Layout Progress Updated: 3-2-15

Please keep us posted.

Those plans do look neat.  I also used Gargraves track and Ross switches on my layout.  Looking forward to more updates.

I like that proposed layout. Should be fun operating it.  Lots of room for accessories, buildings and scenery.  Good luck!

Will do Spence!

 

Thanks, I really like how the track looks.

 

Thank ya!

 

Tomorrow I am off to Menards to pick up all the wood and the base will be starting to get built this weekend. The fun will soon commence!

Nice.....looking forward to updates.

Peter

Made it to Menards today. Got me a new Dremel on sale too! Decided to go with 3/4 inch ply so I don't have to worry about standing on it lol.

Wise choice

Ups brought another batch of switches today. Still waiting on 2 more and I believe I will have all the track components!

Lance,

Looks to me like you mean business!

 

I'm looking forward to seeing your progress.  Looks like you have a good plan and are buying quality materials!!

Thanks Mark! Figured id do it right the first time around haha.

It's always exciting when boxes of track and lumber show up!  Can't wait to see your progress.

 

 

Lance

We will look for the build pictures.

I love it when a plan starts coming together.

 

Larry

Looking good Lance, you are a good forward planner.  

I probably missed it--but what type of switch motors are you planning and what type operating system[Conventional, DCS, TMCC?].

Power supply?

DZ1000 switch motors. I am going to be running the DCS system. Right now I am running it off a z1000 power supply. Eventually going to upgrade in the future to either 2 power bricks or a z4000. Haven't decided yet.

Made some framing progress tonight. Was slow because I'm working with a torpedo heater since my hanging unit isn't up yet. Trying to decide what height I want the legs. 3' seems to be what I am aiming for since I am a pretty tall guy.

Sit on the floor and measure to the top of your head. Then add some clearance.

 

That way you can sit comfortably under the layout for the eventual under layout the time.

 

Also, if no littles are involved, a height of 40"-50" eliminates some of the helicopter view and improves viewing angles for adults.

 

36" is too low for you.

Though it's personal preference, I tend to agree with Moonman.

36" will wear you out crawling under it...repeatedly...

Ya I started realizing that after I mocked up some legs for one of the boxes last night. I just hope stability on a taller leg will still be fine. I made the legs into an L shape with 2x4s like I've seen many people do.

The legs should be fine if you add some angle braces from the top of the table.  I agree with the others who like a layout higher, as it is easier to get under, and gives a view that is more like standing on a small hill trackside instead of in the helicopter, or drone as I've seen in some recent videos.  My past layout was 48" high but when the kids were small, I had to hold them up to see the trains.  If you have small children, you may want it lower as Carl inferred.

Make sure you drill a few holes to run your wire before you put the top on.  You will thank me later.

 

I second Jmiller suggestion about holes for wires. 

Get a large diameter drill bit -3/4inch or 1 inch and drill several holes in each cross piece under your plywood.  It will make running wire much easier.  I made this mistake and was drilling holes under the layout after the fact.  And after drilling one or two holes - then I realized that I needed more holes - and the bigger the better ( not so big you loose structural support )    I have a modest sized layout but with track switches, track power, signals, UCS tracks and accessories.  ( I have a lot of wire under my benchwork )

 

Steve

Definitely going to be raising the height. Gotta run to menards tomorrow to get some more 2x4s and a 1" hole drill bit. Going to put 3 holes in each spaced out.

Thanks for the replies!

Another tip-don't brace the legs parallel to the floor.  You'll get tired of crawling over them real quick...

 

Post pictures when you've made progress.  Can't wait to see it.

Made some huge progress tonight! And it's almost dead on level too! Proud of myself!

Decided on a 42" height. It's just right for my angle and I am happy with it! Also I did drill all the wiring holes through the braces before laying the base. Very glad I did too!

Nice solid table. Did you do the "I have train table" dance on it to celebrate? Now it's time to nag the heck out of the heating contractor.

 

All of us can relate to the feeling you get when the table is completed.

 

Congratulations!

Lance-

I remember the great satisfaction I felt when I finished my benchwork.  Congratulations!

Two comments -

1)  I do not see holes drilled in the cross members for running wires.

2)  Get some homosote or celotex sheets to cover the plywood.  Get a gallon of cheap white latex paint and give them a base coat.  ( both sides and the edges )  Then paint the top a neutral earth color ( Tan - Light Brown )  This will give a good surface for sound reduction and will hold screws well when laying track.

 

Keep up the good work

Steve

Great job!

Doing good Lance.

 

Out of curiosity is that drop down attic stairs above the layout?

 

Larry

       
       

Not yet haha. Still a few more braces I want to put in lol! And yes I'm getting antsy waiting on the heating people!
   
       
       

They are there. I took some of the pics mid drilling them. Battery was getting low on the drill so I had to charge it up a bit. Was going to paint it but haven't decided if I want to go a darker color or not. Thanks!
   
       
       

Thank Ya!
   
       
       

It's not a drop down, lazy builders only put a piece of drywall up there lol. But it's and illusion because the layout it about 8 inches away from it when standing directly under it.

Congratulations, Lance!!!

Lance,

 

As a former co-worker used to say, "Now you're cookin' and cleanin'!"

The table is up now and soon the fun will being.

Started laying the track out tonight and tracing it for the roadbed. Never realized how big a pain tracing it is. Made a styrofoam pattern of the track rails and a marker and it worked out pretty well! Also kinda getting the hang of cutting and bending track since I've been practicing.

Lance, you are off to a good start, carpentry work looks real good, solid deck with 2"x 4' legs, track design allows for sidings, track radii looks very good for long truck center freight and passenger cars, well devised track plan, adequate open areas for buildings, houses or industrial scenes, framework below plywood deck has large open areas for wiring and switch locations with actuators ( I use Tortouse motors), track plan will allow you ease of operation and hours of operating enjoyment, you must have converted the garage into the train room this may allow for future expansion of this layout, keep us informed on your progress.

Looking real good. You've made very good progress.

Congratulations!  Remember, few things worth a **** come easy!

So cool!  Your layout is becoming a reality!

great job so far! keep up the great workmanship and you will have a layout to be proud of....

Lance, May I make a suggestion?

 

Stop where you are, cover everything with a tarp or plastic, and get out the spackling! Let it dry, lightly sand, then prime the wall. I won't go into all the details, as there was a thread about 4-5 months ago that covered this subject in detail. When the wall is ready, follow with a coat of cobalt blue. I know, it is a lot deeper than what you are expecting. But when you do your clouds, they will really pop! You may even what to think about what background you want, and get it installed or painted. Doing the wall now will be a whole lot easier than later, after you have everything up!

 

Also, check your lighting. Do you have enough? Again, much easier now than later.

 

Chris

LVHR

Chris' point is actually a very good one....if you're so inclined.

 

Sadly, my basement has poured concrete walls that are not painted but are off white in color.  All the smoke that I "generate" gets lost with walls of that color.

 

Blue would be.....beautiful, IMHO.

I would paint the walls if the layout was going to be permanently here. I built the base to be able to take apart in sections and it will be moving to my new house that I am planning on purchasing next year. Great suggestions tho!

My basement also has poured walls.  The walls were wrapped with a white plastic coated insulation.  I bought steel studs and framed around the wall leaving the insulation in place.  I might have lost six inches of room space, but I think it paid off in the long run.  I added a drop ceiling and track lighting one one side.  I only hung one sheet of drywall spaced low enough for the drop ceiling to cover the top seam and built a box beam for the bottom edge to rest on and support the benchwork around the wall.  I figured there was no need to cover the bottom part of the wall since the bench would cover that area.  Once I'm done I'll wrap the bottom of the bench with a cloth drap and no one will know unless they lift up  the cloth.

Made some progress tonight. The whole outside loop is done with roadbed. Gotta be up early in the am for the hvac company to see about putting up my garage heater.

Lance, you've made a lot of progress (and you sure are putting the hours in) and the track work looks really good. 

 

I may have missed it, but how did you decide to bend the Gargraves, or did you use sectional curves?

       
       

Outside was sectional track. The custom bends are in the inner loop. Will be getting to those soon...(not looking forward to it tho haha!)

Hoorah, heat!

 

I think it's time to put a set of jumper wires to the track and run a train. Play with some trains, umm...er...I mean check that track work.

 

Great work! I had to teleport in and test the layout.

 

       
       

Amen to that! Hopefully I get good news for the heating stuff today. Torpedo heater is not my cup of tea smell wise haha.

 

Here you go Carl, I couldn't wait to try it out plus I'm waiting on the hvac guy to show up lol. Had to only move a little bit since that was the end of that block.

Video of NS on layout:
http://youtu.be/T60RZXoVnaY
I

 

The styrofoam in the previous picture is Woodland Scenic's foam risers.  The blocks on the other side of the bridge are solid 6" X 12" X 48" foam blocks I purchased from a company that makes foam panels and the 6 X 6 X 12" blocks I bought from an art supply place.  My track rises six inches where the bridge crosses.  I found out the hard way that six inches isn't enough clearance for a Double Stack Train.  Luckily I only bought one car.  The Woodland Scenic is a combination of two inch and four inch riser sets.  I put four of them side by side to get the desired width to fit the double track profile.  After this photo was taken I covered the risers with one inch green foam cut to fit the curve.  I covered everything with a product called Fibatape Super Crack Stop.  Home Depot sells the stuff and it comes in a roll that is 36" wide X 50'  It is the same type of material they make fiber drywall tape out of.  I used it to give the plaster something to stick to.  Once I covered all the flat surfaces with the mesh, I covered everything with a skim coat of Gypsolite.  After it dried I painted the surface to seal it.  I used it too fill in some voids between the foam boards and to add a little profile to the edges of the risers.  On the other end of the layout I had the company do some custom taper cutting on three 24" X 48" blocks.  One was taper cut along the long edge from 6" to 4", another from 4" to 2" and the last one from 2" to 0".  In the back left corner I put the 6 to 4 block and ran it down to two 2" X 24" X 8' pink panels.  The 4 X 2 went down to the end making a 90.  This went to a 2" x 8' pink panel and the 2 to 0 was added to the end side of this panel. 

I looked up a dealer for Polystyrene Foam and happened to find one that was twenty miles away.  Check the internet for a company near you and see if they will cut some for you.  It made the raised level very easy to construct.

 

Lance, It sure is coming along

Made a little progress on the inner loop tonight... But I'm out of track screws and the mailman didn't bring any today so I'm on hold . Merry Christmas all!

Try the fastener isle at Home Depot or Lowe's.  Look for trim screws near the drywall screws.  They have a small square drive countersunk head.  They worked well with my FasTrack.

 

I am happy to say all the track laying is DONE! I have to trim up some of the roadbed but pay no mind to that in the pictures. Today is another mile marker!

Now, connect two wires, and run some trains!  Have fun, Lance.  We're all having fun,through you.

 

Richie

Well put Richie!

The outside loop is wired and I got to run the NS around it! Felt like a little kid haha!

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...Pw0&feature=youtu.be

 

Congratulations Lance!  It's looking and running mighty good!

Great Looking benchwork & layout !

 

 

Thanks for the compliments! I'm debating going out tonight to do some more wiring or not. Kinda nice taking a little break haha.

Not too much to update you guys on. Right now I'm just knee deep in wiring lol and almost done with track power. Decided im going to go ahead and get a z4000 to power everything.

Looking good!

What a great layout in the making.  Beautiful track work and foam. 

 

Have fun.  Keep the pictures coming please.

Glad to see you're still working on the layout, Lance.

 

Suggestion:  get some Avery labels and attach them to your wire pairs to identify the circuit; just write on them and attach, even if they will only be a temporary measure.  Likewise, get some tiny zip ties to keep multiple pairs of wires segregated from other similarly colored wires, and add the Avery label.  For longer runs, use multiple labels on the same wire pair; e.g. when you go through a riser, you may have multiple pairs of red and black wires and you'll want to know which circuit they are for.

Good suggestion Carl! I know the two loops are different colors for the hot. I used red for the outside and yellow for the inside. I definitely want to label them though because the wires just keep getting crazier under there haha!

Layout building was on hold for a few days, was putting together my Christmas present to myself

OK  -Big Boy on the Right - Nice

Whats that streamline Loco on the Left ?

Looks like a UP 49er.

As 86TA355SR posted, it is the Union Pacific 49'er. Info and image below:

• The Forty Niner or 49'er, a streamliner passenger train between San Francisco and Chicago operated by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Image:

Nice progress!

 

Thanks for the update

Finished up the wiring on the inside loop tonight. Switches are the next thing up after I pick up my z4000 

 

Nice solid power, even with the small transformer. You hit it hard, from paper to trains running!

 

I would consider a control table on wheels or drawer glides to go under the table. I don't like the visual distraction of the power and control area, especially right in the center. You are running command, not conventional. Just my 2¢.

 

Bundle the wires and securing is no big deal. You needed them loose until it was all tested.

 

Nice execution of the build. You must feel good now.

 

Where's that heater guy before the Arctic Vortex rolls in this year?

Looking good. I like the track plan

Nice layout and video! I'm new to this and trying to wrap my brain around the powering, are the dual trains running on one powered track and transformer?

 

 

Thank you!

 

Still brainstorming on where i'm going to put it. Just ordered the 4000 so hopefully it will be here later this week! I've been dragging my feet on getting that heater up out there haha. Holidays have had me swamped. Hopefully I decide on something soon!

 

Thanks Kon!

 

Thank you Todd. My inside loop and outside loop are powered on 2 fixed channels on the DCS system. Each section is insulated into blocks and has power running to every 6 foot or so of track (from terminal strips that are fed from the Fixed Channels on the TIU). In the video, I just wired together both channels so I could run everything and make sure I was getting adequate power to everything.

The big daddy arrived today! Can power a lot of layout with this

Great job Lance. Track plan is well done and looks like fun! Have a great time with Big Daddy and thanks for posting!

JohnJr

That is how it's done.  Make a plan and execute it.  You drew it up by hand, laid out your bench work on the floor and got trains running relatively quickly.  It's nice to see a guy actually build something instead of playing around with a computer program for two years.  Well done.  Run some trains and have fun.  I like the plan too, but would add a couple sidings.   Just had to say it.  Cheers.

I'm with William!  You did it.  I also agree, if it was me, I would cut in a couple of sidings before getting too far along.  I mainly just like to watch trains run, but sometimes I want to do a little switching and have hopes of getting a log dump and sawmill some day.  Maybe some other operating industry.

I want to add a yard down the road to it. The layout will be moved to my new house hopefully this summer if I find one and have its own room so I can expand the real estate. This is just working with what room I have now

what did you spend on track for that size.  looks like gargraves? or atlas?  Just wondering because I may accumulate some of this type and ditch my realtrax. is this hard to bend to shape or do you use some sort of tool bender?

 

looks really cool! 

Chris

 

 

       
       


It's Gargraves with Ross Switches. I don't remember quite what I spent but it wasn't too bad. I bought some extra flex sections to practice with and bend. Some turned out okay and others I may redo. Just takes practice. As for the bender...I have a lot of money invested in it (my stomach LOL!) Thanks!

That makes good sense now that you explained.  I will do the same thing, since I won't be able to buy all my track and switches at once.  Get some trains running, then add the yard, sidings later.  

 

If you said earlier you will be moving soon, I missed it or forgot.  What are the size of the pieces of layout that you will be moving?  Oh you're a young guy, you can probably pick the whole thing up and squeeze it through the sliding glass doors.  ;-)

Mark: the 2 sections are 5x8. Built it so they can easily come apart until it gets moved to its permannent area. Hopefully it will be moved this summer.

Not much to update you guys on, temp has been dropping here so I've avoided the garage a bit. Plus, been working 7 days a week to pay for my expensive hobby haha. Hopefully this coming weekend I can get all the switches wired up.

Well I'm sort of back tracking but a room opened up inside so im moving it in the house. The right side of the layout needs to be cut down some to fit but it's better than dealing with moisture etc lol.

Good idea, and now I see how you constructed it in sections for moving.  Very good!

The big move is done! Did I mention I hate lugging around 3/4 plywood LOL.

I have a few supports to do under the table yet but pretty happy how it's sitting.

Also, I had to hack off 2 foot from the right side so I am redesigning the two curves on that side and moving the switches that were up front to the back.

It does feel nice to be inside and work on carpet!

Lastly, figured while I'm still messing with wood I would make a few model railroad "spice" shelfs. Also picked up this license plate frame yesterday which seems fitting

Had to move the 2 front switches to the back since I made things shorter. Went together a lot better than I had planned! Getting use to cutting track now too! I just have to finish wiring in the new section then I finally get to move on to the switches. Things should pick up after this. Being up on the table on my knees is done in short spurts since I have one bad knee to begin with haha.

So far got almost half the switches wired. I decided to go ahead and add in the push buttons so the machines stay lit. Extra wire is a pain in the butt, but it's all coming together quite well and with the z1000 brick powering them they snap real quick! The wire in the pictures is a mess but I'm not gonna button it up until the rest is wired. Believe it or not but I know where they all go haha!

Lance,

Movin' on!...bet you appreciate the carpet now.

 

I don't recall, did you get Ross ready or did you have wire for non-derail yourself?

Lookin good.

Much nicer room!  Coming along there.

 

Thanks for the update.

Just a quick video update...going to work on new sidewalks this weekend so I can start wiring and securing the buildings.

Layout update vid:

Lance,

    Really starting to come together, very nice job!  Now a 2nd & 3rd level engineering planning job is required.

PCRR/Dave

Yeah I definitely want a second level for sure!

Lance, I've really enjoyed your updates as you progressed from plan, to benchwork, etc.  Thanks for the video.