Unitram layout plan and build

[cteno4]

You can cheat and make your own Kato plates as one big panel by laminating 3/16” (5mm) foamcore onto a piece of 4mm plywood or ply and then a sheet of like 1mm styrene on top. You can then just poke the wall pins into the foamcore where needed. Comes out the same thickness as the Kato plates and the whole thing is very stiff. You cna the  use a roto tool and route out grooves in the bottom if you need to run wires.

 

but whole station set will do you fine. You can just place the cement peppers where you want, but probably have most if it resting on the station entrance and shops. Nice thing with the system is you can just play with it until you find what works best.

 

enjoy!

 

jeff

[Morcs]

On 1/30/2021 at 12:36 PM, inobu said:

That has a really really nice focal point.

 

You should replace the panel top with a grid so you can have access to the bottom for wiring. The plates are hard to manage so the grid can help frame it up. Get a

raspberry pi and run JMRI or Rocrail to animate it. 

 

 

The odd board size (1495x445) would mean a wire shelf would need a bit of work to fit.

But, you did gave me an idea, i have swapped the 12mm MDF board out for 2 separate 5mm mdf boards. What this means is that the street plates and track actually sit flush with the framing of the table. Much better. Drilled a few decent holes in the panels for any future wiring before relaying the plates.

 

I also cut the boards slightly shorter so that when i get my clear acrylic cat barriers, they (hopefully) can just wedge straight down the gap and still do their job - like this:

 

Edited January 31, 2021 by Morcs

[Morcs]

On 1/30/2021 at 1:16 PM, cteno4 said:

You can cheat and make your own Kato plates as one big panel by laminating 3/16” (5mm) foamcore onto a piece of 4mm plywood or ply and then a sheet of like 1mm styrene on top. You can then just poke the wall pins into the foamcore where needed. Comes out the same thickness as the Kato plates and the whole thing is very stiff. You cna the  use a roto tool and route out grooves in the bottom if you need to run wires.

 

but whole station set will do you fine. You can just place the cement peppers where you want, but probably have most if it resting on the station entrance and shops. Nice thing with the system is you can just play with it until you find what works best.

 

enjoy!

 

jeff

 

Will need some playing with thats for sure, I cant seem to find the perfect combination by drawing it, but this week about 7 buildings arrive and ill have more accurate measurements.

 

Ideally id be able to have buildings in front of as well as behind the station, but with the low depth of this layout (the area for buildings is only 248mm deep) it will be fun trying to achieve the visual impacts im after.

 

My main conundrum is station coming from left or right. I have given up until I have a bunch of bits in my hands 🙂

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Morcs,

 

yes having the station will just let you play. If you do t have all your buildings yet just doing some simple cardboard mock-ups to play around which what feels best.

 

jeff

[Morcs]

Progress. Viaduct station has arrived, along with the last bits of track and street plates (though turnouts are in stock now so may end up swapping that dummy vertical track to an inner loop.

 

Due to the relatively low depth of the layout, I cannot have any buildings both in front and behind the station, which was one of the visual effects I was hoping to achieve, I have 2 options:

1) If i have the station at the front, the overall visual depth of the layout is reduced, as 2/3rds of the ground level wont be visibile, but has a nice effect of buildings above the level of the station.

 

2) If i have the station towards the rear, I have the problem of what to put on the street plates directly in front of the station and shops, as the street plate carparks are ugly - I could put some trees, benches etc.. and maybe some tiny tiny shops in this area but Im not sure how well it will come out. I probably prefer the overall visual aspects of this way though, but it makes buildings very difficult to fit in.

 

 

[cteno4]

Layout extension time! What’s 6” here and another 10” here...
 

Looks great, nice centerpiece.

 

jeff

[MeTheSwede]

Personally I think the front side of the overhead station with it's under viaduct shops next to the road and high rise buildings behind it looks great visually. But that table of yours looks pretty lightweight, so you could turn it around once a month or so and thus a get a "new" fresh look of your layout every now and then. With the station "both" in the front and in the back I'd probably more or less crowd as many buildings as possible into the open spaces and not worry about that the overpass station will mostly not be visible from one of the viewing directions.

 

 

[brill27mcb]

Did you get the V50 Unitram set with the printed backdrop? If so, put that behind your layout for some more urban depth.  - Rich K.

[Morcs]

5 hours ago, brill27mcb said:

Did you get the V50 Unitram set with the printed backdrop? If so, put that behind your layout for some more urban depth.  - Rich K.

 

I got a V50 starter set Inc power pack and green mover - was disappointed the backdrop wasnt included, shame can't buy them separately either.

[Morcs]

Decided to go with station at the front with buildings behind. Measured and planned out the rest of the buildings in a way that should give some depth. 

 

Acrylic front and side panels should arrive this week so I can finally add some detail parts like catenarys, street lamps etc.

[Morcs]

Acrylic panels arrived today. Look and work as well as I'd hoped - they are just wedged in the gap between streetplates/MDF base and the bench frame, with added stability of some 90 Deg brackets loosely bolts at the 2 front corners.

 

Also added brackets at each end for viaduct supports

 

 

And does anyone know what the spare holes in all the street plates are? They are too large for the supplied traffic lights and street lamps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tonytramman]

just caught up with this layout, good to have another unitrammer! love the raised station, i did toy with the idea myself for a while (still might). one thing to bear in mind which hasn't been mentioned as yet i think.. the dreaded track cleaning, unitrack gets dirty quite quickly and the trams don't like it at all, also they have a nasty habit of getting lint/fluff in their little mechs which is a pain, so keep the track nice and clean and the wheels. I hope the back of your layout is reasonably easy to access for this purpose. 

I did get a Tomix track cleaning vehicle but it does not like the traction poles as it is a tad wide for unitram layouts.

I have found the fun of tramway modeling again though with Unitram and love it! all my wiring is buried under the track in the foam board baseboard which helps, as you say it is fiddly to run it directly under the track!

I like your controller idea, very ingenious. 

tony 

[Morcs]

Progress update.

 

Added a few buildings. Having to cram them in behind the station to get the look I want in the narrow space. Already earmarked the remaining buildings I need to fill it out, with a focus on height.

 

Added platforms and track to the viaduct station.

 

Begun adding some detail as well, some trees although not terribly realistic ones have a nice effect.

 

When I add people my aim is to glue them to the pavement parts that are part of buildings rather than to the unitram plates.

 

Added another tomytec tram too, I'm not a huge fan of these. Motors don't fit well with chassis (you can push motor in too far or unevenly) they are noisy and geared poorly. That being said, there's not many alternatives.

 

[Morcs]