# Layout is starting to take shape



## Tom Bray (Jan 20, 2009)

After a lots of questions and posts on MLS, plus reading everything I could get my hands on, and bit of work, the layout is starting to look like something. There is still a ton of work to do but it is finally to the point where we can spend some time enjoying the project.

Here are some pictures:















































I was also playing around the other day and tried my hand at a YouTube video ... just a tour of the track. A bit longer that I anticipated but I wanted to see how well it would work. Here is a link to that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hndch5K-IE

I took the frame off of a LGB boxcar and stuck a board on top of it. To that I bolted the camera and ran it around the track using the F7 running backwards. The video was edited with Sony Vegas.


Tom


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Interesting Tom, I do like the #3 photo with the wood sides. I to have had more and more thoughts of getting it off the ground.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Very nice--interesting track plan, looks like a lot of fun to run on


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice looking railroad Tom. I had originally intended to enclose the front of my benchwork as you have done but the local deer have taken to walking underneath the railroad. I use a nominal 40" height. I'm afraid if I cut off their easy egress they will have more of a tendency to try and jump over the railroad causing damage or worse yet, land on it. The joys of rural living. hehe! 

Your track looks nice and flowing and the combination of benchwork and ground level looks quite nice. A great job all around.


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## Bob Vaughn (Jan 5, 2008)

How high is your layout and what did you make the top out of???


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## Richard Smith (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Bob Vaughn on 22 Jul 2009 06:16 AM 
How high is your layout and what did you make the top out of??? 

My RR is a nominal 40" in height. Below is my "standard shows-it-all" photo taken in 2004-5.









*The framework is all pressure treated lumber. Hardware cloth (the screening) is stapled on top and this in turn covered with landscape fabric. The roadbed is ladder type made from painted cedar strips of 1-1/2" depth. Side rails are PT 2x4's which hold in dirt and ballast to a depth of 1-1/2" and provide planting depth for the mosses I use and would be ample for many other ground cover plants as well. Rain drains down through the soil, landscape fabric, and screening to the ground.* 
Steve Conkle made a very nice PDF file of most of the construction posts I made over the years on the POC RR. It is quite comprehensive (25megs) and is available for free download from Steve. Limk below....

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/st...C_Main.pdf


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## Tom Bray (Jan 20, 2009)

My layout is about 20" high at its highest point. The part that was filled in with dirt is as low as about 10" above the ground but the ground is far from level and falls of quickly from the back towards the bench. The bench is 32' long by 4' wide. It is a bit too wide but if I had made it narrower I wouldn't have been able to put all the track I wanted on it. The outside oval is approximatly 40' long by 18' wide. The track is all Aristo SS. The curves are 12.5', 11.5' and 10'. I ended up with a a lot of 10' curve sections so they get used with the track bender to fill in as needed.

I followed pretty much the same bench construction that Richard used on his Port Oxford Coast Railroad with the hardware cloth and then landscape fabric on top. The bench is made out of 2x6s and 2x4s. The bench is set on 4x4 posts that have been buried about 1 foot into the ground. I don't think I have to worry about the ground freezing in Alabama so I figured that was deep enough. The rest of the supports are sitting directly on the ground (after I removed the sod and the 1/2" of topsoil) but the plan is to bury most of them eventually.

Instead of making the ladder type roadbed I just use 2X4 and 2X6 treated lumber. Most of the track going across the bench was straight and I found that I was always adjusting where the switches were located. The ladder style would have used less wood but it would have been more work. As far a longevity goes, if the roadbed lasts longer than me deciding I have to change it, I made the right choice.

As far as filler goes, I used some very sandy topsoil and then used paver base from Loews and Home Depot for the top coat that is supposed to look like gravel. I found that there are at least 3 different types of paver base, and what each store sells is a lttile different. The plantings, and we will see how they do, don't require much water and are just in top soil with pine bark to keep some moisture in and to keep the soil and sand from getting into things.

Track that is elevated is all sitting on 2x6s. Joining the sections of the road bed are 5/4 x 6 deck material which made the joints pretty strong. Most sections have one side of the decking screwed to the bottom of the road bed, the other is screwed in from the top to make it easier to remove sections.

There is about 12 yards of topsoil that fills in around the track. The property is sitting on an unexcavated section of a gravel pit that has the gravel held in place with clay. To plant anything requires a pick axe to break up the ground. The topsoil makes planting a whole lot easier but it was a lot of work to move it.

When I get it organized, I can post some of the assembly photos.

The two outside loops are connected together on the bench through the common siding, although right now the siding is hardwired to to the ouside loop. The inside loop is currently completely independant and is wired to support a trolley with an auto reveser. The inside and middle loops will eventually be connected through a common siding but I need more track and a couple more switches before that happens.


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## Terl (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice layout. I especially like the yard-station area. 

Terl


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## Tom Bray (Jan 20, 2009)

Something to look out for that I discovered while putting the trim and finishing boards on the bench. 

The finishing touches on the bench included adding a trim piece that ran along the top outside edge of the bench which sits an inch above the base of the track (1" over the roadbed that the ties sit on). In the front section I checked the clearance using my MTH trains (1:32 scale) and it appeared that everything was fine. When I did the section on the rear of the bench, which normally has a LGB New Orleans trolley running on it, I found that at 3/4" between the edge of the track ties and the 1" thick boards caused a problem if the trolley's doors were open and the stairs were extended ... as in they would get removed if I had tried to run it that way under power. 

I beveled the edge of the trim and also added a 1" spacer between the ties and the trim board. The two actions give almost and inch of clearance along the whole length of the track with the trolley steps extended. 

The one 1:20 scale engine I am considering getting is a Shay and it isn't anywhere near as large as the trolley is. I don't have any 1:29 gear so I couldn't test that. I do have something that appears to be a 1:24 sized box car and it fits just fine. I am not sure if there is anything else that would get that low (essentially just a hair above the top of the rails) and more than 1 1/2" wider than the outside edge of the rails. If it becomes an issue, I will lift up the track up a bit and throw some more ballast under it. 

The official goal of the lip is to help insure that if something derails while racing through the switches it bounces back onto the bench, not over the side and drops to the ground. It also keeps the dirt and ballast on the bench and not spilling onto the ground.


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

Tom this looks really great, what kind of wood are you useing for the road bed? do you think it will warp over time......


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Great looking RR. Some really cool ideas in place. Later RJD


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## Tom Bray (Jan 20, 2009)

I used standard Loew's treated lumber. They have two grades, and I used the better grade, it has a lot less knots in the boards so what warping occurs should be more controlled. The 2x6 boards seem to be pretty stable. The 2x4 boards are a totally different story ... many warped impressively. The 2x4 were pretty much turned vertically and used for support so that any warping didn't really effect the layout. 

Most of the 2x6's are laid bark side up (the outside rings are on the top of the board) but there are a few that are bark side down. The ones that are bark side down stay wet longer after a rain but the track doesn't rock on them because they cupped up. 

Initially, I let the boards sit outside after I bought them to allow them to dry a bit before I used them. Fresh pressure treated lumber is pretty nasty stuff. During the early phases of the layout, I laid the boards on the ground and made trial versions of the layout. Every so often I would flip the boards over so they would dry a bit more evenly. 

Any boards that warped got used for the curve sections and shorter straight sections. Anything that stayed stable got used for the longer straights. 

I have no idea if they will warp now but they have already survived the spring here in Alabama which has alternated between wet and dry and got close to breaking a few temperature records on the high side. 

If I start having troubles, I will replace sections with either the ladder style design like Richard's design above or for the stuff buried in the dirt, I will make a new roadbed using paver base. 

It will probably be a year or more before I really know the answers to warping question. By then who know what the layout will have evolved into. 

Tom


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Pretty neat how you did that, I like the vertical boards on the outside.


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