I got the 4x8 table built; I didn’t have the room for a 5x8 table, and the guy who built my table said it would double the parts fee, so I went back to my original plan, based on the Cripple Creek Central Railroad in the HO Railroad Start to Finish, using my Atlas track. It appears, thankfully, that I have a lot of the parts from what I got for the Atlas HO-14 layout I started with. The 22" radius curves won’t be too tight against the edge (4" leeway I can handle). The book says if I don’t use the 24" radius curves I should be okay on a 4x8 layout, and they told me to use the 22" instead with Atlas Code 83 track.
My question is about roadbed and ballasting. I have enough to do the perimeter of the layout first, without buying any more track (I have 18 sections of 22" and 3 pieces of flex track, and 16 pieces of 9" track). If I were to go ahead and construct the oval loop with the siding, could I go ahead and lay the roadbed for that and go ahead and ballast it before adding the inner workings, or am I asking for trouble if I do that? I want to work with what I have and this will give me a good idea if I have enough room on the edges of the table for a 22" radius. So far, I do have the following:
1 LH Snap switch
1 RH Snap switch
1 #6 LH custom-line
16 pieces of 9" track, including 3 rerailers and a terminal section
3 pcs 36" code 83 flex
2 #4 LH custom-line
2 #4 RH custom-line
Assorted track pieces that I could inventory later to build the inner workings, might not even do all the track work the book recommends anyway. I do have the track assortment and some 3", 6" and 1/3 section 18" curves.
I think what I would do is temporarily lay out the perimeter track and determine where the turnouts will go. Then I would begin laying the track starting at a turnout and proceed to the next turnout, etc.
If you lay the perimeter track and ballast it, you will have to go back and cut out sections of track to install the turnouts. The ballast will need to be cleaned from those sections where the turnouts are located. That’s more work than if you install the turnouts as you lay the track.
Hope this helps.
Actually, I was going to install the perimeter track with the turnouts in place, for that specific reason, then work in the middle.
Once I ballast, I don’t particularly want to go back.
I like to layout the whole track configuration temporally attaching it and run a few trains around to look for trouble spots before ballasting. That way I don’t need to remove any ballast to make changes and can move onto building mockups and scenery.
hi Oracle
i would stay away from ballasting and major scenery work for quite some time. Only after you have tried out if your track work and electrical connections are immaculate, i would start thinking about next steps. And Darell is right, start with the switches.
BTW your 22 " inch curves are centre lines, you will not have any leeway at all, it just fits.
And buy some extra track if really needed, do not try to be cheap here. The costs of an extra switch is peanuts in comparison to e.g. tortoise switch motors.
I added some plans for fun, the one by Byron Henderson (Cuyama) is great.
Smile
Paul
Agree about the ballasting. Make sure everything is finished and all the bugs are worked out of the layout before doing so.
Just curious. What did the person charge you for building 4x8 benchwork?
$55, not including the cost of the plywood board I already had.
That’s not too bad. Just making sure it wasn’t one of those over the top carpenters that take advantage of people.
Any pics of the work available?
Soon as I putty the foamboard back together, I shall have pics.
At that point, I’ll check out the 22" radius stock and see what it looks like. I had Kato Unitrack 21 5/8" radius on the table when it was on sawhorses (and stopped because the track was too inflexible in terms of parts available) and didn’t think it was too big.