A shelf layout to fit in the closet

I would have let her buy as many as she wanted! I figured that if she wanted to buy something for the layout then why not 😂 
But she knew better so didn’t buy anything. 

I used a combination of dowels and hinges with the pins removed and replaced with nails to hold it all together temporarily. 
Seems to work fine and hopefully it aligns the track accurately! 

(Click to enlarge)

Hi Darius,

I may have missed this, what are those hinges for? If they are for location then half hinges are better. as are metal locating studs (as used by cabinet makers). Lee Valley should have both.

Nigel

Hi Darius,

Forgot to mention: laying track across modules. Check out Gapmaster track joiners to go at the ends of the modules (americantieandtimber). I think they still do HO. I just use 2-3 PCB sleepers epoxy glued and screwed to the baseboard, and solder the rails to them. If you want the tracks to line up, lay first across the join and glue/solder down, cut after. Use a cutting disc  or a saw with a fine kerf, not Xurons. Too much torque. You can also use rail joiners and a straight edge to make sure it's a good alignment.

How are going to wire the modules?

Nigel

Hi Nigel, I decided to use the dowels instead of metal pins, with the quality of my baseboard I think and hope they’ll suffice for the time being. The hinges are both for alignment but mostly just to hold the pieces together. I looked into half hinges but decided dowels would probably be more accurate for alignment.
I don’t have a Dremel to do that technique of aligning rails but it seems like it could be a worthwhile investment… 
I am planning on laying the track on a mother layer of foam, so I don’t know if the gapmaster sleepers would be effective as the foam isn’t very rigid. Thoughts? 
I was just going to do a simple wiring system with power to each siding individually and probably an on/off switch for the siding with the engine shed. Then just finding some sort of small plug connectors to join the module and the controller. 

Hi Darius,

Cut a small rectangle of foam out at the end, glue in a rectangle of wood. When using foam it's a good idea to plan ahead for this sort of thing. Any point motors will need a ply support, either set in the foam or glued to it. if you use solenoid point motors you definitely need support.

Nigel

Thanks for that tip! I don’t plan on having any point motors, maybe wire In tube. 

Hi Darius,

WIT.  

Nigel

Well this hobby really comes and goes in waves, doesn’t it?
I think I’m not the only one who would say that..! 
Just the past week I have gotten back into things after a rather abrupt halt in the spring. I had an enjoyable summer outdoors though, alas, fall is falling here in Winnipeg. It’s always so early….

I have just finished measuring and cutting my lengths of track and testing to make sure everything works ok. 
I didn’t buy and special products but I put screws in under the rails at either edge of the baseboard modules which should help with keeping things stable and potentially wiring as well.
Excited to start soldering everything together and wiring! 
Does the kickback siding at the bottom need to be have a dropper wire with a switch, or could I just let the power flow through the points? 
I don’t want it to be live all the time so I can park a locomotive in it. Operating in Dc. 
Thanks! 
Excited to be doing things again

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Hi Will,

Good to have you back again. I would use a switch and dropper for the siding. That will give you full control of the power and prevent accidental movement if the turnout is changed.

Cheers,
Claus

Thanks for the advice Claus! Much appreciated. That’s kind of what I was thinking. 
I was wondering where I would find just a single on/off switch without having to buy a big package (I’m cheap, and on a budget). Then the switch practically came to my front door:
On my walk to work this morning someone had abandoned a shopping card with an old PC in it right between work and home (it’s only one block away…). On my way home it was still there (highly unusual for a shopping cart to not be taken in 8 hours in this neighborhood) so I figured it was fair game. 
The switch was right there! Now I have a switch and all my wiring sorted. Very thankful to the Lord for blessing me in this small and hilarious way. It was an encouragement after a long day. 
Yes, we live in the “hood”.. yes, I have street smarts, and in this case wasn’t too concerned about filth or drugs since the cart and computer were actually clean.

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Things I have learned today: soldering is much harder than I thought, and, I do not enjoy it 🙄 

Hello again everyone, 
After considering my plan for wiring the layout, I realized that I had planned to do what many may consider overkill.
I was going to wire a dropper to each individual piece of track and both points, as well as solder all the track together. 
I know practice makes perfect, but even so, after my attempts at soldering last night, the thought of soldering a dropper plus three track conections to my three way point makes me nervous. 
I will be operating in DC, with mostly short wheelbase locomotives, so I dont want to struggle too much with losing power. I am unsure what a reasonable solution is.
Considering this, as well as the small size of the layout, what would each of you do in my situation? 
Droppers to each piece of track (or even just wiring each piece together), or soldering all the track connections, or both? I think I would rather just solder droppers to the track as that seems less risky…   

Hello Darius.  My question would be :  Are you going to exhibit this layout?  If the answer is 'Yes', then I would connect each piece of track to its neighbour with dropper wires. I always do this to ensure that I am not just relying on metal rail-joiners to conduct the power along the rails.  HOWEVER, if your layout is simply going to be run at home for your own enjoyment, then I would simply rely on the metal rail-joiners to do their job and avoid all the hassle of soldering all of those extra wires.  Let's face it, the odd loco stalling won't be a great disaster and a poke with your finger will soon sort it out!  If it became a regular occurrence then I would resort to connecting each piece of track with dropper wires.

Terry

Hi Terry, 
Thanks for the advice. I realized my planning may have been overkill, since this isn’t an exhibition layout! I don’t think there’s anywhere to show it in Winnipeg anyways… 🥴 
I may still solder some droppers to a few sidings, but I won’t go all out! 
Thanks again,
Darius 

The soldering is a slow moving process at this point… but it is moving. Life is pretty busy though so I’m not in a huge rush. Just trying to do a proper job the first time