Failing Forward

[Abushoni]

Greetings All, 

 

After 6 months in the hobby, one big KATO procurement trip in Japan and many build-and-dismantle layouts on the living room table, I took over a room....

 

As the more I read the more I see I do not know anything, I decided to take a lean startup approach and make a prototyping environment to try different layouts before I commit to one. While I can copy one of many ready made available, I am looking after the failing forward approach to learn the hobby building blocks by trying different stuff and making mistakes.

 

I though of building a big table made of plywood, play with different layouts and drill holes as needed for the wires. I then stumbled upon this image by MeTheSwede, and I guess there are better ways. 

 

So I will thank you for any recommendations for materials and directions (and questions I do not know I need to ask) as for how to build this prototyping table in a way that will alllow me to play with different configurations and wiring schemes. I use KATO Unitrack. 

 

Some thoughts I have:

1) should I use one big chunk of table or many small ones I can arrange in different configurations ?

2) should I attach the Unitrack to the table, or make an intermediary layer like in the attached image ? 

3) what would be the best way to play with heights ?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice,

 

Abushony   

Edited 16 hours ago by Abushoni

[cteno4]

Abushony,

 

You are wise to play awhile with layouts and configurations for a while. It really helps you zoom in on the things you like and maybe more importantly the things you don’t like as they are the things that can turn you off the hobby!

 

Layouts are pretty light unless you have big hunks of scenery on them, and even then those can be made in pretty lightweight ways as well, so you don’t need a super sturdy layout base, especially if it’s not a permanent layout yet. So the extruded polystyrene foam (eps) is a great way to go. Our clubs’s first show layout was built out of 24”x48” modules of 1” thick EPS that we framed with 1”x3” wood frames to protect the edges and allow us to bolt them together easily and just plop them on cheap plastic saw horses. We just did temp layouts on top with drop in scenery pieces around the tracks. Foam let us poke holes were needed for temp wiring. These survived dozens of shows and 4 of them are still in my wood shop as 2 tall vertical strip wood storage trays! 
 

Going more modular with your foam blocks for your experimental setups may be easier than one huge hunk. These can be stuck together with some bamboo skewers in the connecting ends and then a couple of more shoved in diagonally across the joint from the top and bottom surface at a very oblique angle. Very sturdy and very quickly reversible.

 

you can easily attach track even while playing around by drilling out the 2 little nailing holes in each piece of track. You can then just shove a pin into the hole into the eps and it will hold it in place as needed. Unitrak and finetrack both work very well just floating and fixing track isn’t really needed much until you get to something more final you want to have more permanent. We have on club member with a huge basement layout of Unitrak and none of the teaks is attached!

 

For support of the foam modules you might look at using smaller inexpensive tables you can move around into different configurations. You can spread them out and span the gaps with 1”x2” lumber pieces (even 1” eps is pretty stiff and 1.5” and 2” don’t even need any support over a 3’ or 4’ gap with trains stuff on top). Lifting up the foam off the table supports lets you then run wires out easily under the foam and you don’t need to do a lot of foam trenching for wiring. Look at ikea for some cheap table ideas.

 

Check out this idea for doing different layouts. It’s using little cheap IKEA plastic coffee tables and just arraigning them as needed. Wires can be run down into cracks between tables. 1/2” or 2” eps foam sections could also be cut the size of the tables as well and attached to the top. It’s a neat idea. It’s low which means for viewing it’s best to be sitting low, but easier to work on and move around something oddly shaped than a taller setup may be. Sturdy and squat.

 

The surface of the eps foam can first be covered with colored construction paper or bits of fabric. You can start plopping down buildings and even doing little scenery islands to plop down and even little scenery islands around the buildings themselves. One of the forum members did a great article on this for out club site. It’s a wonderful way to practice doing scenery before you get to doing it in big chunks. Also just lets you move pieces around to get a simulation of different scenery in different configurations/locations. You can print out road pieces on card stock and lay them out.

 

Paying like this is really good way to learn and practice and have fun at the same time and not paint yourself into a corner or overwhelm yourself.

 

First level of doing elevated track is just straight viaduct track sets. Usually where the Shinkansens run a lot and way to easily separate them from the local train ground tracks, these track sets come with premade piers to support them. Of course you can simulate viaduct track with regular track set on some wood blocks or piers made out of cardboard. Viaduct base and wall can also be made out of corrugated cardboard for a base and hot glue a cardboard strip along the edge for a wall.

 

Doing grades is a different story as you need a set of grade piers to make your grades. Grades can be an issue for some trains and layout configurations and they take space to not do them to steeply (the stepper the grade the worse the issues). Many just don’t like dealing with grades so they keep things flat, but it’s one of those things you need to experiment some to figure out what you enjoy/dislike. Again if you want to experiment without a big investment you can make pier risers out of wood or cardboard. Spray paint them gray and they look pretty good for a temp setup. This way you can make custom grades to fit your layout space and see how it works with your trains and layout.

 

Ask questions here, we’ve done a ton of these temporary setups for club and club members layout here and tons of ways to do things depending on your needs, resources, and skills.

 

Keep on playing!

 

cheers,

 

jeff