Can someone please point me to a good webpage about the construction of modules? The thing I need to know is how to connect the track between modules so I can take the modules apart and join them together again with the track lined up perfectly.
Are there any common methods for this?
Here is a picture to explain this in a better way. After I have joined the modules I want the track to look like picture 1.
A lot of modular designs use a short “filler” section of track to go between modules. This allows the rails to stay well back from the end so they aren’t damaged in transit. It also provides a little room for error when connecting modules. Once the modules are set up, the fillers are easily installed.
Often, those fillers are just simple pieces of atlas snap. Are you doing this for a modular layout that will be taken apart often, or one that won’t be taken apart often?
Good point Yoshi, fillers are most common in traveling designs. Semi permanent layouts could be joined normally if you are careful, but it is difficult to get perfect alignment while trying to physically set up the module. That is another advantage to the filler concept. You insert the fillers once the tables are standing.
The whole idea is to take it apart if I must move sometime in the future. So it will not be taken apart often. But it feels good to be able to do it if I must move, but only then.
why not simply take the rail right to the edge and join them there .never had any trouble , i take my modules apart every evening ,just align and glue the track down rigid .
Im going to take my latest modules to a small meeting in gothenburg on dec 4 in Partille ,
N scale
BNSF
Tomas
How do you adjust the track every time you take it apart and join it again if the floor is not smooth?
A piece of flex track cut to fit and marked on the bottom to indicate which tracks it connects, is one way you could do it for modules that are not going to be moved around a lot and are only for personal use.
For an HO scale club module that is going to be frequently moved around, and might need to be married up with modules from other clubs, you should use the NMRA’s HO module standards, which can be downloaded from their web site. These NMRA standards are mere modifications of the N-Trak standards that were originally drawn up for N scale modules.
The Cinch-Jones polarized electrical plugs and sockets recommended by the N-Trak club and NMRA standards were a good idea at the time to prevent electrical problems, but they are now extremely hard to find and have become increasingly expensive. The only source I have been able to find that still sells these devices is Mouser Electronics, so for home use you should try to find something that is more readily available and cheaper. Polarized electrical plugs and sockets for household use would certainly suffice, as long as you use the same devices on every module. Try to find something that is not common in your house, so no one can come along and think the module is meant to receive house current.
Our HO-scale club took modules to Tucson, Arizona, several years ago to set up with other area clubs at a weekend meet, but none of the other clubs had done anything according to the NMRA standards. Electrical connectors were not the same, their tracks were not according to NMRA dimensions, and nothing would line up or interconnect. We finally gave up and came back home. The other clubs never did get anything running because their modules would not fit together properly.
Our club has been operating an HO scale modular layout for 20 years now. We’ve kept with what we started with to join track on the modules - pieces of 9" snap track. Many members use 9" rerailing pieces as extra insurance. I’ve permanently soldered the rail joiners on the ends of my tracks, and have sliding joiners on the snap track pieces. They slide back under the ties and are then slid onto the adjoining track.
Some groups run the tracks right up to the edges, just relying on rail joiners to bridge the gap. Since many of our modules aren’t made as precise as others, this probably would create too large a gap between modules.
Between my two modules, I have short joiner pieces, about 3" long to join the mainlines and inside lines. This allows for better ballasting and better looking tracks. I actually ran the sections of flex track through the joint between the modules when I was building them. I just cun out the joiner pieces with a cutoff wheel on my motor tool. This way I did not have to fit a piece into the gap.
Bob Boudreau
jepp,The adjustment is in the legs.
and about the solid floor ,you would laugh if you saw my layout im building on the second floor in our garage at my carclub ,it sways and jumps but that has never been any trouble cause im building the modules to sit on benches . and on some i anchored them on the wall just like he who builds the Maumee route .
This time Im going to build some good side covers 
so not to catch everything with the railjoiners.
and about electric connections do get the ELFA catalouge .www elfa.se they have some good things.
and as were speaking of UK, Im bulding a small layout of midland road and whatever 
my first loco Im building is a L&y 0-6-0 aspinall,yes the one that was as a drawing earlier this year in The Magazine you know wich
last but not the least , why oo 4mm - ouch ouch why didnt you go back to HO in the sixties ? no you have to change the railgauge instead
Cheers .
TOMAS
Gothenburg
sweden
Guess it’s railway if not railroad…
Stayed with 00 - 4mm=1ft because 1mm =3inches etc is easier than dividing up 3.5mm… 'cos we work that way not as !/72 or 1/87… and 'cos we’re BRITISH.
I imagine that 1/87 is pretty easy when you’re working in metric… but 12inches= 1foot… 3feet = 1 yard (3 feet three and one third inches = 1 metre). It caused havoc converting to decimal currency… and the politicains bottled out of the rest… jam still comes in 454gm jars… and 454gm =? You’ve guessed it…one pound.
Lancs and Yorks (Railway) wasn’t Midland (Railway) nor located in the Midlands… it’s North… where all the big strong men come from… so they tell us. The L&Y people would be screaming… so would the MR… BOTH went into the London Midland and Scottish in the 1923 Grouping.
Benches are good… there’s an argument for arranging the boards as much like a single beam as possible and letting them just sit on legs acting as columns. This requires greater longitudinal strength.
Problem with supporting off of a wall is if you get any structural movement …which a heavy layout can cause.
You can combine walls and legs but then you are into two different factors at once.
Of course the big difficulty with bracketing a layout off a wall is taking the wall to any meets or shows…
Where layouts are resident it is amazing what humps and bumps and apparently diabolical arrangements can be got away with.
Are you scratch building the Aspinall or using somone’s kit?
Sipping & Switching Society of NC
http://gugliotta.home.mindspring.com/
http://home.earthlink.net/~robert27529/id3.html
BendTrak
http://home.alltel.net/ah50902/index.htm
NTRAK
http://www.ntrak.org/
TTRAK
http://www.t-trak.org/
Hi David,
yes its all by my self ,its my first scratchbuilt loco and I bought a MR single wheeler kit to build when im done with the latest modules of bnsf arizona n scale ,thats part of my great layout project thats been under way for several years.
I tried to build british in 2 mm scale but I put that on hold for a while .
yes I know the story about pregrouping and the lot .I love the british steam locos up to ca 1910 then they got to big and I dont like them att all, I dont like the US steam
engines either. thats life
i bought a lot of old copies of the Railway journal ,great mag
what do you model ?
regards Tomas
I’ll take a few pictures of what our club uses and post them sometime this weekend. Its a very good design and we have no issues with track being crooked when its set up. We do need to fine tune the leg heights a bit but everything lines up perfect every time we assemble it at shows.
I’m considering using door hinges on my home layout (won’t be joined with anyone else’s layout). Build the layout with sections connected with door hinges. When it’s time to take it apart, take the pins out. Seems simple enough.
That sounds like an interesting idea.
Although not original! I’ve heard someone else suggest this before. Having take off and put back on lots of doors in my house for repainting this past year, the idea stuck.
My layout is a sectional layout. It’s is built to move. The sections are generally 6 to 8 feet long. Each section is a 1x4 frame (with intermediate crossmembers on 12" centers) and a plywood (3/8") top and 2’" pink or blue foam board glued to that. Each section has a 1x2 “lip” attched to one bottom end of each frame section.
The sections are bolted (don’t forget to use washers) together through slightly oversize holes (to allow for adjustment). Only the first section has 4 2x2 legs, the rest have only 2. The legs all have lag bolts to adjust for floor uneveness (even the best made floors aren’t perfect and they may need to be re-adjusted over time due to wood shrinkage).
Track was layed right across without regard to section joints (these were just cut with a dremel cutoff tool prior to the move), except in hard to reach or covered areas (tunnels), here the track was cut and prepared so railjoiners could be pushed back flush with the rail end. These joiners were not soldered. The last inch and a half of track on each (hidden) section was also not glued down to allow for slight adjustment.
I have moved this layout (14’x 27’) twice in the last 15 years and the moves were pretty painless. Everything was up and running in a few days. With the adjustabillity of the bolt-together sections, I didn’t even need rail joiners in the visible areas. In fact those joints act as expansion joints and have helped prevent track kinking. Electrically the track is all connected to the buss lines underneath.
One more thing on the wiring: I left a loop of wire at each section joint, all I had to do was label each wire and then cut it. When the layout was reassembled I just used wire nuts to reconnect the bus lines and I was back in business.
The scenery is all builtup layers of styrofoam , so for disassembly, I used either a handsaw or a sawsall to cut through the scenery at the section joints. Repair was just a matter of adding some new ground foam to cover the joints
if it hasn’t been said before …
RULE OF THUMB: Never place a track joint over another joint.
NMRA Modules are 2X4. David Barrow’s 'Domino’s are 1.5 wide and ideal for home use - getting through doorway’s, stair’s, etc. (Moving for instance).