Conrail in New England

[sirenwerks]

I can't believe it's been that long. What's taking you so much time then? Sheesh.

[mcjaco]

Ian,

I think a few of us have even given up on routing the caps.  We just butt the foam up as close as we can to the lip the cap makes.  In the end, we fill over any gaps between the foam and the cap with spackle anyway for the scenery base. 

Looks good.  It's neat to see Mike's creation working for another application other than MiNi.

[Ian MacMillan]

Ian,

I think a few of us have even given up on routing the caps.  We just butt the foam up as close as we can to the lip the cap makes.  In the end, we fill over any gaps between the foam and the cap with spackle anyway for the scenery base. 

Looks good.  It's neat to see Mike's creation working for another application other than MiNi.

I can see where that would be much easier as you can just rip to width and lenght and your're good. Were there are so many turnouts and curves here its easier to rout it!  I take a sheet of masonite, rip 18" off of it, build the spline with that, and then the remaining 30" is glued on as one giant cap, then routed.

[mcjaco]

Whatever works, is my motto.   

Just make sure to fill in any holes before you ballast.  Mike found out the hard way. 

[Sokramiketes]

Ian,

I think a few of us have even given up on routing the caps.  We just butt the foam up as close as we can to the lip the cap makes.  In the end, we fill over any gaps between the foam and the cap with spackle anyway for the scenery base. 

Looks good.  It's neat to see Mike's creation working for another application other than MiNi.

It's like I don't even need to post anymore! 

Actually, couple clarifications... the only caps that arn't routed are sections of straight track that can be measured ahead of time for width.  Sometimes the straight spline is built on the bench and glued to a module base in one piece.  But I hate measuring/templating/etc, so most everything I build gets routed. And it's so clean and tidy once routed.  Spending time on a solid foundation just helps you carry that level of detail across all aspects of a layout.

I can't take original credit for this method, besides the multitude of spline techniques that preceeded this method, it was refined on the BraNch-trak layout of Northwest N-trak, a short lived single track display layout that preceeded oNe-trak. 

[Sokramiketes]

Whatever works, is my motto.   

Just make sure to fill in any holes before you ballast.  Mike found out the hard way. 

We originally ripped sheets of 1/2" foam into 2" strips and glued these on edge tight to the routed spline.  A gap will let ballast fall down between foam and roadbed. Throwing some spakle in the joint is less work though, and easiest to do before cork roadbed since you can just sand the surface of the spline to level it all off. 

[Dave Schneider]

Sorry if I missed this...what is the thickness of the Masonite that is used for the roadbed?

Best wishes, Dave

[Sokramiketes]

Sorry if I missed this...what is the thickness of the Masonite that is used for the roadbed?

Best wishes, Dave

1/8" tempered

[Ian MacMillan]

Waiting for the staging yard spline to set on the last module so that I can rout it and finish the staging yard track...so a little scenery to wait for things to dry.

[nscalemike]

I really like the looks of those types of retaining walls, looking forward to seeing how you work that into the surrounding scenery!  Maybe while I watch college football this afternoon I'll cut some blocks for future use too.

Mike

[Smike]

Ian,

That wall looks sweet! What material did you use for the blocks?

[Ian MacMillan]

Ian,

That wall looks sweet! What material did you use for the blocks?

Mike, it is industrial flooring tile.

[central.vermont]

Is it gonna look like this Ian when you get it done. 

Jon

[Ian MacMillan]

I need to make that jig that John has for em.

[Ntrainz1]

Sorry for resurrecting this thread but I really like version 3c from this thread. I would appreciated it if I could get a 1:1 version of the file so I can print it out and maybe get started on a new layout, I would also like to increase with width by 6" to ease the curves at each end.

Thanks in advance.

Bob.