Paper track plan is in place, I am ready to start making sub-roadbed and laying track. I put a detailed plan of what I am going to do here: http://www.lkorailroad.com/track-laying-begins/. I welcome any comments you may have (especially from you seasoned modelers) about my plan of action. Thanks in advance.
Alan
Freelancing the LK&O Railroad
Nice plan, I an asuming you intend to run long trains. Not enough switching for my tastes but there is nothing I found wrong with it.
The yard and sidings are designed for 16-50' car 2-1st gen diesel loco trains. Does that qualify as long trains?
There are a few places left open for industries not yet in the plan. I figure it will take me long enough to get the initial industries built. Somewhere down the road I can add more if desired.
Made good headway cutting and placing sub-roadbed over the long 4th of July weekend. Using the 1:1 XTrkCAD track plan print as a template is working well. There is a post on my blog if you are interested in the nitty-gritty details: http://www.lkorailroad.com/sub-roadbed-progress-update/
I'd hate to slow your progress toward actually, you know, running trains, but I see you leaning over all that trackwork with a paintbrush and palette, snagging points on your clothes and dripping acrylics onto ties and more. You may be going with just a sky, or you'll be gluing on a fabulous photo panorama, or maybe you're tall and competent. But I thought I'd raise the question. It looks great anyhow.
For better or worse I am going with plain ole blue sky. I do not have the artistic ability to paint a convincing backdrop, have yet to see a photo backdrop that looks totally right (maybe just in my eyes) especially considering I have over 100' of contiguous backdrop, and don't care for painted on clouds.
There is of course no way anyone could know at this point because it exists only in my mind, but the urban areas will be dense buildings, vast majority of which will extend above the sight line at the backdrop. The mountainous areas similar in that the hills at the backdrop rise above the sight line in many places. Yes, there will be areas here and there where blue sky will be visible close to the horizon line but, as I see it, this is the lesser of the 3 evils.
As Mr. Eastwood said... A man's got to know his limitations.
Good for you. And I say that as someone who has spent the week watching YouTube videos of painting clouds, trees, and rocks. And has spent a small fortune on tubes of acrylic, brushes, and other paraphernalia in the vain hope that this will somehow improve the result.
Mass producing risers: http://www.lkorailroad.com/risers-for-the-flatlands/
Call me silly, but if that large an area would have all been the same elevation, I would have just made the baseline height of the benchwork that height and not had to make ANY risers for that large area at all. Since the tight construction of the benchwork made it all nice and level... And there's nothign in doing so that would not allow for other areas to be either higher or lower as needed for the geography.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy, the areas not occupied by roadbed will be pink foam to allow for scenery contour above and below the zero elevation. The roadbed is all at the same elevation but the landform around it is not. Hence roadbed on risers.
Finally have some sub-roadbed up on risers. Progress is slow during summer.
More pics and detail at: http://www.lkorailroad.com/placing-risers-begins/
Finished all of the sub-roadbed on the upper deck. Very happy with the way it worked out. Even managed to incorporate curve compensated grades on the climb out of the Potomac River valley.
Going to install the pink foam next before I lay cork roadbed. It will be easy to lay in place the foam sheet and mark it for cutting while the sub-roadbed is still flat. I'll clamp a temporary fascia in place so I can get the foam cut correctly for the curves of the fascia.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/foam-landscape/
Riser installation step-by-step explained in these posts (or click the right arrow on the blog site):http://www.lkorailroad.com/risers-for-the-flatlands/http://www.lkorailroad.com/placing-risers-begins/http://www.lkorailroad.com/risers-at-halfway-around-point/http://www.lkorailroad.com/flatland-risers-completed/http://www.lkorailroad.com/michigan-connected-to-maryland/http://www.lkorailroad.com/climbing-out-of-the-potomac-river-valley/http://www.lkorailroad.com/sub-roadbed-around-brittain/
Your work looks superb. I\ve always envied someone that could take there time building the layout and really think things through. I'm quite familiar with the xtracad software and the ability to print the plan 1:1, brings things into prospective.
Lynn
Present Layout progress
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/p/290127/3372174.aspx#3372174
That is a nice compliment. Thank you.
Yeah, not in a big rush here. Essentially just getting my retirement hobby queued up. Trying to get the heavy lifting done now so I can enjoy retirement building scenery and playing with trains just like I did when I was a kid :)
Alan I'm doing the same only I started about 10 years ago. When your finally ready to retire be ready to by a good pair of bi focals.
Now that I am about to begin track laying it was time to move my Tortoise control system from bench test to production model. Going to need quite a few of these over the winter during track laying.
watch?v=1v5H84xmlpM&feature=youtu.be
I must say the video was rather interesting. I used a board full of DS64's for my tortoise machines. I can power 4 tortoises per ds64, but I do it through the hand controller but I must say I like your idea.
lifeontheranchPaper track plan is in place, I am ready to start making sub-roadbed and laying track.
Super room prep and the lighting is awesome. This is obviously not a first rail road for you. Great work!
Dennis
CDN Dennis
Modeling the HO scale something or other RR in the shadow of the Canadian Rockies Alberta, Canada
Sad to say I have let my subscription to MR expire. Well done magazine but after several years I really had to question the true ROI it was providing to my modeling efforts. I make the assumption my posting here on the forums will be disallowed after my final edition of the magazine arrives next month.
While my MR subscription has ended my layout progress has not. For those of you who are interested I invite you to follow along with the latest acomplishments at www.lkorailroad.com
Live long and prosper.
Allen,
Just because you have dropped your subscription to MR does not mean you can not post to this forum. The only thing you lose without a MR subscription is the 'Subscriber Extra' stuff...
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
lifeontheranch Sad to say I have let my subscription to MR expire. Well done magazine but after several years I really had to question the true ROI it was providing to my modeling efforts. I make the assumption my posting here on the forums will be disallowed after my final edition of the magazine arrives next month. While my MR subscription has ended my layout progress has not. For those of you who are interested I invite you to follow along with the latest acomplishments at www.lkorailroad.com Live long and prosper.
Alan:
You don't have to be a subscriber to take an active part in this forum. You won't be cast aside into the darkness when your subscription expires so keep on posting.
Joe
Well that is some jim-dandy news! Very nice of MR to make this service available to non-subscribers. Knowing this, all I can say is disregard my earlier post. Sorry about the waste of electrons.
Carry on.
Finished installing all of the base 2" foam on the layout. http://www.lkorailroad.com/base-foam-landform-complete/
Next up is spline subroadbed to connect Kitzmiller tunnel to the north helix.
Alan,
Your website and graphics abilities are fantastic; what do you do for a living? Your layout design and execution are also fantastic. I can't wait to see how you follow this up with structures and scenery. I love your Tortise turnout controls; wish I had seen this before I built mine. Keep up the 'reporting' end of your journey.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
lifeontheranch Finished installing all of the base 2" foam on the layout.
Finished installing all of the base 2" foam on the layout.
Wow your pics look familiar. 1:1 scale XtrackCad printout on ply subroadbed with 2" pink foam on both sides. You may have 10X the layout area but some of our methods are certainly alike.
I bought a pack of carbon paper, slipped it under the printout and quickly transferred the centerline of the track to the ply by tracing with a pen. It was easy and eliminated all questions about where the center of the roadbed and track should be. Of course with your sweeping long curves precision may not be quite the issue that it is for me.
Also I found that the "waste" foam came in very handy when I started building the terrain. Curious- how many sheets did you use?
As always, great work!
Huntington Junction - Freelance based on the B&O and C&O in coal country before the merger... doing it my way. Now working on phase 3. - Walt
For photos and more: http://www.wkhobbies.com/model-railroad/
"what do you do for a living?"
Thanks for the compliment Bob. I work as Marketing Communications Mgr for a large chemical company. While I would like to take credit for the web site design it is not mine. It is actually a free WordPress theme. Glad you like it. As for all other graphics used on my site, yes I consider myself an accomplished Abobe CS user.
HObbyguy Wow your pics look familiar. 1:1 scale XtrackCad printout on ply subroadbed with 2" pink foam on both sides. You may have 10X the layout area but some of our methods are certainly alike. I bought a pack of carbon paper, slipped it under the printout and quickly transferred the centerline of the track to the ply by tracing with a pen. It was easy and eliminated all questions about where the center of the roadbed and track should be. Of course with your sweeping long curves precision may not be quite the issue that it is for me. Also I found that the "waste" foam came in very handy when I started building the terrain. Curious- how many sheets did you use? As always, great work!
We are even more alike... carbon paper trace is exactly what I will be doing too!
I used 4 - 4x8 sheets total with a little left over. I still have to make 3 triangular corner fill pieces so that will use up the last. Have to build the corner frames first. They are removable for access to the lights in the corners (bulb change, etc.). The arrangement allows me to stand up behind the benchwork in the corners.
Four sheets is not too bad. Lots of carving to come though and I bet you will end up buying more.
Since we are thinking alike I am eager to see how you manage your removeable corner pieces. I have to make two removeable pieces for center access panels and still haven't decided how to do it so that they will blend seamlessly with the terrain and scenic details. Getting started on this is slowly rising on my priority list.
"blend seamlessly with the terrain and scenic details"
Yeah, that was a tough one. I tried to think it all the way through during the design phase. While I am not yet at the scenery stage I believe I have solutions that will work in my particular instance. They were incorporated into the basic construction. My solutions by location are: 1) fence and gate on the seam; 2) curb on road; 3) structure wall. I know that is not enough information to visualize the final product and it is yet to be seen if it works out properly but at least that's my plan. The corner angle seams of the benchwork were positioned with these solutions in mind.
10 Mile Tunnel... or so that is what I am calling my hidden track that connects the north staging helix with the upper deck at Kitzmiller. Finished constructing the sub-roadbed this past week. The full story and many more pictures are here: http://www.lkorailroad.com/10-mile-tunnel/ The hanging end you see is where the north helix will connect once I get it built.
In this first picture the track is under scenery. I took the foam out temporarily so you can see the track below. The track is making the final curve before entering the visible layout through a tunnel portal on the opposite side of the backdrop.
In this second picture the hidden track will be inside cardboard web mountains.
Finally in this picture the hidden track is below the benchwork and will be behind a drape. After I get track laid, hardboard short walls will be put in place on each side to prevent possible plunges to concrete.