tv_man Wrote:Thanks for all the helpful comments.

Russ: yes, the two industries would be awfully close to each other, but isn't that the case on all model railroads?

Not necessarily. It was probably true before the advent of staging yards and around the wall, walk around layout designs. You will actually have an advantage if your various modeled industries are not related to each other. You mentioned that you have a variety of rolling stock that you need to build industries for. If you use your yard as a visible small staging yard, you can use industries on the layout to either function as originators of loads for shipping or destinations for loads shipped into the modeled industries. As such the various industries can accomodate all of your various types of freight cars. If you have an industry that serves to originate a load that is unloaded on another industry on the same layout, you have reduced the variation in freight cars because the two industries will only use the one type of car. To illustrate the point, if you have 6 industries on the layout, you have potential for the use of 6 different types of freight cars, but 2 of those industries serving as source in one case and destination in the other, just reduced you car types to 5. 2 sets of paired industries reduces your car types to 4. 3 sets of paired industries reduces the car types to 3.

Do you want to talk about wiring yet? You need to think about that before you lay the track so you can provide gaps. What switches -- plastic frogs or rail? I think you plan on DC by the cab wiring you showed. A little bit of playing at the plan level may let you see where you want blocks to end.

I operated one layout where 2 industries were on adjacent sidings. One was the box co., the other seemed to be their biggest customer. Every week I exchanged a car loaded with cardboard boxes for the previous week's empty one. Usually the same 2 cars. hey could have opened the doors, put a plank down, and just trundled the boxes through.

Got the materials for the benchwork, only needs to be assembled, next week, probably. Starring on the layout are a Fleischmann BR91 with a flatcar and a caboose.

[attachment=2117]

Demonstrating the portability of the layout - the whole layout can be stored away in just 4x1x1 feet. The shelf/control panel is also going to be theoretically detachable (reconnecting the wiring might make it tricky)

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And yes, wiring would be DC based cab wiring. As you identified the proposed wiring scheme as such, I guess that basic scheme should work? Wouldn't be thrilled to find out that it wouldn't after short cirquiting and frying engines/transformers/myself first. Planning to wire for two simultaneously running trains, with an option for a third, considering the possible extension to the west.

Do you know of any trackplans where block endings are marked, to get an idea on what works? I consider something similar to the earlier plan where I indicated the blocks but for instance the passenger station looks like a place where possibly both tracks would need a separate block to facilitate trains passing. Not sure whether an overabundance of blocks and therefore parts on the control panel which need to be watched make the layout more fun.

Switches are with plastic frogs, I think (simple Minitrix switches, so I don't expect wonders. Might have to get a few more, so could look for some better quality for critical spots. Plastic frogs make very slow driving unreliable, right?)

Benchwork is pretty much finished, except for a reliable way of attaching the two sections as well as some legs. I was thinking of running maybe four screws through the wood holding the two parts together and aligned while still being able to detach the two parts relatively easily. Only worried that the wood may be too soft.

But at least some progress:

The trains run on coal, so we need a coaling station (which from an operating point of view could accept loads of coal coming from off the layout) Flatcar with some scratch-built crates for an idea of scale.
[attachment=2161]

The maintenance yard might need a small building for whatever they need a small trackside building for. (a little led is inside)
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For fixing the boards together = Two T-nuts and a pair of bolts. You can add a caseclip behind the backscene board near the top to make sure the division line stays together. I place a T-nut in the end of each board and use a large washer under the head of each bolt to spread the load. The two halves bolt from opposite directions - you can use the bolts/T-nuts to transfer the power across the joint

Didn't know about t-nuts, will try that. And using them to transfer power sounds like a good idea, although I might opt for separate cables as there is a fair bit of wiring going to the other section.

Those are some of the nicest looking 2x4s I have ever seen. Usually i have to search through the pallets at Home Depot until i find a few that are kind of strait and free of big ugly knots. Where did you get your lumber from?

tv_man Wrote:Got the materials for the benchwork, only needs to be assembled, next week, probably. Starring on the layout are a Fleischmann BR91 with a flatcar and a caboose.

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

Demonstrating the portability of the layout - the whole layout can be stored away in just 4x1x1 feet. The shelf/control panel is also going to be theoretically detachable (reconnecting the wiring might make it tricky)

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

The lumber is from a local Helsinki lumberyard - great service and it cost me an arm and a leg too, but at least I got everything cut to the correct size. Should probably have left the rest of the sawing to professionals as well instead of impatiently using a completely wrong saw, as some of the (luckily hidden) cuts in the benchwork are plain ugly.

Beamish, a lot of the guys in our modular club have found that buying poplar from Home Depot rather than the white pine or "whitewood" as HD calls it makes for better bench work. It is a bit more expensive, though.

Russ Bellinis Wrote:Beamish, a lot of the guys in our modular club have found that buying poplar from Home Depot rather than the white pine or "whitewood" as HD calls it makes for better bench work. It is a bit more expensive, though.

Thanks, I will have to keep that in mind for any detail stuff. Although lately a lot of what I am buying is for framing in a basement and general construction uses.

To be honest I am not even sure what kind of wood I bought, but it looks like pine. Guess most of the cost here went to cutting it to size, some bigger DIY chains do that for free..

Somewhere on the big wonderful place called the Internets I came across some people who used fully metal benchwork for a modular layout. Sounds a bit like overkill to me, any experience with such?

I know some home layouts that have used he "2x4" metal studs for benchwork. Goes together very quickly and easily, but is very sharp and somewhat hazardous to work with.

Here's an example: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.intercolonialrailway.com/">http://www.intercolonialrailway.com/</a><!-- m -->

I don't know of anyone who has used this for modular/portable layouts. At <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hotrak.ca">www.hotrak.ca</a><!-- w -->, some people have used 3/4" ply ripped to 4" or 4 1/2" high. Some postulate that thinner ply (12mm or even less "russian" with many more layers than standard ply) could be used if the 2" styrofoam deck is properly engineered into the solution to create a very strong, lightweight module.

Andrew

I bought a set of three tables from <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.martinjohnsonmfg.com">www.martinjohnsonmfg.com</a><!-- w --> I got one of their standard 2'x4' tables and two custom made 2' x 5' tables. Since I'm using an Ikea bookshelf unit to support my benchwork, I got them without the legs.

Here probably the last pictures from the planning stage:
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The control panel has been finished and it works pretty much as it should. The layout consists of 7 blocks which can be controlled by the two transformer/controllers (double blue line) and 8 (correction: 9, switch has been added to control panel) sections where power can be turned off (single blue line). According to testing it in xtrkcad there is plenty of room for 3 to 4 locomotives running about.
[attachment=2366]

And now that I was comparing the trackplan and the control panel I found out that the trackplan has one extra spur in the northeast corner..

The traverser holds four or five longer 2-axle cars or six short ones, which should be plenty considering the lengths on the rest of the layout. The red line denotes the edge of the world and the beginning of the twilight zone called the traverser. I am thinking of covering it with a hill or something so that it won't disturb watching the industry behind the traverser. (which will be slightly higher)

I may have to drop the idea of having a highly portable layout as scenery might get too high to turn the layout into one big box as was the original idea. Adding some more MDF and making two boxes would still be fairly portable in case of moving somewhere else eventually.

Oh, and I still don't know what the industries will be. Generic boxcars with generic goods to generic warehouses or something is what I've decided on for now (especially given the warehouse I'm building atm for the northeast corner of the layout)

tv_man Wrote:I may have to drop the idea of having a highly portable layout as scenery might get too high to turn the layout into one big box as was the original idea. Adding some more MDF and making two boxes would still be fairly portable in case of moving somewhere else eventually.

Depending on the type of scenery you are planning, there are ways to keep it portable. If you are wanting big mountains, you can make mountains in 2 pieces with removable tops that are carried in a separate box. If you put in a dirt fire road at the joint with the joint behind a small drainage ditch, the road will tend to hide the joint. Another trick is to put in trees and bushes to serve as view blocks for the joints. It looks like you modules will be more urban. The easy way to make them more portable without compromising the size of the buildings is to make the buildings removable. Model the foundations as part of the modules and just fit the buildings to the foundations. For instance if the foundation is open in the center and there is a styrene lip around the inside of the building that just slips inside the foundation, the foundation and lip will act as a key to locate the building and the seam won't be visible. Another trick is to put the lip on top of the foundation but just inside the footprint of the building and the building slips over the lip and rests on top of the foundation.