Tomix Door layout

[Clayton]

[Clayton]

[Clayton]

[Clayton]

[Clayton]

[Clayton]

Here is my fleet of locomotives so far.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by MoPac

[roadstar_na6]

I guess your favourite color is blue? 😄

[chadbag]

@MoPac  Is there a reason you put the foam on top of the door and just didn't use the foam on a light frame on the table itself?     Using foam (2") is plenty stiff and makes running wire and stuff a lot easier to deal with as you are only punching through foam etc.   With N-scale nothing is particularly heavy and 2" foam is really stiff.

 

 

[cteno4]

Yeah I guess too late now, but yep the foam just sitting on the table top woild have been fine, 2” is uber stiff. That way you could just tip up the Foam to run wires under the foam and wait her just float the foam on the door with a grid of little blocks to give like a 3/4” chase way for all the wires and just pin them to the bottom of the foam with some U staples.

 

i have two 2’x8’x1.5” pieces of extruded polystyrene just resting on four 4’ 2x4s laying across a 6’ folding table with lots of crap piled on top for years and its stayed really flat, ive been amazed! One of those I’ll do for a month until I do something better and now like 15 years later...

 

jeff

[chadbag]

4 hours ago, MoPac said:

Here is my fleet of locomotives so far.

 

 

 

 

I assume most of those are the same operating company?  

[Clayton]

3 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

 

I assume most of those are the same operating company?  

Yes, they are all Missouri Pacific railroad locomotives even the ones in Union Pacific livery are Missouri Pacific.

[Clayton]

3 hours ago, chadbag said:

@MoPac  Is there a reason you put the foam on top of the door and just didn't use the foam on a light frame on the table itself?     Using foam (2") is plenty stiff and makes running wire and stuff a lot easier to deal with as you are only punching through foam etc.   With N-scale nothing is particularly heavy and 2" foam is really stiff.

 

 

I cut the foam and glued it to the door. So I can unhook the layout from the door if needed to access the wires and etc.

 

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yeah I guess too late now, but yep the foam just sitting on the table top woild have been fine, 2” is uber stiff. That way you could just tip up the Foam to run wires under the foam and wait her just float the foam on the door with a grid of little blocks to give like a 3/4” chase way for all the wires and just pin them to the bottom of the foam with some U staples.

 

i have two 2’x8’x1.5” pieces of extruded polystyrene just resting on four 4’ 2x4s laying across a 6’ folding table with lots of crap piled on top for years and its stayed really flat, ive been amazed! One of those I’ll do for a month until I do something better and now like 15 years later...

 

jeff

. The table is smaller so it is only for support. I wish that I could have found 2" foam. 

[Clayton]

I forgot to post about the table, it is 30" x 6' and the door and foam board is 36"x 80". The foam board thickness is 1 1/2" thick.

[chadbag]

24 minutes ago, MoPac said:

I forgot to post about the table, it is 30" x 6' and the door and foam board is 36"x 80". The foam board thickness is 1 1/2" thick.

 

That should be thick enough.  You can make a frame with 1x4 or something (square with a cross beam and some corners to keep from folding on itself) and glue (silicone) the foam to the frame and lay that on the door.  That is basically what I did but I used 2x4 so I would have space to put backgrounds etc.   The frame just sits on my smaller table

 

 

I actually bought 2 pieces of foam -- in my case I think 2" thick.   Each is 2' wide and 8' tall.  I glued them together into a 4'x8' "board" and then siliconed it to my frame.  Easy to wire underneath and poke holes for wires to come up through it etc.  Just food for thought for future us.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by chadbag

[cteno4]

Well with the foam glued to the door you could still glue a grid of small blocks (like 1.5”x1.5”x0.75”] onto the bottom of the door to lift it off the table to allow a chase way for wires between the door and the table. Also can take a router and route chase ways to the bottom side of the door and just put some tape over them to seal it all up.

the 1.5” is pretty stiff on its own, just a tiny bit of framing really gets it very rigid. Even 1” doesn’t need much.

 

jeff

[Clayton]

15 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Well with the foam glued to the door you could still glue a grid of small blocks (like 1.5”x1.5”x0.75”] onto the bottom of the door to lift it off the table to allow a chase way for wires between the door and the table. Also can take a router and route chase ways to the bottom side of the door and just put some tape over them to seal it all up.

the 1.5” is pretty stiff on its own, just a tiny bit of framing really gets it very rigid. Even 1” doesn’t need much.

 

jeff

If you look in my post I do have three 1 1/2" foam blocks in-between the door and the table for wiring access. Though I didn't glue them. Because there is no need to do so. They won't move due to the force from the four carriage bolts holding down the door to the table. I will just let the wires set uniformly together in between the door and the table.

[Clayton]

16 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

That should be thick enough.  You can make a frame with 1x4 or something (square with a cross beam and some corners to keep from folding on itself) and glue (silicone) the foam to the frame and lay that on the door.  That is basically what I did but I used 2x4 so I would have space to put backgrounds etc.   The frame just sits on my smaller table

 

 

I actually bought 2 pieces of foam -- in my case I think 2" thick.   Each is 2' wide and 8' tall.  I glued them together into a 4'x8' "board" and then siliconed it to my frame.  Easy to wire underneath and poke holes for wires to come up through it etc.  Just food for thought for future us.

 

I have four carriage bolts I glued with 2" washers to the top side of the door before I glued the door to the foam board. From there the 6 inch long bolts are connected to the table with 1 1/2" foam in-between to allow easy access for wiring.  With the foam glued to the door I will not have to worry about corners folding in upon itself.  Plus I don't have to worry about the layout sliding on the table.

[Clayton]

Here is an update for this month shipment of the olderTomix track. I placed it in position. The guy gave me extra track and had turnouts that I removed fro, my original design. So I modified the setup some and put them in place.

 

[Clayton]

Due to the high cost of the turntable and the known websites are sold out of them and the price is through the roof on flea bay. I am going to remove the turntable from my design. Here is a new current design of the layout.

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by MoPac

[roadstar_na6]

Here's a turntable for a reasonable price.

[cteno4]

prices for Tomix even on ebay look like they start at the regular price around $175. Shipping can be a bit high with covid issues. 
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOMIX-N-gauge-turntable-II-N-AT212-15-F-1633-model-railroad-supplies-16335/163944494379?epid=1440078401&hash=item262bda752b:g:EOYAAOSws65dzaRV

 

built, indexing turntables are not cheap. Usually been $150-250 range.

 

Maybe leave a hole for where it can go later when available.

 

they actually are not super hard to scratch build. When I was a kid I built a nice custom small one (by the time I decided I wanted one my space left was a tad to small for commercial ones plus I was a poor kid) that I really surprised myself how well it worked. Use a plate girder bridge for the turn table itself. Just run a circle of flex track rail around the pit and split and isolate it into 2 half circles for power transfer to the table. You can use Z scale bogies to roll the ends on the rail or even just use a strip of brass in in a bow to ride on the rail. Lots of inexpensive geared down motors on ebay. Don’t get auto indexing, but you get good at stopping them. I just used two push buttons to activate it.

 

or start with the basic Peco and add pickups

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Peco-Turntable-Kit-N-Scale-PPCNB55/372785261006?epid=2256005074&hash=item56cbbba9ce:g:meEAAOSwrl5djSwh

 

and motorize

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Peco-Turntable-Motor-Module-25-00/124320807364?hash=item1cf218f9c4:g:G44AAOSwvIpfTqWt
 

Few other brands of cheaper turntables out there as well to start with and modify.

 

might give it some thought.

 

jeff

[Clayton]

8 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Here's a turntable for a reasonable price.

Thanks! Though unfortunately I missed out on this deal😢. I will continue without the turntable though.

[Clayton]

7 hours ago, cteno4 said:

prices for Tomix even on ebay look like they start at the regular price around $175. Shipping can be a bit high with covid issues. 
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOMIX-N-gauge-turntable-II-N-AT212-15-F-1633-model-railroad-supplies-16335/163944494379?epid=1440078401&hash=item262bda752b:g:EOYAAOSws65dzaRV

 

built, indexing turntables are not cheap. Usually been $150-250 range.

 

Maybe leave a hole for where it can go later when available.

 

they actually are not super hard to scratch build. When I was a kid I built a nice custom small one (by the time I decided I wanted one my space left was a tad to small for commercial ones plus I was a poor kid) that I really surprised myself how well it worked. Use a plate girder bridge for the turn table itself. Just run a circle of flex track rail around the pit and split and isolate it into 2 half circles for power transfer to the table. You can use Z scale bogies to roll the ends on the rail or even just use a strip of brass in in a bow to ride on the rail. Lots of inexpensive geared down motors on ebay. Don’t get auto indexing, but you get good at stopping them. I just used two push buttons to activate it.

 

or start with the basic Peco and add pickups

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Peco-Turntable-Kit-N-Scale-PPCNB55/372785261006?epid=2256005074&hash=item56cbbba9ce:g:meEAAOSwrl5djSwh

 

and motorize

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Peco-Turntable-Motor-Module-25-00/124320807364?hash=item1cf218f9c4:g:G44AAOSwvIpfTqWt
 

Few other brands of cheaper turntables out there as well to start with and modify.

 

might give it some thought.

 

jeff

Thanks Jeff

I will continue without the turntable. plus with the extra switches that I acquired the turntable and extra track would  look over crowded with the extra switches used. I can always fill it with scenery. Here's an revamped version minus the turntable. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by Clayton

[Clayton]

On 10/6/2020 at 2:05 PM, cteno4 said:

prices for Tomix even on ebay look like they start at the regular price around $175. Shipping can be a bit high with covid issues. 
 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOMIX-N-gauge-turntable-II-N-AT212-15-F-1633-model-railroad-supplies-16335/163944494379?epid=1440078401&hash=item262bda752b:g:EOYAAOSws65dzaRV

 

built, indexing turntables are not cheap. Usually been $150-250 range.

 

Maybe leave a hole for where it can go later when available.

 

they actually are not super hard to scratch build. When I was a kid I built a nice custom small one (by the time I decided I wanted one my space left was a tad to small for commercial ones plus I was a poor kid) that I really surprised myself how well it worked. Use a plate girder bridge for the turn table itself. Just run a circle of flex track rail around the pit and split and isolate it into 2 half circles for power transfer to the table. You can use Z scale bogies to roll the ends on the rail or even just use a strip of brass in in a bow to ride on the rail. Lots of inexpensive geared down motors on ebay. Don’t get auto indexing, but you get good at stopping them. I just used two push buttons to activate it.

 

or start with the basic Peco and add pickups

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Peco-Turntable-Kit-N-Scale-PPCNB55/372785261006?epid=2256005074&hash=item56cbbba9ce:g:meEAAOSwrl5djSwh

 

and motorize

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Peco-Turntable-Motor-Module-25-00/124320807364?hash=item1cf218f9c4:g:G44AAOSwvIpfTqWt
 

Few other brands of cheaper turntables out there as well to start with and modify.

 

might give it some thought.

 

jeff

Thanks Jeff

I will continue without the turntable. plus with the extra switches that I acquired the turntable and extra track would  look over crowded with the extra switches used. I can always fill it with scenery. Here's an revamped version minus the turntable. 

[Clayton]

Well since I am waiting for extra funds to purchase some more of my track for my layout. I took it upon myself to make an oval to "test" out some of my new locomotives. Here is a video of me testing one of my intermountain SD40-2's under DC not DCC. I did find that it worked great by running it between 40-70 on my MRC 1500 controller. You will need the volume up on this.


https://www.instagram.com/p/CGGgRWinOP5/