My layout will have about 30 feet of hidden track. Using L girder benchwork, so there will be lots of open space for a train to fall off. What is the best (good) way of lining the sides of the sub-roadbed to prevent trains from hitting the floor.
Ozark Mountain Railroad
I bought a sheet of 1/8" hardboard at my local lumber hard and had them rip 3" wide strips on their panel saw. This gave me bout 120’ of fencing to attach to the edge of the sub roadbed (3/4" plywood). You need to be sure to cut the sub roadbed wide enough on the curves so that car overhang won’t rub on it.
Good luck!
You could also use cardboard since it won’t be seen. Much cheaper and easier to work with. Hot glue it in place.
My cardboard safety walls, used mostly on curves, are made from old saltine cracker boxes! Much of the tangent track in my netherworld is laid in steel studs, rain gutter fashion. Either way, the object is to keep the rolling stock on the roadbed while NOT getting into clearance issues.
Of course, the most important thing is to make all to-be-invisible trackwork absolutely bulletproof. If my safety walls never have to function as designed I’ll be a VERY happy camper.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with LOTS of to-be-hidden track)
Don’t forget old Mr. Murphy. You can build track in the open that’s so bulletproof that you can run anything and everything over it at all speeds up to and including Warp 10, forwards and reverse, with no derailments EVER. The minute the scenery goes on and it becomes hidden track, your most reliable loco will derail while creeping at 1 smph. Safety fences are a great idea.
–Randy
Another very important thing to make hidden track as foolproof as possible is re-railers. You can’t have too many of these with hidden trackage. One at the entrance and exit, before and after every curve, before and after every elevation change,
Eliminate or reduce to an absolute minimum any diamonds or turnouts. If you have any of these- re-railers before and after each one. Remember these are the high percentage areas for derailments so make the access as easy as possible. You will have to work on these sometime in the future - don’t over estimate getting your hand in an area or being able to see what you are doing
If you have a run of 6’ or so of track I would throw in a re railer. This is one I regret not doing.
When designing most will under estimate these, think less of them when they build the hidden trackage, curse them when they when they didn’t put in enough and will truly appreciate them the 1st time they run a train across the track and watch them do what they are supposed to do.
I have a once a around the layout loop that is hidden from view with minimal access to the track. Some one told me this advise and am thankful I followed their advise. I only wish I threw in a few more.
As a parting thought consider track cleaning now. My recommendation for hidden trackge (all track actually) is clean with mineral spirits and treat No Ox after. Think of it as a wash and wax for your track… but that is a whole other thread…
ratled
T F
The most important thing about hidden track is accessibility to it. Cleaning, re-railing, and retrieving locos and rolling stock should be planned on from the start. Our club layout was built in the early seventies with a large amount of hidden track and little thought about accessibility. What a pain in the but it is when a train stops because of dirty track. Once a feeder wire from above sagged too low and snagged the front of one of my steamers and stopped it. As we get older it is harder for us to bend into the strange unnatural positions needed to reach places that things end up.
Pete