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MechaDen

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So my trains and everything is still in storage. I know I'll need a modular layout but I'm still quite new at this so I'm not sure how to fully plan this, along with wiring. I'm thinking I want to convert my stuff to DCC. Previously I just used blocking to run one train at time, but that's quite boring after a while.

I move around a lot so I can't really keep a permanent layout anywhere. But I do need to figure out a few things before I get my stuff back to plan my next layout. Where I am I was told getting some materials [wood] could become quite expensive since my location is kind of isolated, so I need to figure out what I have available at a decent price too. Didn't think I'd have to try and price hunt for raw materials which will affect the type of layout I decide on. So I guess I need to ask, besides wood and foam, are there any other possible materials I could use? The floor?

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Mecha,

 

You might want to look at the T-Trak forum.  I think T-Track is a great way to start.  I wish I would have gone this way.  

 

Go to Youtube and type in "n scale coffee table".  You might get some ideals there.

 

Don't know what your stable contains, but there are some great layout plans for trams.

 

I have attached a few photos of layout that I found intriguing.

 

Mark

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Edited by toc36
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I'll dive into T-Trak then. It's amazing how much I forget about this if I don't stay invovled in it.

 

I like that first photo, whenever I hear of book case layout, I think of just one shelf, not the whole book case.

Edited by MechaDen
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I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go with T-Trak, depending on how I approach it, it could be easy and fun, or long and difficult.

I keep wanting to do a large layout with like "L" and "U" shaped table arrangements. A small T-Trak of a single village could be more interesting, but not so many large trains. T-Trak would at least be a start though.

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You could have any length of trains with ttrak, just follow the mainline 33mm spacing. Last time the HJMTC ttrak module setup had space for 7 car trains on a 4x single module long station with 3 tracks. You can have multiple stations around a layout and could even go up to large stations with many tracks on quad modules. The standard scales up rather easily even to huge banked curves. It could also be scaled down to trams on a single track layout with 150 mm curves.

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If you are not planning on playing with others you could also just do a more sectional (as opposed to modular like Ttrak where modules are very standardized) layout by designing a small layout that fits in your play space and then break it up into smaller sections you could more easily store. This is how we did the last JRM show layout and we are planning a new one the same way. Sections don't need to be the exact same size, they can fit your track plan. You can also engineer in spots where you can slip in expansion sections to make the layout larger when you have the space.

 

The down side to Ttrak is that in small spaces it's basically just a double loop, so track plan is not the focus, it's scenery. With larger Ttrak layouts you can start to get more interesting plans, but it's basic requirements tend to push it toward loops mostly, but that's the tradeoff to having standards so that everyone can run together.

 

I guess the questions are

 

A) do you want to run these with others?

B) what trains do you want to run?

C) how much space do you have?

D) what is your storage size?

E) what do you want to do most, operations, just run some trains, or get into scenery?

F) how long can you keep things set up at a time?

 

Materials are usually wood. Folks have used cut up extruded polystyrene blocks for modules. It can be tough to cut up a big sheet of extruded foam cleanly w.o using a table saw though. You do need to face them with some chipboard, wood veneer, or thin styrene sheet as it does get dinged up. Tnuts can get epoxied into them for leveling bolts. Folks have also made modules from foam core. Again they are a bit more fragile than a wood module base, but you can make them with just a matte knife, straight edge and glue! If not taking them out to shows a lot they may do fine for your purpose. Getting wood cut well for your modules can be a challenge as well. Most lumber yards will do a few cuts for free,msomemcharge, but most don't gaurentee they will give you really accurate or reproducible cuts--you just have to see what you can get in your area. Cutting simple U shaped modules can be done by hand or with an inexpensive saber or circular saw and a good 90 cutoff miter, but don't know if that's something you are familiar with or want to get in with. Check out urlrich's article. These modules should be under $5 each for the wood.

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/minimodules.html

 

Ply boxes require more cutting on a table saw. There are kits out there but you then go up to more like $15-25 per module once shipped.

 

Also might think about doing things on the fly some. You could just get a few folding tables and set up track in the fly on a cloth and add building and small scenery items. This stuff can easily pack away for storage and moving. Barry did a great article on this approach. Great thing about this approach is no building bases and you can always translate a lot of the scenery bits and track plan ideas you have tested out playing with. Also gets you back playing with trains fast and a very rapid way to play with learning scenery techniques (don't know how much of that you have done). Doing little bits at a time is a great way to learn and if you flub or the technique is not what you wanted very little lost, just toss it (or keep it, I do this as a catalog of techniques to remeber what they do) and try again. Bits can be used on modules or a layout later, glue them down and just blend them in!

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

 

Dcc can come in at any point. Doing block wiring for DC control can easily move over to dcc later.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

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I'm not sure yet if I'm going to go with T-Trak, depending on how I approach it, it could be easy and fun, or long and difficult.
I keep wanting to do a large layout with like "L" and "U" shaped table arrangements. A small T-Trak of a single village could be more interesting, but not so many large trains. T-Trak would at least be a start though.

 

One of the great things about T-TRAK is the ease of rearranging things or adding modules if you want to try something different.  Have a small layout today, a larger one tomorrow, swap out the big city modules for a countryside scene, round and round, point to point, loop to loop, double or single track, the only limit is your imagination.  I look at T-TRAK as not having one layout but as many as there are combinations of setting up my modules.

 

This is what I am planning for my 14'x14' spare room.  The doorway is in the bottom right corner and may have another corner module across the gap to make a continuous run (or not).  The plan just shows plain modules with straight track for ease of drawing but there will be a variety of scenery because T-TRAK can be much more than just two straight tracks across a flat module.  The modules will sit on benchwork with storage space for modules beneath so that when I get more modules I can swap them around.

 

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At a friend's place, we'll be starting to plan his big home layout after summer and I'd like to incorporate the T-Trak concept there as well. It'll be easy to install, adjust and work on, as it's a modular concept. Modules can be brought to meetings, swapped and even traded. You can even just build all required modules with bare scenery and add the scenerey per module later on in stages. If there is something we don't like, we can easily replace it as well.

  • Like 2
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At a friend's place, we'll be starting to plan his big home layout after summer and I'd like to incorporate the T-Trak concept there as well. It'll be easy to install, adjust and work on, as it's a modular concept. Modules can be brought to meetings, swapped and even traded. You can even just build all required modules with bare scenery and add the scenerey per module later on in stages. If there is something we don't like, we can easily replace it as well.

 

This idea has always intrigued me to have a section of a larger layout be ttrak where it fits best and then the rest of the layout can have the more custom track plan stuff. but it gives the layout the ability to do a 2 for 1 and change things around! There was a chap doing this with a small layout at one end that had loop and a switching yard and it was in one corner of the room (like around 3'x6'). then a single strip of ttrak modules went along one side of the room on top of low bookcases from the layout) turned the corner and along the other wall then to a small loop back balloon in the far corner. it gave him a long with the ttrak modules and then he could use the ttrak modules at shows.

 

jeff

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I've been quiet for a bit, but thanks for all the ideas folks. I think I'll go T-Trak when I'm somewhere with a bigger model train community. The place I'm in there aren't any real trains anyway so I highly doubt there's a modeling community for it.

 

I got 2 folding tables to make an L shape surface area and I'll just play with that for now. I was thinking of getting some Woodland Scenics supplies to build up most of the scenery. I just have to make it so I can reuse some of it (maybe). My current plan is to use the grass as a base then plan and paint as advertised and just get a small city started building up. Thinking of foam boards under a grass mat and just going nuts. I've got a few various buildings and stuff from Japan before I left but there's so much more I still want, and now that the shipping price is no longer feasible, I've gotta come up with something else for my buildings.

 

I've at least got my train running again which was my main goal. Guess my first goal is some scenery then maybe figure out DCC and then back to scenery.

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MechaDen,

 

you can do a lot on the fly on tables like this. cloth works well for the base covering as it can handle wires under it well and drapes over foam blocks and such well. then add patches of grass mat, construction paper, painted styrene, or cloth (roads, concrete, etc) on top and other scenery islands. scenery islands are great as they let you experiment with doing scenery techniques and you can move them around as needed if you play with your temp layout plan. they can be later reused by just gluing them down and faring in scenery around them. also act as great little sample sections of scenery techniques for you to use later to do bigger stuff to decide what will look best on a bigger scale and situation.

 

if you use a more flexible adhesive like matte medium and dont totally soak it you can even put scenery materials down on fabric and it can still bend quite a bit if needed.

 

great to play with way while you play with layout ideas and dcc.

 

our first club layout was just temporary layouts on a table top where we laid down colored construction paper to do ground, cement, grass, etc. later we made scenery island out of formica (it stays nice and flat and rigid) that were in shapes to fit in between the tracks. worked well in the early days, but was a lot of work to setup and take down! but was a great way for us to come to a more permanent plan to do a full sectional layout for 2.0 and now 3.0.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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Well now that I know this idea works when I move I can either keep going with it, or setup something more permanent, either way it saves time on building custom tables (though I'm sure a custom one would allow me more control over specific details).

 

I did throw together a layout that would fit on an L shaped area, it's pretty fun to run.

 

I did start getting some American trains though so I was trying to either mix it all together with American and Japanese trains and scenery or setup another oval or something somewhere else. The only issue I really have right now with that idea though is roads. I imagine you already know why I'm just not sure how I can work those to together if at all, probably make them switch direction under a tunnel or something.

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Mechaden,

 

Great to hear you have found some fun running layouts you can do at this size!

 

For roads just try cutting out bits of gray or black construction paper to get an idea of where roads may go. You can then even whip up some simple roads on the computer with a drawing program to more detail if you want (will take a lot of ink if doing black, but better on a laser printer for that). You can even do this for final roads and add in all sorts of detail as any vertical relief in most any street detail is a fraction of an mm at scale so you would see it as flat! You can also print on gray or black papers, but then you can't get white road markings. You can even use art papers that have a little texture to them, but to keep the texture you need to use an inkjet printer as the fused toner wipes out all the texture.

 

Keep fiddling!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

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