Keikyu Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 Maybe I am, but in any case I am missing 2 turnouts and a handful of smaller pieces of track. I could cut my current concrete double track but I am still missing 2 turnouts so I figure it's a bit pointless to start laying track if I don't have it all. Hopefully soon I can order the turnouts and some more scenery and make a start. I will be sure to make a progress thread when I do. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Keikyu, E6 has a point, if you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, maybe just wash the door well and sand off any bumpy buts and get on top of whatever you were going to use for a support structure. Then set your track up you have and play a little. Also when you have the track you can do a test set up and run to get a good idea its what you want before going further. Plunk some buildings you have down and you can also whack up some corrugated cardboard boxes with tape to mock up space filling models of others you might be thinking of buying. Also a lot of PDFs out there of building models you can printout, cutout and tape together. Sometimes just getting some trains running and something srt up physically can really clear away the confusion and also open the mind up to new ideas and things you may have missed trying to do it all in your head! I do museum exhibits and we still do lots of mock ups to make sure its exactly what we though it was going to be and refine the details (something being done less in this culture and its showing)! Jeff 2 Link to comment
Ochanomizu Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Sometimes just getting some trains running and something srt up physically can really clear away the confusion ... Jeff It also let's you play trains .... :D 2 Link to comment
Mudkip Orange Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 I am still missing 2 turnouts so I figure it's a bit pointless to start laying track if I don't have it all. Nonsense. You have Kato track, right? Trust me. Just set it up and run some damn trains. I'm possessed with the same perfectionist impulse, and it's taken me years to kick it. Just make the world's simplest oval with a spur/siding/whatever and enjoy your train chasing it's tail. This is what will give you the desire to keep enlarging, expanding and improving. Link to comment
kvp Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 The idea is to just set the track up temporarly on the door, without any glue and play with the trains. This will give you an idea what it would like to run the trains on the layout, so you can adjust your plans before building anything. When the plan is fixed (and you have all tracks that are needed), you can start glueing. Link to comment
Keikyu Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 Fair enough, right now I have everything I do have laid out because I am trying to master the height of my incline. I want it to get up high but not high enough to uncouple trains or make the carriages hit each other. I can make the outside loop almost fully so I might play around with what I do have. This is what I have so far: The red part is supposed to be connected, I just didn't notice they weren't until after I took the photo. It's a fairly simple set of ovals, with the outside oval joining the middle one down the bottom of the photo. I can, with a little work, have a siding for a locomotive too. 1 Link to comment
kvp Posted May 23, 2014 Share Posted May 23, 2014 Two small remarks: -you might want to move the tracks away from the edge a bit, because when something derails it will fall to the floor (broken trains are not really fun) -the two ovals are too close to each other on the left and right sides, there should be at least 33 mm distance between the two track centers (the same amount you have on the double track pieces) Link to comment
Keikyu Posted May 23, 2014 Author Share Posted May 23, 2014 (edited) I am still working on it, I will need to shift some stuff around but without the track i need it's a little hard to see exactly what is going to end up where. I am going to do some tweaking however. Ah yeah, if I wanted things lit up with led streetlights or regular lights, what's going to be a good way to go about that if I have a fair few of them? Edited May 23, 2014 by Keikyu Link to comment
Railtunes Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 The biggest problem with a door, as with a 4' x 8' plywood sheet is, well, the "bigness". Essentially, you will have an island layout that needs access all around, so the total footprint will be the door size plus the aisle width (2 foot minimum, 3 foot more comfortable, depending on the "scale" of the operator!). As many here know, I favor modules that are long and slender - like a real railway - and will allow for further expansion and easier transport in the future, as well as easier access for construction and maintenance and rearrangement as your concept grows. Also consider this: As several posters noted, you may want a stiffer frame around the outside. You may want a foam sheet on top to permit vertical topography. After you've added all that, have you really gained anything over building a lightweight module or layout in the first place? You've gained a lot of weight and bulk, but what else? As for attaching track, a flexible type of non-solvent glue like caulking or water based contact cement will work for Unitrack. I use it with cork roadbed and Peco code 55 flextrack on my modules and it's been easy to remove and replace in those areas where I needed to make changes. And I use the magnet system for scenery sectors and structures, along with a standardized structure base footprint that permits simple foundation inset framing in the scenery for easy exchange of buildings. Just my thoughts, but, having done this for over 40 years now, I've learned a few things . . . - Paul Link to comment
tossedman Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Two small remarks: -you might want to move the tracks away from the edge a bit, because when something derails it will fall to the floor (broken trains are not really fun) Get some freezer strip and staple it to the edge of the door, like this: We've got it all the way around our door layout and it works great. Flexible and transparent. Link to comment
kvp Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 We've got it all the way around our door layout and it works great. Flexible and transparent. Yes, it's good for shows, just don't try to take a track level picture through it, especially not with a flash. As an alternative i prefer at least a half car (5-8 cm) safety distance between any edge and the tracks. Link to comment
cteno4 Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 on the jrm layout I just cut some wood moulding strips to go on the outside edge that had a 3mm wide by about 15mm deep slot in it. then we just have strips of 3mm plex that are about 2" wide that we can pop into the slot. nice thing is you can pull it out for working or photos easily. only rub is the top edge, i do need to get to sanding them down and flame polishing them to be nice! jeff Link to comment
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