layout New layout project: Sakuragi no yu sen

[SL58654号]

Hi guys,

I'm finally feeling the urge to take the plunge and delve into making my very first permanent N scale layout from scratch starting from the bench work construction of a dedicated table to fully furnishing it with scenery. It'll be something I'll want to make taking inspiration from a few other Japanese layouts by members in the Japanese Railway Society and possibly some here. I'd like to make it a layout I can proudly display at convention centers and train shows (who wouldn't), without being sanguine for my first project. The name I have so far christened it with (桜木の湯線) is after the area I'm in as well as mentioning my love of cherry blossoms and hot springs. I'd like it to be a mostly steam JGR/JNR era fictional layout. There may be no catenary, but I'll have many EL that I like (EF13, EF65) running on it as well!

• The first stage in my mind is configuring the final track layout before the first shovelful of sod is turned. I'm using an app called "TrainDesign" to make a relatively complex track arrangement (hopefully not too advanced for my first layout) with KATO N Unitrack to fit within the confinement of space (a single table 1462 mm x 906 mm) I'm willing to spend in my apartment. Does anyone have experience using this, or would they recommend another program?   
• The train table is something I'd really like to make the most of by having it be sturdy, portable and also presentable while still remaining practical and minimal in its embellishments. To give it a "Japanese" flavor, I'd like to stain and lacquer the wood finish of the fascia of the table and add ropes at the narrow ends for carrying it. A layout depicted below ("Yama no yu sen") built by Stephen Gomersall is said to have done such. Note the pedestrian bridge. I'm looking into more details about this layout for more inspiration. Any suggestions or advice? I thank you all for any help you can offer so I put my best foot forward! 

• The layout will also strongly take inspiration from this depot model of a fictional Japanese roundhouse called "Kamanashi Kikanku" built by Phil Hendry. I hope to acquire the same or similar kits from which the roundhouse and turntable were built (Fleischmann). If anyone knows a good locale to purchase them, many thanks! I will soon shown the decided general track plan and rough sketches of the table I'll want to build for sociable critique before moving to the next stage; buying materials. 

• Aside from the roundhouse mentioned above, I intend to have an engine house as well, merely since I'd like there to be plenty of space devoted to showing off my locomotives awaiting their next turn of duty. I have the three bay engine house kit that resembles the classic stone one in Hitoyoshi, one of my favorite landmarks on the line. I would however like to alter the color of the brickwork of the kit by making them a lighter shade (like the VoR shed below) to match the cedar woodwork of the table. If anyone has experience with kits such as what techniques or paints can be used to achieve this, much appreciated. 
• 

 

Update (Nov 2, 2023): Here's the current track plan design courtesy of Doug Coster who rendered this for me in 3D. I'm pretty satisfied with it. 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2023 by SL58654号

[cteno4]

Hi SL58654Gō,

 

sounds like a wonderful projects. Taking a layout to shows and events (lots of public events love to have something like this show up!) is super fun and interesting. Our club has been doing portable show layouts for almost 19 years now.

 

on your bench work, experiment some. I’ve been surprised over they years what I’ve able to do with bench work for mobile layouts we have done for shows. Keeping things light, but designed well can actually make them very strong and rigid and moving and transporting them a lot easier. I’ve moved off of using the usual 18mm thick dimensional lumber and use 12mm Baltic birch plywood that is 7ply. It’s lighter and when cut into strips it becomes a wonderful framing material to get things thinner. Also surface material I’ve find that 5mm is plenty thick of you have some cross bracing under it. It works fine spanning gaps of like 30x30cm and even larger. Using thin materials to make a support grid between your main framework can really stiffen the whole unit. You can make grids like this using 5mm ply strips like 5cm wide and then notch rabit joints half way thru the strips to interlock the slats together like a cardboard wine box insert does to separate bottles.

 

also you might think about having the layout break into two pieces if you can do that. Moving and transporting a larger piece can get problematic. You can use some bolts between the modules to align them and secure them. Legs are always a challenge to get something smaller free standing. Might look at premade table leg systems as they tend to be sturdy and many times easily detach angle, but detaching legs means you have to lean the layout on its side to attach/remove the legs. Might be best to design to sit atop tables available or a folding portable one you can bring along. With the right framework in the layout base you can have the table (or tables, could use two smaller ones side by side) be smaller than the layout, just need to have good contact points between table and layout framework.

 

I love your idea of doing the external wood work and finishing in nice Japanese aesthetic. That bit is overlooked on so many layouts and modular systems. The external frame is really a picture”frame” to the layout. Folks thinking painting the edge black or brown is a way to make it disappear, but it only gives you an ugly frame to your layout. Natural finished wood really so easy on the eye that it lets the eye focus on the layout, but when the eye does catch on the frame it’s nice. If using nice wood on the external frame is really expensive you might also look at wood veneers to finish off the visible areas as it’s a lot less expensive. Taking care with the exposed wood joints also helps as these can sometimes really catch the eye.

 

keep us posted it will be fun to watch evolve,

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

21 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Hi SL58654Gō,

 

sounds like a wonderful projects. Taking a layout to shows and events (lots of public events love to have something like this show up!) is super fun and interesting. Our club has been doing portable show layouts for almost 19 years now.

 

on your bench work, experiment some. I’ve been surprised over they years what I’ve able to do with bench work for mobile layouts we have done for shows. Keeping things light, but designed well can actually make them very strong and rigid and moving and transporting them a lot easier. I’ve moved off of using the usual 18mm thick dimensional lumber and use 12mm Baltic birch plywood that is 7ply. It’s lighter and when cut into strips it becomes a wonderful framing material to get things thinner. Also surface material I’ve find that 5mm is plenty thick of you have some cross bracing under it. It works fine spanning gaps of like 30x30cm and even larger. Using thin materials to make a support grid between your main framework can really stiffen the whole unit. You can make grids like this using 5mm ply strips like 5cm wide and then notch rabit joints half way thru the strips to interlock the slats together like a cardboard wine box insert does to separate bottles.

 

also you might think about having the layout break into two pieces if you can do that. Moving and transporting a larger piece can get problematic. You can use some bolts between the modules to align them and secure them. Legs are always a challenge to get something smaller free standing. Might look at premade table leg systems as they tend to be sturdy and many times easily detach angle, but detaching legs means you have to lean the layout on its side to attach/remove the legs. Might be best to design to sit atop tables available or a folding portable one you can bring along. With the right framework in the layout base you can have the table (or tables, could use two smaller ones side by side) be smaller than the layout, just need to have good contact points between table and layout framework.

 

I love your idea of doing the external wood work and finishing in nice Japanese aesthetic. That bit is overlooked on so many layouts and modular systems. The external frame is really a picture”frame” to the layout. Folks thinking painting the edge black or brown is a way to make it disappear, but it only gives you an ugly frame to your layout. Natural finished wood really so easy on the eye that it lets the eye focus on the layout, but when the eye does catch on the frame it’s nice. If using nice wood on the external frame is really expensive you might also look at wood veneers to finish off the visible areas as it’s a lot less expensive. Taking care with the exposed wood joints also helps as these can sometimes really catch the eye.

 

keep us posted it will be fun to watch evolve,

 

cheers,

 

jeff

Hello, @cteno4

 

Thank you for your kind reply and encouragement.
Yes, I'm quite glad that you appreciate my idea of varnishing, lacquering and nicely finishing the train table itself that I want to custom build from scratch using timber from my local lumber yard. There are so many ways to crack a nut, and it can feel overwhelming as to how many varieties of wood are available and what exact table design to follow. I'd like my table to be a single solid unit (not breakable into modules) but removable from the legs. The table will be roughly the size of a typical Japanese coffee table like the one I have in my tatami room. The top I intend to have a layer of foam caulked to the wood surface for a scenery base from which lakes, streams etc can be carved out and the mountain through which the tunnel I plan to install will be made. The lumber yard will size down whatever pieces I need on the spot before I bring them home to assemble. I even hope to have the name I've given my layout carved out in kanji into one of the long end fascias along with the year. I even have thoughts of providing a second shelf attached to the front long end for the controller, a "lever frame" for all the points, and maybe extra room for whatever DCC apparatus I eventually acquire. I have long term plans for the trains themselves to retrofit them for DCC. 

How do you finalize your table plans? Do you simply sketch them on paper or use any CAD? 
While the legs themselves are a matter I haven't yet tackled, I'd like to simply follow this technique for the tabletop. The narrow end fascias I mean to have two holes in to allow rope "handles" to reside so it'll be more transferable. The table size 1462 mm x 906 mm is still able to fit in the trunk of most family cars. I'd love to show it around.
Please take a look at the "rough draft" of my track layout. Critique is desirable for my first layout. 

Masons-桜木機関区.pdf

[SL58654号]

I'm making small but incremental progress on the table design, the most important part of the start of my project in my opinion. I'm making drawings of the design intending to make the layout surface removable but snugly flush with the table surface. Please find the first "draft" of my table idea attached. The timber itself I'd like to assemble together using traditional Japanese dovetailing techniques, avoiding the need for glue, nails or screws. After assembling it'll be finely sanded and lacquered, of course. It'll add a further Japanese touch indeed! The side ropes I intend to be white.

I haven't worked out the attachment of the legs yet (probably just thick cedar beams the same as I intend the table frame to be using aforementioned dovetail techniques) but I'm already having fun drawing it in Microsoft Word, as I have no fancy CAD programs, but I don't think I need any! 

  

 

 

 

桜木の湯 Table (3).pdf

Edited July 9, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[cteno4]

I’ve been doing woodworking since about 4 years old (dad was a big woodworker and let me go at it very young) and started way pre computers, so for me I do a lot of visualization in my head and just do rough hand sketches (I’m a poor drawer, but can do good crude sketches to get my point across or down on paper) and then markups for dimensioning and part size needs etc. It’s all very crude, but I learned by thinking it out in my head not in a computer. I’ve found doing detailed cad drawings sucks a lot of the creativity out of the design as you get more focused on using the tool than what you are trying to make. I’ve been doing design work for 4 decades and watched this happen all the time. I’ve worked with architects who can’t sketch at all and only use cad and their product is astoundingly poor (we actually had to fire few on projects it was so sophomoric). The beautiful woodworking you are striving to reproduce here was done centuries ago with no computers or sophisticated drafting. Again I t’s learning to visualize in your head instead of within a computer. This is learned by building with your hands and brain first. Sorry it’s a hot button for me as it’s been a professional challenge the last decade or two.
 

Dovetails are wonderful joints, pretty much the king of corner joints. But they require a lot of practice to do. Have you done much wood working? This is one of the higher end wood working skills.
 

very good craftspeople can do these by hand with a razor saw and chisel and get tight, accurate fits, but that is only after many years of practice and learning. There are router jigs that can do them easily and cleanly using dovetail router bits, but this requires an investment of $200-300for decent router, buts, and router templates. You don’t need years of practice and learning to do the router system, just have to carefully watch some videos and practice a bunch to get the hang of where to set the templates to make everything match up. It’s nifty system but easy to get yourself turned around and do the wrong cuts or have them reversed of offset not right. So the thing to do is to rip up some stock from cheap wood the same size as your nice wood and before you do each piece cut it out of the cheap wood and if correct duplicate in your nice wood. It’s not rocket science, but it’s very fiddly to keep the process just right. Once you’re doing it a lot it gets easy, but still easy to flip something and go oops? More expensive route templates have more jig setting to help you align stuff properly, but need to learn their methodology.

 

I’ve done a fair amount of dovetail joints over the decades and they are super cool, but some of the most tedious things to do so I reserve them for only the things I want to look super pretty as I know I’ll have to invest a fair amount of time in them as I don’t do them every week and sort of have to start over in the process each time I do them.

 

if it sounds over your head you might also see if there is a local craftsperson that would do the fancy exterior frame for you or even let you watch and maybe help to learn.

 

attaching the legs is always the problematic point in furniture making. Luckily it looks like your legs are short and fat so helps with stability. Looks low, that may be an issue for shows as you will mainly see the layout from directly above. Will the legs be removable so you could put the layout on a table to raise it up some?

 

might also think about just one handle on each end. This may be awkward for carrying any distance as things will want to tip side to side while moving with two people. Maybe that for longer Carrie’s just grabbing under the frame on both sides on each end is easier and rope just for putting in/out vehicles. One of our big sectional layouts we had thin ply crates we set each 1mx0.5m section in and these could nest to stack up. We experimented with a fold up handle on the ends but it was just not very stable with 2 people carrying, we ended up with an handle hole in the crates on both sided ar each end, and this proved to be very stable. We later put one on each end in the middle where your rope handles are just for pulling out of the car when it was hard to make purchase on a stack bundled together.

 

do measure transport vehicles well this is always an issue with a larger item as wheel wells, door handles, interior details, side curves end up eating up 

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Hi Jeff,

 

Thank you for your approach to undertaking dovetailing. I want to keep my feet on the ground and be completely ready before I even buy the raw materials, of course. I'm thinking of making a cardboard "proof of concept" model of the table (not to scale) to work with my hands a bit and also practice dovetailing on some cardboard to get some practice. I'll make a model of it in no time. But thanks for your wise approach to achieving this by no fully depending on the working drawings, which I'll still continue to improve and detail upon, but I'll remember what you've advised. 

I don't have very much experience with woodworking, but I really want to make the most of this project so much I'm willing to go the full mile for the smile in the end. 

There are numerous videos showing the process for dovetail joining that are much fun to watch and I'll study them carefully before trying my hand at practicing it, before ultimately moving on to the real workpiece.   

 

I do indeed want the legs to be fat and sturdy but also removable (using dovetailing to slip them into place). The table will be capable of sitting and working on its fascia on any other surface (like a tatami mate floor) or whatever other table its placed on. I want it to be 72 cm or so in height so I can sit comfortable at it and operate it with one of my dining room chairs. 

Edited July 10, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[cteno4]

Hi SL,

 

well doing dovetails as one of your first big woodworking projects is sort of jumping into the deep end of the pool with lead weights on. It really is a pinnacle technique to do by hand and even with a router and a template it’s a challenging technique. You cant really practice dovetailing on cardboard you need to do it on the intended wood type. Each wood cuts very different with hand saws and chisels. It’s a feel you need to get very use to to do dovetails. One tiny screw up on one notch ruins the joint and the piece of wood once you have one end done, you can only rescue it by using it for a shorter end then. Do you know any woodworkers? Are there any local woodworking classes you can take? This might be the best first step to go down this path. Or look at a simpler solution like using dowels that can look nice but be simpler to do. If you are attempting dovetails by hand then you will need to do a lot of practice if you want clean joints. They are not something you pick up in a few days of work, it’s a high end skill. The only few woodworkers that I know personally who do hand dovetails (and can do them tight and clean) and they are master woodworkers with decades of experience. Not meaning to throw a wet blanket on the idea it’s just a reality check of the time and effort this will take to do this.

 

cardboard mock-up I was talking about is a full scale to make sure it slips in and out of your intended transport vehicles to go to shows. We have had this issue with our club layout boxes not fitting into some vehicles well due to the interior details of the car. Just need to make the rough shape of the layout without the legs.

72cm may be a tad low for public viewing with folks standing. When you look more from above all the layout details tend to disappear and hard for our minds eye to see the scene well as we are not use to looking at the real world from above, more from the side. Could think of a second set of taller legs if you end up doing public shows.

 

with the control panel you might look at making it detachable for transport and a simple way to hang it onto the side of the layout as if you put it as a drawer under the layout it may be too low to get your legs under it in a chair. Easy to mock this up and play with heights needed to be comfortable how you want to be at the layout. There are things called motorcycle connectors that are bug plugs with up to 20 connectors in one plug to connect wiring between layout and the control panel.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Well, it certainly would be hard work, but I would look into taking some woodworking courses for the sake of this project and maybe to add a further skill to my list of traits. Perhaps SOAP would be a good material for me to practice this technique in! It was used by apprentices I've been told. 
If I accomplish the job of making my own custom train table like I hope to, I'll bet it'll be unheard of in model railway circles.
If the dovetails are too difficult, then I may indeed settle for dowels. However, my friends and I remain on that I could pull dovetailing off if I stay determined and eager to learn it. Whether or not it makes much difference, I made the first "proof of concept" model for it.

 

Dowels are the technique I do think I at least want to have the legs set on. The bottom of the legs I want to have T-Nuts and adjustable leveling feet installed on. But a second set of legs for the viewing public that are taller would be desirable.  
After I finalize the outline of the table design, then I'll specify in the drawings what dovetail (or dowel) joining techniques I'll attempt. 

I'll take a note about the removable control panel also. I'd never heard of motorcycle connectors. I certainly would like a dedicated "shelf" for the power pack and my "lever frame" for the numerous points I want to involve. I'm even wondering about having a small slot or two carved into the top of the table ledge to handily store an N Rerailer! 

Above all, I want to steadfastly set a high standard for what I want this layout to be. I'd like to make this layout a showcase for maybe HisatsusenAgain. If the dovetailing will be hard, then maybe the scenery I want to place on the railway will be a cinch! 🤣 I've been inspired by the scenery in KATO scenic product catalogs and this layout made for the KATO FR Small England. The sky's the limit for inspiration and instructions for scenery. 

 

Edited July 10, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[SL58654号]

Though laughably crude (I have to start somewhere) here's the first "proof of concept" model. Note the ropes on the sides, and the control panel I'd like to be removable. The layout baseboard itself I would like to rest in a "cradle" table of sorts, hence the raised sides of the cedar beams I'd like to make it out of.

Even though it's just a table, I'll want to get it right the first time for this!

Edited July 10, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[Martijn Meerts]

Just needs a tiny paper train to go with it now 🙂

 

Should be fun seeing progress on this, can never go wrong with JGR/JNR era stuff.

 

[SL58654号]

Thanks @Martijn Meerts, I appreciate any commentary. In all seriousness, I'm taking Jeff's word on making something tangible to help with the working drawing before I get to the actual materials, and that's not even taking into account the fine wood joinery I have in mind.

 

Yes, I especially prefer JGR/JNR stuff, hence why I hope to have the old JGR "driving wheel" mark carved into the nameplate I want to engrave in the table. 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Yeah, even crude cardboard models gives a good idea of proportions and such. It also really helps putting down some track to see if things work. What looks good in a track planning software doesn't always look good when physically laid on. It doesn't even have to be the actual track, some cardboard cutouts also already help a lot.

 

[SL58654号]

@Martijn Meerts The track layout I'm trying to design with an app, but I think it won't be till I ultimately finish the table and test laying it down that it'll be finalized. I only know the basic parameters and elements of what I'd like it to feature for now (turntable, roundhouse, tunnel, sidings). However big or small it'll ultimately be, model train magazine-quality scenery is what I want to give it. 

[SL58654号]

I have made a SECOND prototype model! I felt determined to spend three hours straight, four tubes of super glue, and destroyed finger skin from contact with said glue(!) to make what I believe to be necessary help to make this project a reality. This is a (roughly) 1/3 sized cardboard mock-up of my layout table that I want to be made of such fine wood with a natural color and lacquered finish, so colors may vary! I have decided to scratch the underside table for more leg room (I have plenty of storage containers anyhow) and have moved the controls to a dedicated detachable panel on which the carved nameplate resides. Also, in the ledge of the layout table I think I'd like a slot carved into it to conveniently store an N Rerailer. This I would like to be removable from the main table via wooden dowels. I even added a little something to this larger model just for you, @Martijn Meerts. 😉 Can you guess what it is?
Now the next step in my mind is to gain skills for carving dovetailing, which will by no means be easy, but just making this model has helped to encourage me and felt rewarding. I have a Japanese friend who might help. I plan to start whittling with soap. Wish me luck! 

Edited July 11, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[Martijn Meerts]

I can definitely spot the little steam train 😄

 

With regards to the track planning, doing that using software is definitely a great start. Once you have something you think looks good, you can always build parts of the design using actual track. I noticed that quite often what looks good in software looks a bit too planned / unnatural / oversized when actually building it. Also, things like clearances and track spacing for station platforms can be weird, although that shouldn't be a problem if you use Unitrack and Kato's platforms of course.

 

[SL58654号]

@Martijn Meerts But what KIND of steam train? 

 

Oh the track planning is and will be the easy part so far as I'm concerned! The table and its construction must be tackled first!
However I'm sure I'll be satisfied with the number of running lines I can include in it, with a least one rural station and platform and I'd love to feature a few working signals installed. I'm of course using Kato's Unitrack and platforms though I wonder if their signals are scale? 
 

https://static.wixstatic.com/media/0c38ae_99a6a8c74b8b4a65bfdf54f208dafe53~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_720,h_311,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/0c38ae_99a6a8c74b8b4a65bfdf54f208dafe53~mv2.jpg

 

[cteno4]

Hi SL,

 

nice little model! Good to do if you haven’t done layouts like this before, helps get you thinking visually and how stuff fits together! Any working with your hands like this also just good for later stuff like model building and the woodworking you want to do. Stuff like that is a bit natural talent (some are just good at that stuff naturally) but mostly just practice, practice, practice! Carving a pattern like that will also require a lot of practice to do well. Actually doing something with simple pattens with smooth curves are super had to get even and clean, any little deviation screams out to the eye. With more complex patterns with smaller curves anything not perfect gets lost in the more complex patter. Carving out a pattern in wood is another very practice type skill that takes time and also is different in different woods.

 

I really agree with martijn on the track planning, it’s best done first with some track planning software then mock up as much as you can with real track on the table at the height your layout will be. You can cut a piece of butcher paper or cardboard down to represent the size of your layout top and visually it will give you the best view of how the track plan will look to the eye. Don’t have to have all the points in but to roughly see how some trains look on the track (and maybe running on the main loop if you can) at the viewing angle you will be looking at the layout. It’s really important as in track planning you are getting the drone’s eye view of the layout we never see really and our mind is totally not use to looking at the world this way. We see the world mostly sideways on so all our visual memory is from more that view. How we perceive the world visually is a mix of what your eyes are seeing and our visual memories filling in some gaps. We of course think we see everything as it actually is but just ain’t so. Why when 3 people are asked what they just saw you can get 3 pretty different answers.

 

1:1 track set up is the most useful mock-up you can do for your layout planning once software has given you a rough idea of what you want. Playing with it some with trains is important as it can really tell you the things you like to do messing with the trains and the things you don’t as well as visual issues like too much track crammed in or spaces too tight for structures. Many times on overhead plan views it looks like you have room to plop a structure somewhere but when you plop it there and view from normal perspective (not from on top) it can look bad there and just not work.

 

the 1:1 cardboard mock-up I was talking about earlier was just rough overall shape to make sure it fits cleanly in your vehicle for transport and through any doorways and turns getting in and out of your house cleanly.

 

other 1:1 cardboard mock-ups that are great to do in planning is to just rough out shapes of any planned buildings you don’t have yet to get an idea of how it might fit while playing with track. All you need really is a box shape to just see what will things look like once populated with structures, how much will be hidden by other structures (this can be good and bad), and to just help you visualize better in your head as well as that is mainly practice lie this. Again doing that from overhead view is completely different than how you will be looking at your layout. Also doing this stuff in 3D cad is possible but again it’s not great practice for your visualization skills working in software. You end up looking at a 2D representation of a 3D image in a flat screen and it’s not direct processing of the brain in the real world. You end up rotating objects or popping around different perspective while keeping your eye fixed, not the same at all as us looking at something in the real world like a layout where we are moving around it and our eye actually makes us move to put it where it wants to be.

 

One big help when you do cardboard mock-ups like this is get a hot glue gun. Small ones are like $10. You can lay down a strip of hot glue along and edge and you have about 20seconds to plop it in place. Holds pretty well and you can pull it apart retry easily if needed. Much faster and cleaner that dealing with super glue which is really messy and even the thick stuff sucks into the cardboard fast. It also does not fill gaps well at all which you will have a lot of in rough models like this (no need to be super careful and clean on them unless you want to for practice). Nicer ones have two temperature settings that let you go hot for laying down a longer line of glue and having more time to work with it and low temp to do little things and it hardens faster and if you get your finger in the hot glue on a small part not so hot on the finger. You can also get different glue sticks that hold stronger or take longer or faster to harden. I use to build huge exhibit models with just corrugated cardboard, Matte knife, and hot glue gun!

 

might think of doing a 2 pronged approach to the layout. You could start on the layout by getting by cutting a piece of plywood to your layout size. Add your cross pieces under the plywood and the add two long pieces the length of the layout and screw to the ends of the cross pieces. These two side long pieces will just keep it flat until mounted in your final frame when they get removed. At the same time you could proceed on your frame wood work, that may take quite a while to get that to where you want it, but it won’t hold up your layout building process. If you decide to simplify the frame construction that’s no problem as just make new design to fit the layout board.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Many thanks @cteno4, I knew that making a model would come in handy. I haven't felt so satisfied making things from scratch with my hands in years and I can only imagine how I'll feel when I get to the meat of the table and layout. Perhaps I may make a third and final 1:1 scale cardboard mock-up now that I know what I'm doing!
I think I will test laying out the track, taking your and @Martijn Meerts advice, though I don't yet have all the wanted pieces as I need many more points (the double slip comes to mind) and I plan on adjusting the KATO #4 turnouts to prevent derailments since I want to permanently caulk the track to a 40 mm thick foam base placed on the plywood that'll sit in the table much like a typical wooden railway table, if you take my meaning. I might want a few signals, too, even if Kato's light signals aren't scale. TrainDesign is frustrating to use sometimes, and I don't have Windows to allow the more typical track designing programs. I also would like to acquire a Fleischmann turntable and roundhouse that I may request in the wanted items page later.

As an afterthought, though KATO's trains are disreputable for their ease of installation, I'd like to allow my layout to be DCC ready. 

Perspective is everything like you said and I may take the liberty of having the legs be taller, but I think I'm happy with the general outline. 

My goal is to be ready to acquire the table materials by the start of August. Having the cardboard mock-up at the hardware store might also help explain to the Japanese staff what I have in mind for having them pre-cut to my liking.  

Edited July 12, 2023 by SL58654Gō

[mitchschuess]

@SL58654Gō It’s a great idea you have of making a wood table! I’ve posted a link elsewhere on this forum, but I took on a similar undertaking.

 

Swiss Train Layout

 

I made a 4’ x 4’ table with two drawers. One for controls, and the other for train storage. It uses a sheet of 1/2” plywood, with 1/2” cedar for the sides. I added fluted trim around the sides, and finished it with a dark stain with a polyurethane clear coat.

 

I highly recommend a 3D CAD software to plan everything out. Making a minimalist and clean layout ironically increases complexity, and necessitates precise planning. I used Rhinoceros 3D, as it was the software I already knew how to use. Even with basic woodworking skills, I definitely bit off more than I could chew. Even after I had CAD of everything, I still had moments of improvisation to make things work. The benchwork is complete now and was worth the blood, sweat, and tears!

 

Here are some photos of construction:

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to see progress!

 

 

 

[cteno4]

@mitchschuess very nice woodwork! Love the bumper moulding and the control panel drawer.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

 

 A friend kindly redrew the track plan I had in mind in SCARM, a program that I'm unable to use as I don't have the right operating system. This I believe will help with my progress nonetheless. And thanks @mitchschuess, I really admire your Swiss-theme layout! Land of Swiss army knives, Heidi, and quite a few rack-and-pinion railways with preserved steam! Of course, I strongly admire many of their electric locomotives in their "Swiss army knife" red liveries, too. (I myself have some of KATO's RhB trains.) Your table is beautiful, and especially your control panel! I'll look into the CAD program and hopefully I can download it. It'll be handy to make progress with my table. 

[SL58654号]

 

  
It won't be long at all now till the table will finally start to materialize. Thanks to a friend this 3D model of my layout has really helped it feel brought to life already, and sharpens my excitement it get started. However, for ease of simplicity for a first project, while I'll want to retain its natural finish and lacquer it, I can;t help but think that it wouldn't be worth it to use dovetailing and other fancy techniques from the start, for which I simply don't have enough skill. It would probably delay so much as getting to the trains themselves for months or longer. I only hope it wouldn't regret forgoing this later. 

[cteno4]

SL,

 

Much better fo start simple and clean and then increment better as your skills improve. Better to be playing with trains and getting something done and moving forward than stuck in dovetail joints. Might look at some of the other small plans for something other than just loops as well. This book is wonderful and great inspiration!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Yugamu Tsuki]

If you can find it over there, I also highly suggest this book due to having a large range from bookshelf top to super ambitious.

 

101 Track Plans

[cteno4]

Looks like amazon.co.jp has it

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Linn-Westcott/dp/0890245126/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2ERXQ5R7MWOMN&keywords=0890245126&qid=1689789177&s=books&sprefix=0890245126%2Cstripbooks%2C341&sr=1-1-catcorr

 

jeff