Well I go away for a couple of days and look at the difference

You can really see the size of your layout, in the photo showing some points layed down, this gives a real sense of scale, it really is going to be a great sight watching the loco's pulling up though the gorges and valleys.

 

 

Wayne.  The sheets are depressed at the ends to allow for the joining tape and adhesive for seams. 

I will say this about the taper on the blue foam, It's not a show stopper!

What little sanding labor I spent fixing it will in no way reduce the benefits foam is providing to the layout.

Wayne

It has been a very busy day on the South Shore Line. Crews have been filling in holes in the track bed that were large enough for a locomotive to fall through (would have been hard to do without track though).

I have been debating on whether or not to put in super elevations. So I decided to compromise. I am putting them in but only half as high. On a tight radius the magazine recommended .04", well I have mostly large radius and I am putting in .02". I cut a thin strip of .010" card and glued them in place around the outer loop today. As I entered and exited the turn I only put down one strip of the card, in the middle of the turn I placed two of them.

Here is a picture of the supplies used. You can see the elevated area on the inclines already glued in place. I used Aleene's Tacky Glue to hold the card in place. I dries quite quickly and is just sticky enough to hold the card in place without pins or weights of any kind. The card even fought trying to bend around the curve, but the glue worked great.


I have just pinned down the track bed so you can see how it will be located.


On partial curves I only used one strip. In the background you can see the ramp up to the Terminal Yard has been completed. Still a lot to do "Up There", but by golly the trains will run first!


The outer loop is done, all that remains is the inner loop. That could get tackled tomorrow, then the track bed is next.  :doublethumb


One more thing, I tried a test panel to verify if the white PVA glue would hold down the track bed. It did not work, after all night curing, I could separate the track bed from the incline very easily and the glue in the middle was still wet. Not sure I understand why the glue worked on bonding blue foam together, blue foam to the white incline, but not for the white incline and the track bed.

It pays to run tests!

Wayne

Wayne you seem to think of everything. Your trains will look great with the super elevations. Nice trackbed too - unlike the stuff I bought that has a recess for the track to sit in, forcing me to cut off the bevelled edges.
 I did find Liquid Nails was good at fixing trackbed to foam. Takes ages to dry though. But it's quick to grab while still allowing adjustments.
 In many places I have used PVA and while I know it's not the strongest bond it seems ok for my gentle landscape. I can fully understand why you'd want something tougher.

 Mike

This is getting exciting Wayne, coming along very nicely.

This is a very good thread Wayne, because it's a master class on planning, I don't think I have the patience to put a layout together as you are doing, I would need to see something running, even if it was around the yard area, but with all your planning and patience, you will have a great layout in the end, and not many of the problems that we need to deal with when we just jump in feet first.

Well thank you Alan, I guess you can blame my engineering background for that. I do love it when a good plan comes together though. :Happy:Happy:Happy

Wayne

The day finally came when I could begin laying down the track bed. Thought it would never get here. Finished all of the elevation strips on both loops this morning and jumped right into the track bed. This thing is finally starting to look like someone is building a railroad.    

This picture shows the Woodland Scenics Track Bed box and the beginning of the laying process. I felt I needed to split the track bed to go around the turns. Turns out that I really did not need to do that. Just had to pin more often if I didn't. I had to place pins about every six inches when I split the foam and every four inches when I didn't. It looks much better (even though the ballast would hide it) without the split.


I ran out of Liquid Nails Project, so the Track Bed is not complete as yet. The Liquid Nails worked GREAT on the Track Bed. I did not use it where ever the Track Bed was on top of the blue foam. I already know what Liquid Nails does to the blue foam. :twisted:


I think my knees are beginning to shake with what is next! :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

Wayne

Wayne, looking at the photo above, it seems as if you have two completely seperate loops that do not interconnect. As I recall, I thought that they do in fact integrate. Is there some way you could illustrate this (using the photo above) if that is true :question

Jeff, in the left hand edge of the picture, there are two of the track beds running parallel to each other. There are points here (4) that allow the train to go from one track to the other.



I am missing two 3-way points (I called them wye's in a previous post) that are still on order. Should have them hopefully next Wednesday. I am still also lacking about 14, 3 foot lengths of flex track to complete the layout. I use the term complete loosely because I still am not quite sure what is going to happen on the upper table (terminal yard).

Wayne

Don't stress about the electrics Wayne, with all the help on here it will be a breeze.
How's your soldering?
The track plan is a lot clearer now that some of it is done… superb.

It's looking spiffy, Wayne.  I've been meaning to ask you why your clock is so low?

Wayne it is looking really great The woodland scenics products are very good.

You are using code 100 rail i presume you mean Peco code 100 did you not want to use the code 83 which is apparently more US style or is that the range of track they do not as much with the 83.

That Gp40 should be whoosing soon

cheers Brian

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

I've been meaning to ask you why your clock is so low?

It's not that the clock is too low, the baseboard is too high! Of course all that stuff piled on top doesn't help the matter either.

Brian,
I choose the code 100 versus the code 83 because of three reasons;

1. It gave me more room to attempt the soldering, and I think that reason will answer Marty's question on how's my soldering.

2. It came highly recommended by the train store where I buy most of my "Stuff". Plus he heavily discounted the code 100 flex track.

3. It cost about 25% less than the code 83. That includes all the components like points, re-railer, etc.

Wayne

Thanks for explaining about the cross-overs, Wayne, I can see the outline now, with your information, by referring back to the track drawing you posted.

Here is a better way of explaining the crossovers, a picture! Yep, I'm finally getting some track down. It's been an experience and I sure have sore finger tips, but there is track to look at now. No power as yet, but I have been pushing a car around by hand, actually it takes off on it's own because of the hills. So far no derailing has occurred, but still keeping my fingers crossed until it's all done.



I'm sure you can see the yellow pins in this picture. That is what I am using to hold the track in place as I go along. The pins are rather large, had to be to hold the track on the curves. They are 1 1/2" and I need every bit of it. At the rail joins I need anywhere from six to eight of them to hold the curve through the joint.


This is where I have two tracks going through a gorge. I have made the wooden bridges removable (track and all), so that in the future I can remove it and put in it's place a trestle of some kind.


You can see here that I still have lots of track to put down. I had to stop on the outer loop because the 3-way points have still not arrived at the store. He is now saying next Tuesday or Wednesday. :twisted:


I have all that is needed for the inner loop, so will keep working on it. Maybe I can have it done by the time the points arrive.

Wayne

Wayne it is really coming on now with the track down you can see it in
perspective, it is going to be impressive .

:doublethumb

 

 That's great Wayne, it really makes a difference with some track down, you will soon be able to 'Test' some locos

Curved inclines are really going to test your locos. Some MU-ing might be in order. Just like the real thing.
 It'll be a lovely mainline run though and pretty spectacular. Looking forward to seeing what locos you choose.

 Mike