The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[chuck geiger]

You know counselor, that would be a huge N scale layout.

[davefoxx]

You know counselor, that would be a huge N scale layout.

Heh, you're right, but if you review my next post, you'll see that the trains are so much farther away on a 6' x 10' layout, that they appear to be N scale.   

DFF

[davefoxx]

Just got to stretch "tonight" all the way to midnight then ...you can do a lot in a few hours

Looking good though!

Yep, here's what I was able to accomplish this weekend, before calling it quits:

1) After finishing the joists, I cut up the lauan plywood to skin the top of the table.  I didn't look forward to cutting the plywood, because I was concerned that my circular saw blade would shred the plywood.  Thankfully, it cut the plywood nicely, but, as expected, I'll be cleaning up sawdust for weeks.  Everything in the room got a new layer of dust.    This stage is fortunately behind me, and this gets me back to the equivalent of working off of a hollow core door, but a custom size :



2)  I fit the 2" foam.  You'll notice the masking tape holding the pieces together.  I'm not going to glue the foam to the layout yet, because I will still need to make cuts for the layout sections, but more importantly, I won't figure out the layout edge design until the track plan is finalized:



3) Finally, because I knew I didn't have time to begin track planning, I set back up the Kato Unitrack, so we could run a train on our new layout.  If you look close you'll notice my daughter's future 2' x 4' N scale layout under the HO layout.  We both agreed that this was a perfect spot, so that she could get at her layout from three sides.  Once wiring starts, we'll also add a light under the HO layout for her:



DFF

[davefoxx]

For convenience, since the tentative track plan is buried back on who-knows-what-page, here's the goal:



DFF

[peteski]

I applaud you for using plywood under the foam base. I'm not a fan of using foam alone. Friend of mine did that and the layout feels flimsy when one sometimes needs to prop himself on the surface. There is also some slight bowing of the foam.  I don't recall how thick the foam is that he used, but I still wish that he installed plywood base.  I think he also kind of regrets that he didn't.

[davefoxx]

I applaud you for using plywood under the foam base. I'm not a fan of using foam alone. Friend of mine did that and the layout feels flimsy when one sometimes needs to prop himself on the surface. There is also some slight bowing of the foam.  I don't recall how thick the foam is that he used, but I still wish that he installed plywood base.  I think he also kind of regrets that he didn't.

I'm not a fan, either.  To help ensure as much rigidity as possible, the plan is to disassemble each layout section (there's three sections), so that I can flip it over on the floor to glue the foam to the plywood upside down.  I'll use weights on the plywood (plus the weight of the benchwork section) to make sure that the plywood has as much contact with the foam as possible.

The plywood also gives me the additional advantage of having something to screw turnout motors to, if I decide to go with powered turnouts.

Thanks,
DFF

[Chris333]

I never tried, but you may be able to cut the lauan with a utility knife if it isn't that thick.  Or just take outside to cut 

[conrail98]

I've cut masonite with a utility knife and it wasn't bad. I have to image the luan would be just as easy to do. Also, this is why I do most of my cuts now outside. I used to do most of my woodworking in the basement but I'm still vacuuming up stuff from 5 years ago,

Phil

[ednadolski]

I applaud you for using plywood under the foam base. I'm not a fan of using foam alone. Friend of mine did that and the layout feels flimsy when one sometimes needs to prop himself on the surface. There is also some slight bowing of the foam.  I don't recall how thick the foam is that he used, but I still wish that he installed plywood base.  I think he also kind of regrets that he didn't.

So long as it is good plywood.   A lot of the stuff in the big boxes nowadays is just cheap junk, and will have problems with warping.

Ed

[davefoxx]

I never tried, but you may be able to cut the lauan with a utility knife if it isn't that thick.  Or just take outside to cut 

The saw would be a heckuva lot faster than utility knife cuts.  Since I wanted to be able to mark the cuts and not depend solely on measurements, taking the plywood back through the house just wasn't practical.  So, the sawdust.  But, I vacuumed between each separate piece of plywood (I used three pieces), and most of the dust was sucked up.

DFF

[davefoxx]

So long as it is good plywood.   A lot of the stuff in the big boxes nowadays is just cheap junk, and will have problems with warping.

Ed

It's decent plywood, and I've glued and screwed the sheets to the joists, which stiffened and straightened them.  They're going nowhere.

DFF

[OldEastRR]

I use foam only for the scenery areas. Solid foam sheets act as sounding boards for train running-- possibly this could be reduced by cutting through them at fixed intervals (to stop the vibrations from going through the whole sheet) but I never tried that. Some kind of solid foundation for any track ROW -- my preference is 1/4" plywood with 1/2" homasote (both cut to fit the ROW) glued to it. The Homasote helps stiffen the wood, the tight glue bond of the wood to the Homasote greatly reduces its expansion from humidity. (I tried 3/16" laminate once, but that's pretty flimsy). You also can cut and shape the homasote for scenic details like ditches, etc. With cookie-cutter ROW it leaves open spaces in the framework for easy below-track-level scenery. You can make any kind of elevation on the open spaces using different thickness (and combos of) of foam.
As long as somebody isn't planning on deep deep canyons a good tip is to set the top of the joint framework at the lowest grade your layout plan has -- like, a river or a quarry.  Setting your layout base elevation of 0.0" as this point, instead of the lowest track level, helps for thinking about below track level scenery while drawing up the plan.

[davefoxx]

We are back from our family obligations this weekend, and I got a few minutes in the layout room this evening.  Barely visible in the following photo is the 12" grid that I drew on the foam, so I could use my AnyRail track plan as a start to fit the track to the layout.  I started laying out the turnouts, but I didn't have time to really connect the dots.  However, this minimal exercise was helpful to see where I must pay close attention and where the best place is to start laying out the track parts.  I will be using Walthers Code 83 turnouts and Atlas Code 83 flextrack on cork roadbed:



DFF

[basementcalling]

Without cars or scenery it's hard to tell what scale you're working in. It looks like a lot of space but I bet you find a way to fill it quickly.

[wm3798]

Looks a tad snug along the right side under the turd pipe...  Are you going to jigsaw the edge to follow the flow of the track to allow your more full figured operators to switch the industries there?  Or will you provide a hard hat to prevent injuries that might be adjudicated in a manner you might not find favorable, counselor?

Lee