Major reno complete, major re-do of trackplan commenced!

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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Our basement is done, at long last, although we await carpet installation on the 12th. Before that happens, and with wife’s approval, I uncovered the layout a couple of nights ago and played one last time. Today, I began to rip up track.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how to improve the layout while I was cutting drywall and sanding it. (mmmm, soooo much funnnnnn!!). As I cut narrow strips off the drywall, it ocurred to me that they were nice and flat, fairly resilient, and could be ground to fit in odd places. So, today, I decided to tackle the biggest, earliest goof-up that I made: the s-curve a fifth of the way up to my mine (why, oh why, did I put it in?!!!) I had been fiddling with the rest of that branch for the past three months, so out it all came. Then, I laid 2" wide and seven inch long strips of sheet rock, and used thin, flat cedarshimming material to get their surfaces to match the grade that I needed. Once I had several in that would support flextrack lengths, I soldered the flex into place. From there, it was just a matter of slipping other sections of drywall into place and shimming until they supported a nice, even grade of track. I am happy to report that, minus that execrable s-curve, and with flex instead of (ptui!) EZ-Track, my most troubled loco on that stretch, the IHC Mike, lumbered up, all the way, at a much slower speed than I had to set it previously.

I am sold on this technique. I’m sure it has been done before, but I am gratified with my success, and will attempt to replicate it elsewhere.

Soon, I will add 12" wide strips of 5/8" ply and 1 1/2" styrospan along the longer side of the layout. That will permit 32" curves (yay!!) outside of the current looped main, and I hope, within three or four weeks, to have my Niagara and PRR J1 screaming down them. All I have to do, aside from the obvious construction and scenicking, is to build 10 more Fast Tracks #8’s and three #6 double slips. Okay, maybe five weeks…

On th

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Oh!! sanding drywall what fun, we’ve spent many hours doing the same mostly for the house tho!!

Sounds like an interesting way to build a grade.

Good luck with the turnouts!!

Ken.

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Cutting drywall would be a whole lot earier than cutting plywood and cheaper too. How are you joining the end together?

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Thanks for your replies, fellas. I am not joining them. What I am doing is cutting them on a diagonal at the ends so that they nearly butt up against each other, especially around curves…like this / \ . The flextrack is quite rigid over distances of 1-2", so gaps of that length, as long as the next support is exaclty up to, and supporting, the flex at the ends of the gap, there is not sagging. I used some 1.5" drywall screws to screw the pieces of drywall into the underlying foam…it works okay, as long as you remember it is foam, and not plywood. This keeps everything in place. Latex caulk would be just fine, too…probably cheaper. Then, I used track nails in the tiny holes in the ties to keep the tracks in their curvatures or straights.

Later, I will use poly filla or something like it to fill in so that I don’t have to load 50 kg of sand onto the tracks to ballast it properly.

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Wow Crandell, sounds like you got your work cut out for you. How big of an area do you get to “play with”? By any chance do you have a track plan posted?[:D]

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John, I have a picture from last March, just about the time I called it a done deal. It is a large “table” comprising three sheets of 5/8" plywood, tongue-and-groove, to form a table 8’ X nearly 11’ (I had to make room for a squeeze-by at the back, hence the 11’). I am adding 7" to the front, and 5" to the rear, adding a Micro-Engineering four span 160’ through girder combo, and making a sweeping loop main with 50" curves…yes, 50". I said 32" earlier, but I have found a better path, and it gives me the sweeping curve that Joe Fugate and others have said looks so cool. I am also adding a reverse loop (and all the minor headaches that brings), a yard, staging, and a passing track, all the things I missed the first time. Sorta begs the question…what did I do right?

I have no published or diagrammed trackplan. I am just making it work because now I know how…and flextrack helps a lot. Finished area will now be 9’ X 12’, all one big slab. I have a pop-up in the lake at the right (you can see the lumber opening right of the water tank).

I’ll post pix in the weeks ahead.

-Crandell

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50" curve? heck yeah that will look cool. I tried to pack big turns where I could, as with most of us, space was limited. I still managed ot get close to 29" average on all the turns…Not too bad…

Yes, please, keep us updated on your spread. Like to see that bridge too. That should be cool [8D]

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Your use of drywall material for subgrade proves, once again, that literally anything can be used under the cosmetic scenery surface to support track. The only reason I won’t be following your lead is that I don’t have any scrap drywall around.

I gather that you’ll be building double slip switches from scratch. I know that it seems intimidating, but it’s actually no more difficult than building any other kind of turnout or crossing. Relax, work slowly and gauge-check everything before setting it in solder and you should end up with a good looking, trouble free result. Good luck (found at the intersection of preparation and opportunity.)

Chuck

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Chuck, you are sooo right. A good bit of the preparation comes with experience which, along with time in this forum, I did not have.

I don’t regret what I did, truth be known, because now I can have all the fun and excitement once more.

No wonder most of us make several layouts. It’s so gosh darned fun!!

Thanks for encouraging me with the double slip. I gotta have one…I just GOTTTT TAH! [:D]

-Crandell

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Congrats in the renovation, Crandell. I’ll be looking forward to your updates and photos in the months ahead. One of the things I already wish I’d done was to put in larger radius curves. Mine are 22 inch and I would love to have at least 27 to 30s.
Jarrell

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I understand, Jarrell. Everyone starts somewhere, and 22" curves were one thing that I had to change on the fly…I found that my EZ-Track was not going to meet, no way, no how. So I expanded the footprint a bit with the curves, and got better running. Can’t even claim to have gotten that right. I merely adapted to save what I had. Now that I have soldering skills, flextrack, and some idea of how to improve things substantially, my biggest ally is confidence. Getting the mining spur sorted out was a good first test, but it worked and I am pumped!

I’ll post pictures from time-to-time.

-Crandell