It has been a while since this type of post has been run. Since I am tearing down one layout and starting another, I have been thinking about the mistakes I’ve made that I am going to try not to repeat. I’ll try to put them in order of importance.
I built before my plan was completely thought through. Luckily, I had the help of some of the people on this board, or my mistakes would have been catastrophic. As it was, I was constantly adjusting structures to match the track work I had installed. The result that there were plenty of problems that could have been avoided easily, if I had thought it through. I had to make many compromises I shouldn’t have had to make.
I did not provide staging. At the time I didn’t know what a yard lead was, let alone staging. I was able to add it later, but I was plain lucky. The smaller the layout, the more important staging is.
I used EZ track. I suppose that EZ track is okay for the semi-serious modeler, but it is not for the serious modeler. At one point, when I had ordered the EZ Track turnouts, I had the feeling I had made a mistake. The LHS actually had ordered the wrong ones and I could have backed out of the deal. But I felt sorry for the guy and I made adjustments.
The biggest problem with their system is the turnouts. You can get them to work pretty well, but I spent about an hour on each one tuning them. But that is not the problem. The problem is that the switch machines are built into the underside of the track. When they fail, they are easy enough to fix, but you have to take them out to fix them. The way the plastic interlocks makes them hold together nicely, but to remove a turnout means wrenching the 3 adjoining pieces partially out as well.
I boxed myself into a corner when I decide to change the terrain to make the height of the EZ track more realistic in terms how it lined up with the loading docks on structures. The EZ track was way too tall. So I rai
Well, for certain I would not nail down the track. Maybe the roadbed, as that’s easy enough to remove, since I’d replace it anyway rather than try and recycle it, but the track… no way it gets nailed down.
Also, no plaster of any type anywhere, whether cloth/terrain stuff or bridge abuttments, culverts, whatever. Strictly foam and plastics and other such materials from now on. Goodbye forever to wire, carboard frames, papier mache, plaster cloth, etc. Good bye and good riddance.
Also, this time I will NOT hurry anything for any reason. If it takes a week to get it right, then so be it. If I don’t get it ready for the show, then that’s too bad. I intend to do the very best that I can and to design and think it through a dozen times if needs be in order to get what I WANT this time around, rather than what I THINK I want, or what someone else says is “good enough”.
Placing turnouts in places where access is difficult, but the worse part is not having an ability to detect their status; thrown or through…and how can you tell? So, if I were to do this over, I would not use homemade mechanical throw cranks, for one thing…I’d use Tortoise or something like them…and I would have some sort of points position indicator for the turnouts that are out of sight. I didn’t make the mistake of placing any in tunnels or behind hills, nothing like that, but I did place them at eye level, above the yard and hidden with a berm of paster “dirt” so that the throwbar mechanism that I crafted wasn’t so obvious. That also hid the points from view, so I must now have a stool handy. Keeps my quadriceps tight, though, and my weight in check.
I would not bother to use transition joiners. They are a hot pain where the sun don’t shine, and are exceeded in their uselessness only by plastic joiners…IMO. I have not used them, but I would urge the use of transition railing first, solder them, or even to leave a gap and treat some segments as programming tracks. Or, as some of you already know to do, crush the end of a regular joiner to which you would solder or glue the lower profiled rails and use them. I had to spend lots of time dressing the cut ends of Code 100 rails so that I wouldn’t slide the ends if the transition joiners into my thumbs or fingers trying to get them to perform like poor regular joiners. They are bad news.
I initially used J-Cloth towels under the plaster goop, but they were required to be supported by lots of plastic bags filled with crumpled newspaper. Son, lemme tell ya, there is an easier way; aluminum window screen. Longer spans will still need the odd bag or riser anchoring midway, but that stuff works like a darn. A lot easier to shape with scissors, a thumb, and some hot glue.
I went to a train show with too much cash before I knew what I wanted. Half of the stuff I bought that day is still bagged, waiting to be used over 2 years later.
Plan ahead. Think about your era, space and industries. I love that Walthers icing platform, but suppose I’m modelling the 1990’s? And even if I step back half a century, how do I fit this thing on my layout?
[#ditto] I got about two dozen cars that are to new and about half dozen that are to old and maybe a dozen Im just dont have a customer for. Not to mention a couple of expensive locos that are just to big for the terminal line Ive finally settled on[banghead]. Plan before you buy!
have not have switched to N-scale. It made switching back to HO much more painful and wasted about 12 years.
have developed one, two, or three projects fully and finsihed them before starting to buy stuff for the next, reguardless of how good a deal the stuff is.
have done much more short range stuff rather than constantly planning for the long range “ultimate” goal.
choose exactly one road name, era, and location to model and stuck with it.
have joined the “operational” groups in the area earlier and participated more often.
have joined the NMRA when I was a teen, and gotten a lifetime membership ASAP.
Spend more money on the railroad history / information books, and more time reading them.
Well Space Mouse, your first 2 points certainly ring true for me also.
Although my first layout turned out to be a total PIA, i have learnt alot from it.
The biggest thing ive learnt is to plan, plan and plan again!
The next thing i learnt is not to solder every rail joint, abig mistake!
I have not used a single track pin on my new build, something i learnt from here, Thanks guys.
Another point is that if you come up against a problem whilst building, address it straight away and dont leave it ‘til another day’ or before you know it you have a layout full of problems that you now cant correct because they have mostly all been built on or over.
Open benchwork through-out. We knew where the below grade scenery was going, one river, and it would have saved a ton of time and two tons of weight to deck the rest with plywood.
Roadbed joints under turnouts or at track joints. Even with a belt sander, they swell and contract differentially, and should be staggered.
Luan for elevated track roadbed and subroadbed. It’s holding up ok, since the risers are closely spaced, but next time, the only luan will be at critical clearance locations, and of very short spans.
Apparant mistakes that turned out to be benefits:
When building a rectangle, you have to subtract the material thickness, twice, from the cross table supports, to achieve the expected finished dimension. You’d think a 20 year carpenter could subtract two times one point five inches from 48 inches, but somehow, we ended up with a finished bench only 45 inches wide. No problem, a pair of eight foot two by fours screwed into the edge of the table allowed for two, new, eight foot “tracks to nowhere”, that fit perfectly into the expansion scheme now underway.
Fitting the foam, and plaster overlay, such that every piece of foam above the plus 4 inch level could be removed as a unit seemed endless drudgery while actually doing it. Now that it’s done, it was well worth the effort, and has saved countless hours of frustration by allowing easy access to all the hidden track.
Mistake 1: If you’re wife offers to give you a large storage shed (that you originally built for her stuff) take it, don’t be nice and thoughtful just take it!!! [oX)]
Mistake 2: As others have commented PLAN-PLAN-PLAN. Not everything can be done “on the fly.”
Mistake 3: Don’t purchase all of your cars before you finish laying your track…I have an excess of passenger cars with no where to go but back in a storage container.
Mistake 4: AVOID POP-UPS IF YOU CAN. My back can’t take much more of crawling around and banging my head as I miss the hole and I’m only in my 40’s! Keep your layout accessible.
Mistake 5: Keep it simple. I’ve got so many turns, grades you can get seasick. Thankfully I added an outer passenger loop with large easements to avoid passenger nausea.
Mistake 6: Goes back to Mistake 2, don’t build all of your structures before you plan where they’re going to go. I’ve built way too many with no place to put them.
You do learn from your mistakes, though it hurts like a [censored].
Your layout doesn’t have any interchanges or through trains? I always make at least one team track and one interchange. Those tracks can take any kind of car, well, I guess except the super specialty ones like molten metal smelting cars.
Plan-plan-plan before you buy, but do not plan-plan-plan before you play-play-play. I’ve been planning so much, I’ve not played enough. This forum has helped encourage me to play more. Then there is also the plan for temporary things, don’t allways plan for “the ultimate end result” and have to wait 30 years before it starts happening. Nothing wrong with planning a temporary layout even if it will eventually be torn up and some things will be wasted. Many who plan perminant still have this happen to them.
Thanks for all the advice. I’ve been dreaming for five years and planning for three and still have yet to buy any lumber for benchwork. I’m so worried about planning that I’m too afraid to start! How does one start a layout? I’m ready just to build with no plan just to get something going!
