Which do you do first? Lay your track and then add the surrounding plaster scenery, or do you do all the plaster work first and then lay the tracks? Why?
I’m at that point where I’m ready to secure the track and fine tune it, or take it up and do all of my plaster work and then replace the track. I’d rather do the track first and work around it than have to remove or redo sections of plaster scenery to get the track to lay right. Anyway, I’m open to thoughts on how and why you do yours!
We are going track, check operations, fix track, check operations THEN plaster. This is the proven way to less hair pulling and damage.
Take Care
George P.
Do things in the following order:
Seriously, ALWAYS do your trackwork first - and try to keep plaster out of the moving parts of the points on your switches - otherwise you will be doing #3 above.
It is a chicken and the egg thing. I done both ways now but I would lean to laying the track down first. Depending on how you do mountains you may have to do plaster first.
Good luck.
Peter
I recall a John Allen shot of what looked like abandoned right-of-way on the Gorre and Daphetid - perfect scenery, ties in place and ballasted, no rails. The surrounding scenery was complete down to the last fallen leaf. The caption said it was under construction.
On the other hand, 99.44% of modelers (including yours truly) would rather lay and prove out the trackage before making anything around it too permanent. It’s a lot easier to reposition and re-lay rail if the “scenery” in the area is pink, blue or plywood brown.
Only a totally self-confident track guru would want to fini***he scenery first.
Chuck
If the track doesn’t work well, all the nice scenery will pale in comparison…to my way of looking at it. So, I do the bull work first, and save the more enjoyable aspect of building a layout for the last. Carving rocks and weathering them, adding tunnels and portals, etc., is way more fun than fine tuning turnouts and rail joins.
Less chance of doing damage to a nicely detailed scene, too.
Definitely TRACK FIRST!
Track first then cover with masking tape (do not remove the track**!**)
I enjoy running my trains so I have to vote…Laying the track first!
There is nothing I like better than to work on the layout all day long (when I get that chance) only to end the session by running something on the layout itself. Gives me some satisfaction to know I’ve done the job right and that I’ve not messed up the works too much! LOL!
Chris
The secret to a good layout is good track work. And good track work takes time to perfect. This is a good place to pay attention to detail, no cutting corners (it will come back to bite you!). Once you get your track down and are happy with it try ALL your locos on it and inspect and adjust as you find problems. Each loco will find its own problems. After you have tested all your locos then add some cars that you trust are in good shape and start all over again!
It might seem like a lot but I have found this to work for me.
Just some thoughts
Jonathan
Nothing is more important to your enjoyment of this hobby than flawless trackwork. Trust me! Although I’ve never done the scenery-first bit, I have put the appearance of my track over its performance before. That layout ended up in a dumpster!
Track first and always!
Dave
Hi dragenrider
All the published stuff I have read says lay and mark track then
remove and do scenery.
I do not subscribe to this lay the track get it right and running properly.
then cover the track with masking tape where you are working and a bit more just to be safe.
To run trains when its dry remove tape clean track with methylated spirit and lint free cloth the run trains.
I prefer to be able to run trains all through the process of building the layout
so I start with bench then track get it working properly then scenery well more or less as the mood takes me.
But I allways get the ability to run a train at the earliest possable time in the construction of the railway.
regards John
John, you’ve hit the heart of my confusion. The Woodland Scenics video and other DVD’s show placing the styrofoam inclines and terrain, adding the plaster, and then placing the tracks. I’ve always laid and tweaked the track first and was beginning to wonder if I’d missed something.
Thanks for all the input, folks!
I have done it both ways…I am not sure which way is the best since I like both approaches…
Definately, track first. It far easier to fine tune, and make major corrections without scenery. This is even more important if you are dealing with grades.
Nick
two words
MASKING TAPE
do your trackwork first, get it working correctly, then cover all track with a generous coating of masking tape, then due scenery plasterwork. when complete peal off tape, clean track, then ballast.
[#ditto]
To me, I would have all track down and fuctioning correctly. This will do 2 things:
I have had another think (hey, it never hurts!), and I will now modify my first response. If you intend to use snap track variants, you could lay it first, prove it for grades and general utility, remove it, and then do all the messy stuff, trying hard to keep the roadbed area clean. You can always relay your snap pieces in the original configuration.
However, if you are handlaying track, even using flex-type track, I would get that out of the way first, pinned and fixed well, and then do the messy stuff. Flex will rarely go down the same way twice, not because of itself but due to your variances. Painter’s tape leaves no residue that I can detect, comes up easily, and can be reused a couple of times if you are counting pennies and take the time to pull it up carefully in 3-foot sections.
The only way I could see to do any scenery before trackwork is if the scenery was situated in a hard to reach corner of up a distant backdrop. Other than any unusual circumstance, track would go first for all reasons mentioned.
Bob K…