Jimbo's layout

[Jimbo]

I know its a mess   WIP lol

Edited May 9, 2019 by disturbman

[Jimbo]

I think it worked??

[Jimbo]

sorry Im not very good at this,,,,,,,    I used double track for the inner with switch's  for my inner with the stations, an ran an outer loop?? around the out side of the table, which lets me run three trains at once, Two EMUs two freight an three passenger set ups,, Made the mistake of trying to mix Kato an Tomix, oh well live an learn, I tried to take a pic or two of my Tomix cars ,,   I guess I'm to over think all this an trying to cram to much into such a small table??      There has been a lot of help from in this forum!!   Which I'm thankful for    

Edited April 16, 2019 by Jimbo

[bill937ca]

There is a Kato track piece designed to connection Kato track to Tomix track.  it is 20-045. The Tomix track will fit into the larger Kato piece. It would work best with Tomix stock rail rather Wide PC Track.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003037

 

Nice start on a layout. How big is your table?

 

Point to consider in designing a Japanese train layout: everything is jammed together in Japan. There is one place with 7 lines and 14 tracks in Tokyo. Four track sections are numerous.

 

[Jimbo]

i do have the adapter  from Kato to Tomix,,,, Its on a 4 by 8 table,,, Its warped on the ends adding to the challenge!!  Ive gotten frustrated with it at times an wont touch it or just run the trains run around  

[Jimbo]

I found out you cant mix Kato  an Tomix cars

[katoftw]

30 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

I found out you cant mix Kato  an Tomix cars

Depends on the cars. It is a very vague statement though you made.  But you can mix certain cars between manufacturers with the right couplers fitted.

[Jimbo]

Tomix an Kato  Twilight Express cars don't interchange, Kato mounts the couplers to the body an not the truck  Tomix  mounts to the truck,  So the Kato ones I got wouldn't work with my Tomix  cars

[katoftw]

Oh you mentioned that before in another thread. I didnt think you would revisit that, so I assumed you meant something else.

[bill937ca]

I find Japanese train lines are more  stand alone than North American trains. This may not be true in all cases, but in enough to use caution. Due the nature of the prototype most Japanese model trains are stand alone train sets anyway.

[sealegend]

It looks great!

[Jimbo]

sorry Im lost with this lay out,,, I look at it an say what am I missing??

[cteno4]

Jim,

 

can you please give us a bit bit more information by what you mean lost or what you are missing? 

 

Jeff

[Sheffie]

I think that only you can say what is missing. Rule one—or so I’ve been told—is that what belongs on the layout is what YOU want on the layout. 

[Jimbo]

I'm at a loss its like I don't know where to go next??  think I need to get the lay out cleaned off an look at it,, just my thought,, Its not like there is enough to do!!  I would like to  do a yard of some sort but nothing is popping?? into my head?? the outside of the table is taken  up with a track system ,,  so all I have is part of the middle to work with,,  To me its almost to busy??   That am  frustrated with two engines that don't like the double track, due to the banking, but run fine on the single track,,   Ive tried to find a station for the other EMU    finally found one from Germany that was what I was looking for, its a Kibri its nothing but a platform with a small overhead (roof) an a light an benches,,  but it looked right to me so I bought it,,   Ive seen so much different stuff that Tomix makes but not Kato that an 3 way switch's too!  I know its not a big deal with adapters,,

Edited April 18, 2019 by Jimbo

[gavino200]

16 hours ago, Jimbo said:

I'm at a loss its like I don't know where to go next??  think I need to get the lay out cleaned off an look at it,, just my thought,, Its not like there is enough to do!!  I would like to  do a yard of some sort but nothing is popping?? into my head??

 

I feel like this most of the time. I'm amazed by people who seem to just "see" it all in their head and start making it all appear. What helps me is to go through videos and pictures of other layouts looking for ideas. You should check out the "Inspirational Layouts" thread. Also no rush. if you're not sure how to proceed, then don't proceed. Just play with the trains and work on another project.

 

 

Quote

To me its almost to busy?? 

 

It may be. Sometimes less is more. You can also think about making your modeled segments modular. That way you can add or remove them until you find something that feels right. And if you change your layout you can bring them to the next one.

 

 

Quote

That am  frustrated with two engines that don't like the double track, due to the banking, but run fine on the single track,, 

 

 

I wonder about this. Are you sure the double track is correctly setup? Could you be missing a transitional piece. I had a lot of trouble with double track when I used it first. Surprisingly, when it's installed wrong a lot of locos can handle it anyway. After I got it set up right - correct transition pieces, no bumps or uneven joiners - ALL locos have been ok with it. 

 

Or it may be a radius issue. Many locos have a minimum turning radius that they'll tolerate. The tightest radius that Kato sell in double track are too tight for some locos including Shinkansen and large steam trains. It took me a while to work that out. It's got nothing to do with the banking.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2019 by gavino200

[cteno4]

Wise words gavin! 

 

Yes just looking at plans and setting some elements of them up with the track at hand can be useful in figuring out what works best for you. Hack up little boxes in building shapes (corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun make this fast and easy) or even quickly taped together free print out papercraft building models to play with ideas for what structures would work with the track plan you are knoodling on.

 

i think the right thing rarely goes pop into someone’s head and the layout is there. Plus I think almost no one is totally happy with their current layout. Layouts are all usually an evolution over time — its both a plus and minus of the hobby.

 

the great advantage of Tomix and kato sectional track is it’s easy to tear things up and rebuild them anew easily if you haven’t nailed/glued/screwed down the track. This why I like screws as it’s an easy way to redo later. On foam you can sort of nail track down with straight pins if you drill out the nail holes or along the side of the track if needed.

 

layouts are pretty compressed usually or we would have very very little track on the usual small layouts most of us can give space to. As Bill noted we are lucky that japan has some of the densest rail scenes and urban scenes in the world and train tracks go right next to just about everything, so compressing scenes and cramming a lot on small layout works better than modeling elsewhere.

 

keep looking at layouts and track plans and keep playing with what you have.

 

gavin is spot on on the banked track we had someone put it on a Ttrak corner when they didn’t have the transitions and it caused about 1 in 10 trains to derail when they went from straight to the canted rail w.o the transition.

 

hang in there, this is a hobby that slowly grows with time with you as you get more experience try different things and improve the various sub skills along the way.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

You will find it helpful to make track plans on the computer. Anyrail offers a free trial version for up to 50 pieces of track.    https://www.anyrail.com/en

 

Watch for minimum radius curves. Generally R280/282  and R315/R317 (Kato / Tomix) are the minimum curves. Anything less will restrict rolling stock.

 

Watch for S-curves a great source of derailments when couplers can't have the forces in twisting and turning.

 

 

[Jimbo]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Wise words gavin! 

 

Yes just looking at plans and setting some elements of them up with the track at hand can be useful in figuring out what works best for you. Hack up little boxes in building shapes (corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun make this fast and easy) or even quickly taped together free print out papercraft building models to play with ideas for what structures would work with the track plan you are knoodling on.

 

i think the right thing rarely goes pop into someone’s head and the layout is there. Plus I think almost no one is totally happy with their current layout. Layouts are all usually an evolution over time — its both a plus and minus of the hobby.

 

the great advantage of Tomix and kato sectional track is it’s easy to tear things up and rebuild them anew easily if you haven’t nailed/glued/screwed down the track. This why I like screws as it’s an easy way to redo later. On foam you can sort of nail track down with straight pins if you drill out the nail holes or along the side of the track if needed.

 

layouts are pretty compressed usually or we would have very very little track on the usual small layouts most of us can give space to. As Bill noted we are lucky that japan has some of the densest rail scenes and urban scenes in the world and train tracks go right next to just about everything, so compressing scenes and cramming a lot on small layout works better than modeling elsewhere.

 

keep looking at layouts and track plans and keep playing with what you have.

 

gavin is spot on on the banked track we had someone put it on a Ttrak corner when they didn’t have the transitions and it caused about 1 in 10 trains to derail when they went from straight to the canted rail w.o the transition.

 

hang in there, this is a hobby that slowly grows with time with you as you get more experience try different things and improve the various sub skills along the way.

 

cheers

 

jeff

That's what I was wondering about the Ttrak?? I have transitions,  but have straight track between the corner to widen the track flattens out but only for like 7 inchs so it is fairly short, the problem hasn't been derailments,, the two just don't like going through the corner s  due to the banking??  everything else works fine,,   As far as "too busy" I cleaned the lay out, an started seeing what what's which is helping,  Thank you all for your input

[katoftw]

What engines?

[Jimbo]

one is a Tomix an the other a Kato  When on the double track in the curves they act like they are not making contact  ,,, but on the single track they work fine,,,, its only in the banking they act up???

[cteno4]

Just verifying you have the transitions before any other track after the banked sections. My reference to Ttrak was only because a club member tried using canted track w.o the transitions and it caused derailments of a few particular trains.

 

ttrak is a modular format to do small modules about 1’ square that have 2 tracks on them. You can then pop together a loop at home or get together with others at events and do much bigger layouts. More info:

 

http://ttrak.org/

http://ttrak.wikidot.com/

 

The plus is you can work on one small module at a time if you don’t have space for a layout. You can craft a neat little diorama over a module (or across multiple modules). Some folks spread the scene across a whole loop of Ttrak modules do make sort of a sectional layout. Also fun as you can change modules around to change the overall scene of your layout if you want.

 

downside of Ttrak is that it forces you into very loop oriented layouts with limited turnout options for Spurs and such due to the small module size and standards you need to follow so folks can play together. Unfortunately there is no perfect solution here, it’s more finding one that works best for your wants and needs.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

took out the double track, installed single track, more to my liking, replaced the catenary's with a different style more to my liking,   Ballasting is so much fun lol   I really needed to step back an look, 

[katoftw]

You need to paint the track base brown/red if using brown/red ballasts.

 

Also if making the ballast as high as the sleepers/ties. To save using so much expensive ballast. Put some old ply strips or similar between the single pieces of track. And then ballast over the top of that.

[Martijn Meerts]

Ballasting is one of the most annoying tasks in model railroading in my opinion 🙂

 

It does add a great deal to the overall look of the layout though. I don't agree that the track base has to be painted brown if using brown ballast, it's not uncommon at all for ballast to have multiple colours. Although, usually it'll be grey on top of brown instead of brown on top of grey.