I've finally completed all of the benchwork, including the drop-down section, and installed roadbed. I used three different construction methods to see which one is the least bad. The yard is a rigid 1/4" plywood frame, the town is foam over a 1x2 frame, and the rest is 1/2" plywood with 1/4 frame on the edges. (It used to be a module for the club layout.) Layout height is 42", so that it will fit under the light switches in the room. Also, keeping height under 48" saves lumber.
The staging area is 1/4" ash plywood open frame, with the frame proper made of plywood cut to 3" wide boards. Corners are reinforced by 2" x 2" blocks. Module width is 18", with crossmembers every 24". The intent is to minimize weight with a modular architecture. The yard is built in two sections which are 24" and 36" in length.
I'm not totally pleased with the result in the yard area. I made no provision for height adjustment or leveling, and the carpet it's sitting on is a bit off-level, so I have some twisting. So far it hasn't caused any trouble. I also found it difficult to glue along the edges of 1/4" plywood and get a good joint, especially where I cut the sides crooked.
Legs are 1" x 2" screwed to the corner braces. The benchwork shakes a bit during filing and other operations, but seems sturdy enough for the most part, especially once it's clamped and bolted to the rest of the layout. If I'd added height adjusters, it would be great. Of course, it isn't so good for anything that isn't flat.
The base for the town sections are two 4'10" x 24" modules made of two layers of 3/4" thick extruded Styrofoam (the blue stuff) supported by an open frame of 1x2 fir. (Some of the wood came from the Katy Model Railroad Club layout, after it was rebuilt but before it was moved into storage upon loss of our permanent meeting space.) The foam is glued to the wood using Liquid Nails for Projects. Remove the plastic sheet coating the foam before gluing.
I recommend foam of at least 1" thickness; 2" is better if you can get it. I used 3/4" because that's what I could find. The maximum unsupported foam area is 24" x 19", and it shows no sign of sagging or failing. The frames are held together with drywall screws.
I feel that laminating two thinner pieces of foam is A Bad Idea. Liquid Nails for Projects sort of melts the foam as it cures, and I ended up with hollows in between the layers and had to reglue one section. Polyurethane glue (such as Gorilla Glue) would probably be a better choice for this application.
And yes, it's noisy. But so are real trains.
The frames are supported by adjustable vertical legs that are bolted to leftover bathroom cabinets. Photos are below. One of the cabinets has a slide-out shelf (scrap plywood and a drawer slide) on top for a small workspace. If you try this, I recommend either a pair of under-drawer slides or standard side-mount slides. Mine has only a single center-mount slide, and it wobbled from side to side until I put blocks under the front corners.
Here are photos showing the main benchwork. Nothing fancy.
The rest of the layout is a recycled portion of a module I'd built for the club's modular layout. It's made of 1/2" plywood with 1" x 4" framing on the edges. It's much heavier than it needs to be, but it was available. Legs for the cotton warehouse are a pair of 2" x 2"s with wings on top. This section is clamped to the Shiner section, so it's pretty stable. The rest of this section (it's rural and doesn't have a name yet) is 1x3 L-girders.
There's also a drop-down section, which is just a piece of 1/2" plywood hinged on one end. I used two 3-1/2" hinges from the hardware store, but would have used a piano hinge if I could have found one the right size. Sliding bolts are used on the other end to hold it aligned. I'll get photos up one day rather than trying to describe it.
Track is mostly code 83 Atlas Flex-Track with #4 turnouts. (It's inexpensive, easy to work with, and the #4 turnouts save space.) I have found that several of the turnouts are not quite straight on the through track. Not enough to be out of gauge, but noticeable. In addition, the rail height does not always match well with the flex-track. Some joints had to be filed to make them smooth. Two of the ten or so turnouts had intermittent electrical contact between the closure and frog rails. I fed power from both ends to solve this, but I recommend checking out Allan Gartner's Wiring for DCC pages and powering the frogs if possible. I've had to replace one of the Atlas switches after about two years of light use. They're not bad products, but don't meet my needs. Future contruction will use code 100 Peco Electrofrogs. (I would use the code 83 turnouts, but can't justify the extra cost versus the code 100.)
I've found that some of the Atlas frogs are higher than the adjacent rail, which can interfere with low loco pilots. I fix this with a file. A more serious result is that sometimes it causes a wheel (on IHC locos) to lift off the rail and lose electrical continuity. Check your locos for good electrical pickup on all wheels to minimize this problem.
I've added springs made out of wire to the turnouts as shown in the Jan 2001 (maybe Dec 2000) Model Railroader, which works pretty well. I have some hand throws that I intend to install someday, which I think will allow me to remove the springs. Atlas frogs are left unpowered as I'm not using switch machines, but things would run better if they were powered. The Peco switches, of course, have a built-in spring and powered frogs.
Roadbed on the yard area is the Woodland Scenics foam stuff. Liquid Nails for Projects (LNfP) holds it to the plywood, and LNfP or white glue holds the track to the roadbed. White glue dries clear, and LNfP dries white, so if you aren't ballasting, keep this in mind. The foam needs scissors or a sharp knife to cut it. A dull hobby knife won't do it. Split it down the middle to go around corners.
Most of the rest of the layout uses cork roadbed, because I like working with it better. Track is glued to the roadbed with dilute white glue and ballasted with Arizona Rock and Mineral UP Tan Granite, which I prefer to the Woodland Scenics ballast and the stucco coloring pellets that I tried to use at first. (They're both too light and wash away in the glue.)I recently found out that the SAP used river gravel as ballast, so the color I have is probably wrong. Oh well.
I used a 25 watt pencil iron to solder track on the yard module. Since the room is air-conditioned, all track is soldered, except between major benchwork sections. I've used damp cotton balls on the rails for heatsinks -- thanks to whoever provided that tip -- as well as little alligator clips. I've since bought a 75 watt soldering gun which I find easier to use on rail.
Read about my quick-and-dirty installation of an Atlas motorized turntable on my turntable page.
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Last updated Friday, October 13, 2006