First Tortoise crawls (runs)

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Turnouts went down first, track was added and cut to fit into the turnouts. Penciled the location of throwbars, actually ties next to throwbars, onto roadbed. Drilled a 1/2" hole down thru roadbed, foam and plywood bottom of layout BEFORE spiking turnout in place. Lined up turnout with pencil marks insuring throwbar is centered over the hole. After turnout is in place, hole is invisible.

Made a plywood template to drill for the tortoise screwholes under the layout. Cut the paper template out of the Tortoise instruction sheet and taped it to the plywood. Drilled thru the paper to make the more rugged plywood template. Drilled out the actuator hole to 1/2". Mounted a stub of 1/2" dowel to mate with the 1/2" hole in the layout. Marked all four screw holes with pencil and then drilled them up from the bottom. Screwed Number 1 Tortoise to the bottom of the layout and it wound up right in the center of the turnout.

My Tortoises have to reach up thru 2 inch foam so I used the next heavier grade of piano wire to make the operating rods. As suggested in another thread, I inserted the piano wire from the top of the layout. Had to drill out the operating rod mounting hole to accept the stiffer wire.

I had two 12 volt supplies and a bunch of SPDT minature toggle switches, so I went with the separate plus and minus power supply arrangement. For each turnout on the layout I made a small control panel to hold the toggle switch and a pair of LED’s to indicate turnout position. For a walk around layout control system I placed each turnout control switch on the bottom of the layout frame as close to the turnout as possible. A length of 1 1/4" aluminum angle stock made the control panels. I scribed and center punched and drilled all the necessary holes for all control panels and then cut each one loose fro

2

Sounds like you’ve got all worked out. Now replace the two LEDs with a single bicolor LED and you’re a real pro.

My first Tortoise required a remote mount due to a clearance issue on a track that runs under the turnout. I bought the remote mount kit and it works great. The instructions looked a bit daunting, but installation was actually pretty easy.

3

Someone please explain to me why one needs to place foam between track and plywood. I must have missed something in the last fifty years. I had always allowed my plywood base to to support, in all three directions, the track.

Mark

4

Mark,

By gluing foam to the plywood layout base, it gives yo a very ridged light weight structure with minimal bracing underneath. Easy to move. Then for rivers, lakes, and streams, you just use a hot-wire cutter and make a depression in the foam. To make hills, just add a layer or two and carve into shape.

I am using one inch thick foam. I think two inches is a little thick. Before this layout I have always used L-girder and risers, then the plywood sub-roadbed. The layout I am working on now is being built in modules (not a modular layout) that can be moved if necessary. Building it with Luan sheet and foam as the base is very light weight.