When I first saw the initial “upper” level plywood installed, I was ready to mention that you don’t have to fully “deck” those raised portions. I notice the arcs of what appears to be 1/2" birch now for the sweeping curved grades. Even though this quality plywood may seem quite secure/ stable now, I would add additional supports on those turns. Plywood is strongest when the outer graining is parallel to the cut, as you cut the arc and that “grain” becomes crosscut the plywood looses a fair amout of it’s strength. Also bending up plywood in this fashion sometimes tends to want to twist. tilt downward opposite of any desired superelevation. Placing additional risers and keeping the subroadbed secure and level will prevent any future trouble on those turns. If placing the added risers is too difficult, adding stiffeners under the plywood is also an option. Very nice work, that Mianne benchwork is rather remarkable.
bogp40,
Hi, and thank you for the tips. The plywood is 7 layer “hardwood” from Lowes, and you are right it does get pretty flexible when cut into 4" wide ribbons. I don’t know if it is birch, but it seems to be decent quality, with only small voids here and there.
I had thought about adding stiffeners, and actually adding a couple more beams so I can have risers about every 12’ where those curves are.
Thank you for your comments,
Aflyer
I have a question about the next steps on my layout. I hope to finish all the cutting and fitting of sub roadbed, and then plan to start soldering wires to track sections cleaning and painting track and road bed etc.
My question is about painting the sub road bed, should I give all the sub road bed a base coat of paint prior to laying the track? The alternative would be laying track first and then painting. Is there a preferred method?
Thank you,
Aflyer
I definitely would, when else will you have total access to that area with nothing in the way…
It appears that the room/ space for your layout is in a rather controlled envionment. If this was in an attic, basement or garage, painting would be an excellent choice for stability. In your case, I feel painting the subroadbed is not needed. I don’t know what you plan to use for roadbed (cork, foam etc) or method of adhering it, but the bare plywood will accept any glue, caulking or adhesive w/o any trouble. At the point you are now, I would use DAP Alex Plus caulk for both the roadbed and track. Any minor changes or fiddling w/ track can easily be done by lifting the track/ roadbed w/ a thin flexible putty knife.
My club’s rather large layout is in a fully climate controlled space, none of the L-girder, open frame or the 3/4" birch plywood has been sealed or painted. We have never had any issues w/ the trackwork due to this. I realize much is on spline which is most forgiving to any moisture/ humidity changes, but we still have quite a good portion on plywood “strips”
I wasn’t even considering climate, I just thought it would look better having a matching or complimentary color Matthew
The subroadbed will be covered w/ roadbed, ballast and scenery at some time. Many will paint the “plywood prarrie” especially if it is years before doing the scenery.
. Sometimes it’s nice to take a little bit of time to have something look better before you get around to fully Sceneicking it…especially when it’s so easy to put down a coat of paint now… I’m building a 12’x12’ where most of the sections are just 24" deep, I painted them all a medium earth color initially until I get to working long and hard on that section later on. Matthew
bogp40,
That is an awesome club layout you have there, how big is it, it looks like a warehouse full?
My layout is in a climate controlled bonus room as you guessed. That probably means I don’t have to paint the wood for protection. I am thinking about gluing the track down, this is an AF layout and I have the rubber roadbed which I think might glue down pretty well. Knowing the DAP will stick to the bare wood better than a painted surface is a good tip.
Thank you,
Aflyer
Matthew,
I am thinking the same same thing it will be easier to roll a coat of latex on everything before assembly, and you are right it would look a lot better. I also was thinking about glueing the roadbed down and thinking it might stick better on the bare wood, so no decision yet, I will keep reading what others are doing.
Thank you,
Aflyer
If you’re gluing roadbed down, it will bond better to bare wood, but you’re not joining cabinetry here, the yellow glue will still hold to paint as well as the prefered DAP caulking. only difference is caulk will allow for any minor changes and remains slightly flexible @ the joint. Some feel that caulking can even slightly isolate a bit of the sound transmission as well.
The Club is www.ssmrc.org It is almost a warehouse, a 50’ x 200’ building Navy bomb assy building.
Totally loving the S Gauge stuff. I have an American flyer set that was my fathers that I would love to build a layout for. i’ll be watching this post very closely to see how you make out. Are you going to be able to get all of the S supplies you’re going to need? Are you going to be able to modernize the old AF stuff to make it function properly?
Thanks, keep up the good work.
Matthew,
Hi, knowing the dap will stick to painted sub roadbed is a big help, I probably should go ahead and do some base painting before getting into assembly.
I am guessing a need a small pile of bricks or something similar to hold the track in place while the DAP caulk sets up. I haven’t gone to buy any yet, so haven’t read the specs, does that stuff setup quickly, overnight or some where in between?
Wow, your club, your building and your layout all sound amazing. Thank you for sharing your we-site very informative. The layout photos show a real high quality product.
Aflyer
Altoona,
S Gauge is alive and well! Lionel is making several products for S, there is American Models, MTH has a nice start on cars and diesel engines with more coming in 2014. And many more I can’t think of at the moment.
I run a whole roster of old AF steam engines and they run like clocks, I also have some diesels that run great too. I have never had any serious problems with any of the 50 year old American Flyer stuff and at our club we run the old steamers for hours and hours with virtually no breakdowns.
If you are into eBay at all, do a search on American flyer, it will bring up 4-5,000 items for sale at any given time. You don’t need to buy anything or even setup an account to do searches.
I am glad to hear you are thinking of building a layout and the folks on these forums are ready and willing to help you get setup and running those old trains again.
Thank you for your compliment,
Aflyer
Hi all, a little more progress in the last week or so. I have posted pictures below, I now have all the sub roadbed cut, and the track is roughly cut and fit in place. The photos start on the short, 12 foot leg, and continue around to the longer, 16’ leg. No bridges built yet, and I will probably just build a sub roadbed for each of the four tracks and build the bridges later.
I have decided to go with a farm scene and placed a barn, house, and a siding for the cattle pen and the milk car. I will add maybe a field, a pasture, and a garden, and maybe a farm pond. Comments always welcome.
Tomorrow I will take it all apart and start the real assembly on the lower level. I still need to level and square up some of the benchwork. I plan to glue down the road bed and start wiring track feeders to the bus.
The outer most curve leads to a bridge over the ravine connecting to the loop shown above. The two sidings are there to service unknown industries. The farm was originally going to be here, but this area seemed to cramped.
The upper level on this loop is only sitting on 2.5 inch blocks, when permanently placed it will be 5 inches above the base level.
The Yard.
Not a very exciting day workign on the railroad, but I did make some progress. The lower level sub roadbed is mostly attached to the benchwork for the short loop.
Not a very exciting but necessary job, I cleaned a bunch of track, and began the task of soldering the feeder wires. I went with a 14 gauge bus as I had shared earlier and based on lots of input I decided to go with 20 ga. solid feeders. And you are correct, this is much easier to solder to the track.
I found the red and white easily in a twisted pair from Lowe’s it was 20/2 Bell wire. The green and black was harder to find so I ended up at Radio shack and got a couple of 25 foot spool so I could get started.
Attached is a photo of some sample sections with the feeders soldered, and a couple after I put the track back in the roadbed.
Thanks for looking.
Aflyer
I may not be qualified to give advice but its great to watch your progress especially since we both got started around the same time. Just letting you know I am following along.
Hey, I am using the same red/white twisted bell wire from Lowe’s for my feeders. But I ended up ordering a bunch of wire for everything else from All Electronics. Local electrical supplies seem to be very limited these days.
Walt,
Thanks for following along, and commenting on my posts.
Thanks for the tip on All Electronics, I’ll go check them out.
Aflyer
Great soldering job! Looks like a professional’s work.
Following along,
Kix66
Aflyer,
I’ts been 6 months and not a peep out of you. How about some progress pictures?