I am getting ready to start the planning of my first layout. It is going to be in N-scale due to me having to move all the time with the military plus it gives me more operation for the space that I have. Going through various track planning guides and books plus the scratch pad come up with a couple of ideas. My question is when it is time to move on how far on each side where the layout comes apart should i compensate for track removale and scenery? Thank you for any advice.
R/
Jim
You could check the modular specs at the NMRA site (www.nmra.com) for some ideas. At the modular shows I’ve gone to, you can see at least two ways to handle the joints betwen layout sections. Some will try to cut therails flush with the edge ( seems to me to be not such a good idea) or you can design your joints so that a small section of flex track (4" to 6") is used to span the joint, depending on the scenery at the joint. I’m sure there are other ways to accompli***his as well.
I agree with suggestion on the NMRA standards. There is a large organization of people who build standard N scale modules called NTrak. If at least part of your layout meets that standard, then when you relocate you might be able to hookup with a local group and play trains while you’re reassembling yours. Also trying to plan your wiring scheme to be mobile can get a little complicated too. The Ntrak standards take care of all of that as well.
Read up on some British layouts. There are a large number of layouts that are designed to be transported to exhibitions - usually they are too large to be set up in the home (British homes don’t usually have basements). In my experience operating british layouts (including several finescale layouts in to P4 standards - including exact scale flanges), having the rails cut flush along the edge of the board is fine, so long as you have some positive method of location to ensure the alignment of the boards.
My clubs layout has the track cut very close to the edge. Each section is adjustable up, down and sideways so lineing up the track is never a problem.
You can build a nice little N scale layout in 2x4 feet, and it wouldn’t be too hard to build a cover for it that would allow one to lug it around like a big suitcase.