What did you do on your layout today? (N scale)

[Pauljag900]

10 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Finished all the final fitting of the basic layout 3.0 modules with the interlocking pins. All fit well! Painted the tops grey. We are doing the sakura Matsuri a week from sat. It will be a temp setup with nothing nailed down, just rubber cement things in place so we don’t need to do a lot of setup. Over the summer we can do all the hard wiring and real scenery.

 

jeff

 

 

How big is it overall Jeff? 

[cteno4]

Bout 5.5’ wide and minimum is just under 10’ long. Two expansion sections can take it out to 15’ Long. The. There are viaduct and ground yard sections 30’ wide total that can go 5 or 10’ off one end. So with it all done it’s about 25’ long. We made it to gracefully expand and contract depending on the space we have for a show. Luckily if I can clear a bit more crap out of the basement I can get the 15’ layout in there so we can work on it w.o having to keep pulling it apart all the time. We wanted our usual double viaduct and two ground lines but not making it total modular afair. 

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

20 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Bout 5.5’ wide and minimum is just under 10’ long. Two expansion sections can take it out to 15’ Long. The. There are viaduct and ground yard sections 30’ wide total that can go 5 or 10’ off one end. So with it all done it’s about 25’ long. We made it to gracefully expand and contract depending on the space we have for a show. Luckily if I can clear a bit more crap out of the basement I can get the 15’ layout in there so we can work on it w.o having to keep pulling it apart all the time. We wanted our usual double viaduct and two ground lines but not making it total modular afair. 

 

jeff

That s a decent  size buddy even for shows,will look great all set up.Much easier to work on when things are set up,takes the guess work out.

looks really nice tho jeff,proper job,wish I had those woodwork skills👍👍 looks better than my dining table😂😂

paul

[cteno4]

Yeah the nyc layout taught us that a 10’x5’ layout can be a huge hit. It doesn’t need to be a monster if there are decent movement of trains that does not feel like totally plain loops (well can’t escape that much on the double viaduct in this size) and has a lot of interesting scenes. In 2.0 we got caught up doing a large laundry list of track wants and the scenes suffered. Always tradeoffs and trying to find that optimum point!

 

Woodworking is not that difficult to do the basics. Mainly needs some tools and a bit of learning and then just practice! Mot folks just never get the chance to be show the basics and access to tools and then just some banging around projects! 

 

Doing fancy woodworking is a real skill/talent, but this stuff is very straight forward! I didn’t rabit or Dado any joints and such, was lazier with small corner blocks to aid assembly (there were like 20+ in all of these to assemble) and add structural support. Some day I’ll get a decent router table set up to do the next level on projects like this, but with my current router table it would have been a lot of work.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah the nyc layout taught us that a 10’x5’ layout can be a huge hit. It doesn’t need to be a monster if there are decent movement of trains that does not feel like totally plain loops (well can’t escape that much on the double viaduct in this size) and has a lot of interesting scenes. In 2.0 we got caught up doing a large laundry list of track wants and the scenes suffered. Always tradeoffs and trying to find that optimum point!

 

Woodworking is not that difficult to do the basics. Mainly needs some tools and a bit of learning and then just practice! Mot folks just never get the chance to be show the basics and access to tools and then just some banging around projects! 

 

Doing fancy woodworking is a real skill/talent, but this stuff is very straight forward! I didn’t rabit or Dado any joints and such, was lazier with small corner blocks to aid assembly (there were like 20+ in all of these to assemble) and add structural support. Some day I’ll get a decent router table set up to do the next level on projects like this, but with my current router table it would have been a lot of work.

 

cheers

 

jeff

Yes always trade offs,I forfeited scenery for track this time.

i guess it was more about making sure it’s sturdy and I m sure the blocks do the job jeff.

when I was re planning mine I designed a few 10 x 5 layouts and was going to build the table on wheels so it could be accessed from all sides by just pulling it about,maybe in the future when I get bored with this one.😂😂😂

plain old loops are great for train running and viewing tho I guess not much fun for an exhibition layout.I have a theory that if there s enough going on you tend not to see the actual track plan,at least I do nt but guess others would.

I ve been  a bit unsure as to what to do at the back to break/ disguise the loops but I ve decided to do one big mountain that will cover all 8 tracks,it ll be approx 3’ wide and 2’ high and will be home to the shrine,village and farm modules that I saved as one piece from the old layout.

It will be removable as one piece for cleaning,tho the last one was there for a year and never got any more than a Tomix cleaning car through it!👍😀😀

paul

[bill937ca]

Running my Kato Kumoha 12 50 as a track test car. Testing points pairings and clearances.

 

[Václav Sedláček]

Some trials on new railway layout in Pečky. New layout  allows operation of full-lenght express trains such a 581 EMU and Sleeper limited express "Akatsuki", freight trains up to 25 cars and Tokyo streetcars. 

video from trials

[chadbag]

25 minutes ago, Václav Sedláček said:

Some trials on new railway layout in Pečky. New layout  allows operation of full-lenght express trains such a 581 EMU and Sleeper limited express "Akatsuki", freight trains up to 25 cars and Tokyo streetcars. 

video from trials

 

Nice.  I like the long trains going by forever :)

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by chadbag

[bill937ca]

Pulled a couple of old trains over the past couple of days for a spin around the layout.

 

 

[NXCALE]

I was trying to make some turnouts for the Tomytec buses.

Here below a video where some tests are shown. Cheers!

 

 

[cteno4]

Lots of work on the new JRM layout for this weekend going on. Coming up fast!

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

wow, that looks amazing!  Wish I was a bit closer so I could join you all.  Are those mostly tomytec buildings?

[NXCALE]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Lots of work on the new JRM layout for this weekend going on. Coming up fast!

 

jeff

 

It looks great and what also looks great is all the space you got there for your layout!

 

Btw, I didnt mention that the bus turnout (of my previous post) is quite cheap and simple to make.

So any person could make one or improve the design or design anything completely different also.

Electronic parts are very affordable nowadays (generic Arduino, servos, resistors, LEDs , etc  cost less than you think).

About the code, I just put together 2 pieces of code I found online. The main idea was to quickly prototype the turnout to see if it could work.

Hope it helps!

 

[serotta1972]

Very nice but that middle area is quite small, I don't think you'll fit in there Jeff. :) You all have fun this weekend!

[cteno4]

Yeah but no need to try to pop up in the center of the layout anymore! That was always a very tricky bit to do, one wrong move and bam!

 

lucky the minimum layout fits in the basement with all the crap stored there. I can get the full layout minus the yard but you can then only walk, well squeeze, around one end if I clean out some more stuff. This spring and summer will be working on the permanent version of this, this is sort of a mock up for the festival and to dry run all the track and think thru scenes. 

 

nx the turnout is great it was my exact same thought using a servo! I prototyped it way back manually with just a wire in a chunk of styrene tube to pull the point and it worked great. I had a servo tester that would let you just play the servo and though ot trying just that to move it an put limiters on the knob for a quick and dirty. Can’t wait until I have some time to play more with arduinos. Lots of simple projects for fun lighting stuff with micro board.

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

14 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Lots of work on the new JRM layout for this weekend going on. Coming up fast!

 

jeff

Wow,you ve been busy buddy,looks great jeff,good effort👍👍😀

[tt0880]

Today was an incredibly special day for me and my layout because (drumroll please)...

 

I FINISHED DRILLING WIRES!!

 

 

Here's a picture of my viaduct station, which was the last (and most difficult place) to get all the wires hidden. But I did it! 

 

I'll be posting a much bigger update in my layout thread shortly, but I wanted to post this here as well... Now I can finally focus on fun things like scenery and buildings and be able to run trains with no clutter!!!

[Pauljag900]

2 hours ago, tt0880 said:

Today was an incredibly special day for me and my layout because (drumroll please)...

 

I FINISHED DRILLING WIRES!!

 

 

Here's a picture of my viaduct station, which was the last (and most difficult place) to get all the wires hidden. But I did it! 

 

I'll be posting a much bigger update in my layout thread shortly, but I wanted to post this here as well... Now I can finally focus on fun things like scenery and buildings and be able to run trains with no clutter!!!

Looking good there buddy,good job,did you drill through in the end? Or did you find another way?

paul

[Kiha66]

Looks great!  Being able to run your trains clutter free makes it a lot more relaxing I find.

[tt0880]

11 minutes ago, Pauljag900 said:

Looking good there buddy,good job,did you drill through in the end? Or did you find another way?

 

Just drilled through, ended up being the easiest solution. My only worry was that they wouldn't be hidden well but I think it looks great!

 

8 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Being able to run your trains clutter free makes it a lot more relaxing I find.

Totally agree... I still have building kits to make and stuff, but other than that it's just enjoying the trains and scenery :)

[cteno4]

Getting closer! Temp wiring is done and worked perfectly on first pass! Bunch of scenery elements coming in Friday and the load into vehicles for sat! Vehicles will go on at the show.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Looks fantastic :)

[valkyriepm]

6 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Getting closer! Temp wiring is done and worked perfectly on first pass! Bunch of scenery elements coming in Friday and the load into vehicles for sat! Vehicles will go on at the show.

 

cheers

 

jeff

Looking great Jeff! Little confused about the shinkansen houses tho ;P

 

Martin

[serotta1972]

Lots of great layouts in progress, very inspiring.  Looking forward to seeing trains running on them.

 

Edited April 13, 2018 by serotta1972

[cteno4]

This setup for us is a temp set up with nothing nailed down. We ran out of time and actually it’s good as it’s giving us time to think thru some of the small details and how we want to do the scenes, buildings to purchase, etc. I’m making some simple end plates that can stack modules for transport. Eventually we will have nice roadie crates for the modules, but those will take tike to craft and get just right to best fit in vehicles, but maximize space.

 

Found a great solution to lock the modules together, binder clips! We have 2 interlocking 1/2” dowels that fix the module joints in alignment, but if they take a big bump they can slip apart. Since the frames are made of 12mm ply a 1” cap binder clip is just right to clip two adjoining frames together. Just enough tension but not so much as to wrench anything like a C clamp would and cheap and easy to pop on and off with just feeling with your hands. 

 

Cheers

 

jeff