Our basement layout

[Bernard]

Not yet, but I'll look for some. So far, we've been using the "things you find around the house" method.  ::)

 

Works for me....but not my wife. That's how she lost a bread knife, a bottle of tacky glue, and anything else I could find in the kitchen. ::)

[scott]

Yeah--last weekend, I cut up all of our useable dusting rags into strips for homemade plaster cloth. Oops.

[Mudkip Orange]

[click to embiggen]

[scott]

Attempt 2 at "concrete". My boring straight lines, his pictures....

 

 

Shimming up the track to ensure pantograph clearance before we build tunnels over this part (sorry for the Austrian engine.... :) ) And no, I'm not going to leave that weird break in the track--I need to move some of my cardboard shims a bit. But just the "2-inch" foam blocks weren't getting me two inches of clearance....

 

Central Station with the proper platform lengths finally in place. The rough-looking platform roofs will come off so that I can build a trainshed over this.

[Bernard]

Scott - Your layout is coming along beautifully. I really like the fact that this is a father & son project, great time spent together!! ;)

Don't you like those WS inclines, they are such a time saver.

On the overpass, are you going to have a portal there or a viaduct?

When I was putting down the track on my layout I thought I took in account the clearence of the train to the underpass, I forgot to measure the cork roadbed thickness. I had to make minor adjustments now all the trains run fine except an old flutted smoke stack steam engine.

[scott]

Yeah, the inclines are the one WS product I'm happy to buy.

 

What looks like an overpass now will eventually be on a "hill" with a tunnel running through underneath. There's another place where a track goes over a "valley" on viaduct track.

[quinntopia]

Pilot - looking great!  Please continue to keep us posted!

[CaptOblivious]

 

Shimming up the track to ensure pantograph clearance before we build tunnels over this part (sorry for the Austrian engine.... :) ) And no, I'm not going to leave that weird break in the track--I need to move some of my cardboard shims a bit. But just the "2-inch" foam blocks weren't getting me two inches of clearance....

 

 

The funny thing about clearance—and I speak as someone who learned this the hard way, before hitting the NMRA specs, which are themselves rather illuminating—is that it is measured from the top of the rail-head to the top of the rail-head—not from the top of the rail-head to the bottom of the supporting structure. So a 2" incline gives you exactly 2" of 'clearance'—which, as you've learned, is a lot less than 2". :(

 

You might find an NMRA gage a handy tool; Kato makes one too, that they sell as a "Unijoiner remover" or somesuch, that will tell you when you have sufficient side and overhead room to pass a train.

 

(references: http://www.nmra.org/beginner/clearance.html)

[scott]

Yeah, I wish I had figured that out during the design process, and not while running trains.  :-\  But now I really need to fix all the overpasses before I can start building anything else.

[quinntopia]

Clearance...yes.... the old "2 inches, hey! That's plenty of room!" assumption got me in the same way!  :-[

 

You're bring back old pain.....  ;)

[scott]

Well, last night I caved in and went for the metal-hardware-and-duct tape approach.  :-\  The one overpass that was giving me fits is now ugly but functional (I'd post pictures, but our home internet connection is down due to a noisy line). I used a galvanized steel nail plate to support the rail joint that was hanging in the air, and tacked it down to the foam at either end. Then I drilled some small holes in the sides of the Unitrack pieces either side of that joint and put some small nails into the foam at angles to prevent side-to-side drifting. At first I had double-sided duct tape under the rail joint to hold it down, but that made a lump. But with enough nails on either side and some smaller pieces of tape holding "ballast" to plate, the rough joint and vertical track motion under the trains seems to be gone.

 

Now I just need to figure out a way to cover it all up--I guess a tunnel directly over a tunnel wouldn't be too realistic.

[CaptOblivious]

Make it a girder bridge! The girders might hide the ugly work, and you could ballast over the nails. In the US, most girder bridges are built over open trusses, so this wouldn't be terribly prototypical, but in Japan it could be. Or maybe ballast and flock would be enough to hide it?

[scott]

That could work--I was originally planning a tunnel (partly as a kind of scenic divider), but some sort of homebuilt bridge could work, too. Or--this just occurred to me--I could hide the plate and make the line a cutting at the base of a steep hill or cliff. That way the tunnel could still work. I guess that fits in the ballast-and-flock idea--just a little change of topography and it could work....thanks!

[SubwayHypes]

i have also been "custom" fitting my track joints due to power loss over gaps.  i call it "ghetto-rigging".  I took some cardboard and styrofoam pieces, taped them together super tight, cut out indentations into the styrofoam where the track can rest, then fit them under my track joints, i had to fix about 4 different joints because everytime a train went over them they would bend up and cause derailments and power loss. 

[scott]

Yeah--I'm starting to re-think how I rigged this one, but one way or another I'll have to use something to stabilize it. If nothing else, I've learned my lesson about letting track joints fall in the middle of even short stretches of unsupported track.

[SubwayHypes]

yea basically just gotta keep the joints stable and supported.  Whenever a train rolls over a section of track thats not supported, the weight will cause the track to bend and the current will get cut off.

 

 

i have been using the cardboard from all my Plaza Japan and Hit Japan boxes.  I cut it into strips that fits right under the track, then i spray paint it dark grey to blend in a little better.  this way all my track is the same level.

[scott]

The other problem I was having was that, even when the joint was supported and didn't drop, it would move up and down as a train approached, from the weight pressing down farther along the line. For now, that's fixed with tape, but I  need to find something better.

[scott]

This weekend's progress:

 

 

In process

 

Up-valley view

 

Down-valley view

 

More (and bigger) pictures in the Flickr set--the new stuff starts with with this picture.

[CaptOblivious]

Good work! I look forward to when the snow melts (as it were…)

[scott]

Thanks! At least we've progressed from pure white to off-white.  :)

 

Next we need to finish one side of the valley, and build a hill and tunnel that will divide this valley from the center portion of the layout.

 

It should get a lot more interesting once we start plastering and painting. We have a nice stock of paint built up and ready to go.

[disturbman]

It all seems to go so quickly, unbelievable!  8)

[Bernard]

Scott - This looks fantastic!! You've really made a lot of progress, even your cat is getting into the act. (talk about getting the whole family involved)

[scott]

Yeah, that's Sandy, the kid's "kitten." He seems to find the layout very.....comfortable.  ::)

[SubwayHypes]

Kinda tempting to just leave it unpainted?

 

I wanna take a snowboard to those hills pilot!!  Looks like fresh powder on the slopes!

[scott]

Looks like fresh powder on the slopes!

 

that's foam crumbs....  :P