember to mark which curve is which, a nd in what order the pieces of cork went, didn't you? each curve's cork, apply contact cement to board and cork, let dry completely, and re-apply, matching the marker lines.
Pressing down hard should fix the cork and the track with no distortion.Then I'd do the track instalation in much the same order and method. I think the pre-fab cork-track hybrid would give me trouble...but I'm guessing. It would be as unyielding as the vertical uprights, and I'd prefer some wiggle room.
I used white glue to fix my track to foam, and I wouldn't do that again. (Sound transmission - it was a BAD mistake) AMI is what I went for, but would not inflicty that on anyone else.
Hope it works out well for you. John.
BlazzinI had read.. about 1/8th inch per foot.. to equal a desired grade of 2 percent, and let me tell you.. thats going nowhere Fast~..
I've gotten a little behind on reading this forum, so I just came across this thread. And I really feel sort-of badly about even bringing this up, with your construction so far along, but 1/8 inch per foot = 1/8 inch per 12 inches = 1 part in 96, that's essentially 1 percent grade. And yes, 1 percent is a pretty gradual grade to achieve elevation changes on a moderate-sized layout. So if you wanted 2 percent, you should have gone with 1/4 inch per foot, that would have made your elevations a lot easier to get to. But from your postings, it sounds like you used a lot of glued joints - in the more traditional way of using screws to assemble the structure, you might still be able to adjust your grades and/or maybe get a higher separation between levels.
Anyway, for any future construction, or others who may have been following your postings, I thought it was worthwhile to correct the grade calculation.
I must say I am impressed with the intensity of your layout building.
- Gerhard
Wow! A neat Layout and in the living room to boot. YOU DA MAN! I was banished to the basement. Keep the pictures and the story coming as it is an inspiration to us all.
Dave
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