OK so I am starting out and I need to do these steps to get started right. I have been reading and trying to put all this together…
build benchwork
out down foam board 1" thick
then it get fuzzy here I am not sure what to do
*buy track and and dcc power
I am lost on how to do this can someone help me get past what to do after bench work ?
lol sorry about this I am just lost all overwhelmed…
Take a deep breath and relax, first of all. You CAN proceed in a completely linear fashion and do one thign to completion, then the next, but I get bored doing things that way. I started laying track even before I had all the benchwork done. I also didn’t paint my foam until after I had all the roadbed in place (I still have a few sections of track to lay). The paint doesn’t hurt the roadbed, and think of all the area covered by track and roadbed that I didn’t have to waste paint on. Even where all the track is in place, I don;t have every single feeder soldered up yet, so I still have more wiring to do as well. I work on whatever I feel like workign on at the time, sometimes I don;t touch the layout and instead work on car kits or some locos I am detailing.
Notice I said nothign about scenery - I leave that for last because I dread it. I have not one bit of artistic sense, and even the idea of just matching it to a picture , well, my sense of what exactly matches isn;t all that great either. Those more scenically inclined can add that to the mix at any time as well. Nowhere in the rules of model railroading does it say each stage must be complete before moving on to the next one. Enjoy!
–Randy
The one thing I don’t see mentioned is a track plan. Doesn’t have to be a final plan, but a general plan of what you want to do. In my case (even though I have not started building) I want as long a single track mainline as I could manage. A yard which can serve as an ending point for both ends of a point to point (I want continuous running capability also). A mid size 2nd town for some switching. Space for some single track indstries along the mainline for the local to pick up and drop off. Found a plan with a foot print that I liked, though I won’t use the track plan, the foot print gives me a place to start.
As Randy mentioned, you don’t have to do all of one step before starting the next. The further along you are the more this is true. You can use this as a guide line for starting order, but in this hobby little is “absolute” it’s just fun.
Purchasing done when you have the time and money to do it. Depending on how far you are from your LHS, lumber yard or whatever, determines how extensive your shopping list is.
Benchwork, including top. If you know you are going to have elevations, include them. Also, you may want to run your bus wires before attaching the top, so you don’t have to work upside down to do it.
Layout your track for the area, make sure things fit as designed. Somehow things on paper and on table top don’t always agree. Draw in guide line for cork laying, centerline or outline.
Put roadbed onto table top and secure. Paint the roadbed your ballast color around the areas where your turnouts are going. Makes it so you do not need to use so much ballast around the turnouts, which can get into their works. (While the adhesive is drying, do the next section of benchwork.)
If you are soldering lengths of flex track together, you can do several lengths and you will move right along when laying and cutting to fit. Also, solder you
The goal of building a model railroad layout is to run trains. Therefore, all work is usually done in a order that will allow you to do this. Most of us want to get to that part as fast as we can. After that we will look at scenery and buildings.
The order that you do things is really up to you. However there are some things that need to be done before others. A track plan is usually a first step because that defines what your bechwork will look like. The exception to this is if you have a limited space and are going to build a 4x8 layout.
So if you think it through, you will see that to get some things done, other things have to be done first. Most of it is logical.
I used 2 inch foam board. It gives more depth for relief such as drainage ditches, culverts, ponds, etc. My benchwork had 3/8 inch plywood to lay the foamboard on. The plywood stiffened the bench work, gives something to glue the foam board to, and gives something underneath to attach switch machines, wire looms, power strips, structure lighting and turnout power supplies. Tortoise switch machines will work up thru 2 inch foam, although I had to bend up new operating rods out of piano wire. Remember that foam board will NOT hold fasteners of any kind. Everything has to be glued to the foamboard.
I left the painting and setting grass colored sawdust into the wet paint until after track laying and wiring was done and trains ran properly (no derailments) over the entire layout, running forwards and backwards.
I drilled holes for the under table switch machines DOWN thru the roadbed and foam board BEFORE installing the turnouts. Drilling UP from underneath the table is a loser, the hole comes out in the wrong place and the drill bit makes a mess of the turnout as it punches up thru the foam board. Since the turnout location is fixed by the hole to the switch machine, I laid the turnouts first and then laid flex track from turnout to turnout.
You need to wire the layout in order to operate trains to see if the track work is OK. I put in toggle switches to shut power off on sidings and spurs to let a locomotive park on them while another train is running on the mainline. You need to instal