Segmental Layout - Ichiba

[Junech]

Hi everyone,

 

my small layout project is slowly starting. The planning of the layout with its 3 segments can be found here.

 

While waiting for the wood (I will get the parts laser cut by a friend) and the track pieces to arrive I used the time over the weekend to start looking into buildings I want to use on the layout. Since I want to build parts of the Tarumi Line in the future I thought it would be a good idea to use buildings that will later be useful on that project as well. So I started to look into one of the terminal stations: Tarumi Station. My version will follow the Fremo N-RE Standard which basically is single-track modules with a width of 40cm and track right in the middle. While you can move away from the standard width for a larger segment the ends should follow the standard. Google Earth has a good measuring tool so putting the track together went by fast enough. Once everything is finalized I will probably do an in-depth explanation in Layout planning. Here is the plan:

 

 

Underlaying the track plan with the Google satellite images I can see what buildings would be on the layout. After that, I looked for houses on sale in the village surrounding the station and found a pretty good (but not accurate) plan of the full building that was once offered for sale. The building is the circled building on the plan. I gathered additional pictures of the building from Street View and multiple videos and other sources. There shouldn't be a lot missing from the part that will later be on the Tarumi Line modules.

 

 

With that started the 3D modeling to later print the house. My current process looks like this:

 

The hole over the front door is to mount an outside lamp later and have space for the cables.

 

 

I hope that I can finish it over the week to print and assemble it soon.

[Junech]

I did some test printing with electricity meters that I will need for the buildings. I chose two different types as the first objects to be printed. Since I'm used to printing things in H0 and TT (1/120), I also printed those scales. In the picture, the scale is from top to bottom H0, TT, N. I didn't have figures at hand, so have the front of a Haimo 180 as a reference (next to the ruler in mm).

 

Each scale will need some adjustments so they look closer to the originals but I'm mostly happy with the results. I'm also thinking about doing the N scale one a bit larger than the 1/150 the trains have to better see them.

 

I also got the shipping notice of the wood parts for the frame maybe I can build them over the weekend.

[Junech]

Hi everyone,

 

the wood for the frames arrived last week and over the weekend I got time to build them together. I started to work on closing small gaps and the holes of the screws and sandpapered them for a smooth finish. I will just do that on the outside-facing sides.

 

The parts for each segment were marked where the circular track would be going (missing switches and the like) and looked like this:

 

To adjust the height it contained these feet with a blind nut to screw into the prepared wood part in each corner.

 

Everything fit perfectly I just widened some places to make it easier to assemble while gluing and screwing each of them together (the screws were all included and I got some spare leftovers).

 

I laid them together and took some of the track I already had to get a picture of the current progress of the layout.

 

After finishing the smoothing and applying the primer I can start laying the track (when everything arrives). Since I never worked with Kato Unitrack before I have some questions:

1.) How do you all fixate the track to your layout? I don't want to use the screw holes and screw them to the wood.

2.) I will need some Flextrack to get the right width to perfectly connect to T-Track (losing like 22mm in track length to the original plan). How high will the difference between the Flextrack and Unitrack be that I need to adjust to?

 

I changed some parts of the first layout plan too. I changed one industrial track into Flextrack as well since I thought I could use the one piece of Flextrack I buy to its full length and skip buying the Unitrack pieces I would have needed otherwise. That way the straight section got longer which is nice too. And I forgot that trains run on the left side in Japan and flipped it to match that.

[cteno4]

Cool! Nice little sectional layout, plus it could grow with Ttrak modules so sort of a hybrid sectional/modular layout.

 

I’ve been a fan of using screws for track hold down. Usually I come from the top with small pan head screws for easy access and placement. Dap of gray paint can help hide it. I add one just in from the end of any module interface tracks to hold the track firmly in place as this so the point that takes the most stress when modules are joined and separated. 
 

you can screw from underneath with pan head screws (like m1.7). First you drill a 1 mm hole thru the roadbed at the track hold downs points. Then put the tracks down where you want and carefully drill into the module tops thru the 1mm holes in the roadbed. This marks where you need holes drilled for the screws. Then drill like 2-2.5mm holes thru the module tops where the marking 1mm holes are. This will then give tiny bit of play in locating the track if they need a tad of adjustment. Just screw the 1.7mm pan head screws up from under the module and into the hold down points on the track (two on each track). You can plug the little marker 1mm hole in the top of the roadbed with a little drop of grey paint.

 

folks glue track down with PVA (white glue), silicone caulking, and other thick adhesives. PVA can be reversed by soaking the edge of the roadbed for a while and softening the glue. We have a number of club modules that folks glued down the tracks and most of them eventually come loose and I’ve been adding screws to lock them back down.

 

i would just use some Unitrak bits on that one set of siding instead of flex track. Doesn’t look like it need flex track necessarily and it will be a small pain to interface (Kato does make a short interface track that flex track or Tomix fine track can click into pretty well) and making some roadbed to shim up the Unitrak rail height. Track and ballasting may also look quite different which could be a feature or visual distraction.

 

you can easily modify the straight and curved Unitrak pieces. You just saw a desired bit of road bed out of the center of a piece of track, then slide the one end piece down the track to mate to the other roadbed end. Drop some epoxy in the underside of this joint to hold it then clip the rails to the final length of the roadbed. With this you can make like a 5 degree curve and such.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Junech]

Thank you for your helpful suggestions.

 

For Flextrack I got my technic I'm happy with. (Placing brass screws at the end of modules and soldering the rail itself to them. Has the nice bonus that you can solder the cables you need anyways to the same screw that later won't be visible under the ballast.) I never had a problem with the track getting loose when just glued especially after the ballast was added. But I can see problems arise with Unitrack being hollow underneath. That's why I asked.

 

I wanted to add custom ballast to the tracks so accessing the screw from the top wouldn't really be possible after that. But I totally missed the possibility of screwing from underneath. I think, I will take that solution.

 

The custom ballast over every track will solve the different ballast colors between Unitrack and Flextrack. I tried the rail joiners I already have and they fit nicely so taking them and connecting Flextrack and Unitrack doesn't seem like a big problem. All that is left would be the trackbed, which I'm used to working with. I have cork left in different sizes of  2, 3 and 4mm would be enough for this layout. I hope one of them works. Making that trackbed doesn't seem like more of a task than sawing Unitrack pieces while saving some money.

[cteno4]

The screwing form the bottom works well, just a tad more work than from above. Of course on a bigger layout it’s not quite so feasible, but on smaller modules it’s great. I made a set of 10 Ttrak modules for club member to make a small sectional layout similar to yours (loop of full 6 depth single modules and 4 corners). I just made a straight and comer drill guide template for the screw holes and I was able to drill all the holes for all 10 modules really fast and attaching the track pretty easy. I did the holes like 2.5 or 3mm diameter so that there was a tiny bit of wiggle room if any adjustments were needed (modules are never exactly the same no matter how careful you are!). The pan head screws work really well to cinch the track down, but very easy to later remove or adjust track if needed. Just get the proper length for your wood thickness and like 3mm to go into the Unitrak screw stud.
 

You are right flex track to Unitrak is not hard at all. Cork is easy material to make roadbed base. I think around 2-3mm was the height. I only helped one club member snake a siding into an odd slot of space out of flex off his Unitrak layout (sorry it was like 15 years ago so a bit foggy in the details). If memory serves me right we used grey PVA foam for his roadbed base. I think we used two layers or fun foam which are about 1.5mm thick. I started to show him the ballasting methods and he was not a big scenery person and just left it with track on gray foam and was happy. It was also easy to lay down as we built his layout bases out of wood framed planks of expanded polystyrene foam so we just used silk pins to hold the track in place (he did this with the Unitrak in places to keep things in good alignment) as he tore his layout up and redid them every 4-6 months.

 

experiment with the ballasting your Unitrak and flex track first before going at the whole layout as they are very different processes of ballasting. Also can take a bit of practice to get it to how you like it. I like using diluted matte mod podge (matte acrylic medium) to soak ballast or not diluted if you do the paint and sprinkle method on/around Unitrak. The matte medium dries with a bit of a softer binding so it’s easy to take a dental pic and pick out areas later if needed. PVA glue usually dries rock hard and is tough to remove with out letting some water soak on it with some soaked Kleenex on it for a time. Some also think the hard PVA ballast ends up making more rail noise and the mod podge kinds of absorbs some vibrations.

 

jeff

[Junech]

After I injured my finger during sports, it has finally healed and university exams are over for this semester. I can finally continue building on my layout. Over the weekend, I sanded down the sides and painted them.

 

Next is putting down the track after I received the missing switches but I laid down the track without them to visualize it better. I decided to remove the switch and second track in the middle and use just one track for more landscape space.

 

Junech

[Junech]

I finally managed to lay and screw down most of the track. I'm just missing one right switch to lay down the track to the cement factory. For now, I put down some spare track pieces to drive at least in circles. Once I have the switch I will put it into place and add the side track.

 

 

I removed the track in the middle for now and will add it to the final and 4th segment. I'm planning to start that one once these 3 are done. I want mostly a round number of modules/segments since I normally have 2 of them in one transport units. So in total it will look something like this (grey is the 4th segment):

 

 

No on to the electrics and connecting all the cables. I'm thinking about putting down signals as well. Will need to look into that and see if there are premade ones or kits to get and not make everything myself.

 

Junech

[Junech]

I spent yesterday evening and today looking into signals (to have enough cables left to control them). The Japanese system is quite a bit different from what I'm used to so I probably made some mistakes. Your help is really appreciated.

 

I marked down the potential positions of the signals and numbered them. I also put in where the platforms will be and the general directions the trains will go but still want the possibility to use each track for both directions. I left distant/repeater signals out to not have too many signals.

 

 

Here are my takes on the signals:

For 5 and 7 I'm unsure on how they would do it so I put down 2 variants. I don't know if I could get away with the 2-light variants on some of them as well.

 

Hope you can help me with this.

 

Junech

[Junech]

Over the weekend I filled the inside of the track circle with leftover cork to raise it to my liking. Left the segment that is missing the switch and siding untouched for now.

 

Another thing I worked on was the platform. Since I also want it to lay in the curve sections, I started with one for the R183 curve. Todays test printing and some painting to bring out more details it looks like this:

 

 

Since the radius and distance of the platform worked I will start with more details on the 3D model.

 

Junech

[Junech]

I spent the week preparing the base 3D models for the platforms and just did a test print for the platform including the roof. The platform as inspiration for the roof and wall was Kita-Gōdo Station.

 

The small piece of the platform in 3D looks like this:

 

I did a quick paint job to see if every detail was printed and luckily everything was as I wanted it to be. So I can put them together and print them in larger sections.

 

 

Since the module-like pieces are done now I can look into the none modular features.

 

The bridge I want to have across the track as a model of the bridge Motosu Station has. I doubt that I will get it 3D printed and will most likely need to build it with metal pieces and solder it.

 

The staircase down to street level on both sides. I don't know yet if I want to do it like Kita-Gōdo Station on my village side   or something simpler.

 

Junech

[Junech]

This weekend's updates consist of 3 parts.

 

The first one is that I did some planning for the future because I felt like getting rid of one of the sidings on the layout and calling the track done for the first 3 segments. Since I used R183/R216 instead of R282/R315 and the full layout should be one connected scenery I looked into ways to get a normal connection to T-Trak modules that won't split my layout into two. I got some custom-made switches for my H0 layout and the place would be capable of doing it in N-scale as well. With that in mind, the following plan came to my mind. The orange part would be the custom part consisting of a normal R282/R315 double-track curve connecting to the double-track straight. Added the siding to the new part which is further away than I had it planned until now.

 

 

But that's all for the future and for now, I will finish the 3 segments I've got. After deciding to remove the siding, I screwed down the track and glued down the missing cork section to the 3rd segment. There won't be cork on the outside except for a small part where the future railroad crossing will go. But I need to measure that part before doing that. After that was finished I did the weathering to the tracks to get them ready for the ballasting.

 

 

Since I wanted to try ballasting the Kato track on a small separate section of track before doing it on the layout I put together a small frame (160mm by 100mm) from leftover wood and added two S64 pieces of track to it. There will be enough space for a small diorama that can have my Haimo 180 next to a short platform. I smoothed the wood and painted it with the same color that the layout has. I also added cork to raise the landscape to the same level the inside of the layout has.

 

I always paint the landscape brown before adding gras and just went with the same color that the frame has. The track is also already weathered and I'm now waiting for the ballast to arrive and the 3D printer to finish the prints for the platforms.

 

 

 

Junech

 

 

[Junech]

Prepared the 3D model for the platform of the diorama and it is ready to be printed.

 

 

While the smaller details, like the station sign and timetable, will be added later, I was wondering if anyone has done seating similar to the one in the Google Street View picture so I won't need to do them myself.

 

 

If there aren't similar seats I will need to look into them as well but I hope I can skip that.

 

Junech