Finally, most of the pieces are here so now its time to begin; time to go from the concept to the reality. Thanks to all that have provided answers many of my questions for "Dummies". Time to get off the computer and on the railroad.

Got to have a supply yard

Always need a good engineer!

Everything looks great. Nice location, clean, nice benchwork. I believe I had the most fun designing my track plan and then being able to lay new track down and testing it out. All around nice job Roger. Keep up updated.

Tex

Roger
Great job so far would like to see the the layout once operational

Roger:

Looking at your track diagram I noticed quite a few 1 3/4 pieces. I think that if you rework design as you lay track you can eliminate most of them. The fewer joints the better. For example in upper corner (I'll call it A6- letter across top number along side) you could eliminate the small pieces by increasing the size of the curve at the location to 054 and reducing size of straights.


Why do you have a reverse wye inside a reverse wye with a 45 crossing?
The large reverse wye is defined by switches at O5, O9 and H8
Bill D

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wsdimenna,

quote:

Originally posted by wsdimenna:
Looking at your track diagram I noticed quite a few 1 3/4 pieces. I think that if you rework design as you lay track you can eliminate most of them. The fewer joints the better.

Why do you have a reverse wye inside a reverse wye with a 45 crossing?

A lot of what appears to be 1-3/4 are 036 curves; but we are finding that the software is pretty accurate. We've made some adjustments, but not many. It's working pretty well. We'll see. Thanks for the heads up.

Roger, Looks good. Nice that you have a helping hand.

I look forward to seeing more photos as you progress!

im wondering about the wye on the bottom left of the track plan right above the entrance. It looks like the switch is the last section of track. Is this going to be some sort of industry because I can't see how you could reverse a train there.

Greetings Roger;
Looks like you will be very busy for a while ;-)
I was wondering what the green stuff you covered the bench with is.
It looks good from the pictures.
I'm thinking static grass mats eventually, but the green would make a useable undersurface for running trains on while I work the layout.

Stevin, If you have a big monitor, the text labels that switch as leading to more track. He is going around the walls in another room!
Russell

Same question as Russell. What is the green stuff you have used to cover the bench top? Looks pretty nice from the photos. Appears to go right around the edge, and gives a nice clean look. What is the benchtop itself?

REV

The wye at the lower left near the entrance goes to trackwork in an adjacent room, around the wall. Cool!

quote:

Why do you have a reverse wye inside a reverse wye with a 45 crossing?

We wanted to be able to reverse direction and had a small area to do it in, so we choose this crazy "Y".

quote:

Same question as Russell. What is the green stuff you have used to cover the bench top? Looks pretty nice from the photos. Appears to go right around the edge, and gives a nice clean look. What is the benchtop itself?
REV

My son likes to sit on the tables, so the base is 3/4 A/C plywood. I went to Lowes and had them mix me a custom green; rolled it on, including the edges, and away we go....no secrets, just a dirty green paint. We are using foam for a roadbed.

quote:

im wondering about the wye on the bottom left of the track plan right above the entrance.

Russ was right, the scenic route begins there and travels around a 16 x 24 (24"-36" deep)room. Right now its a staging area.

Congratulations on commencing Roger.[I was at the supplier to your "supply yard" yesterday at Jeff's].

Look like it going to be a fun operating layout...Someday I hope to start building mines.

Nice job Roger.....it sure must be good paint, in the picture it looks as if you have wrapped something completely around under the edges. Best looking paint job I've seen on a 3/4" benchtop.

REV

What an interesting track plan!

It's always an exciting time when the benchwork is done and start to lay the track.

I found that when I laid my track, that I ended up tweaking a few things as I got the track down. Have fun, it looks like you will soon be running some trains.

Jim

A little bit of an update. You can see how the foam roadbed looks. Keep in mind the track isn't screwed down or powered yet, so its not lined up with the track. First time working with it so it's taken this section to get used to working with the glues. We've found the cool hot glue seems to work the best. This when trains are FUN!!

The "Island" is getting a little cluttered, waiting on 5 1/2" track sections

We designed this undertable mount for the transformers. Ball bearing giudes are used on each side so we can pull it in and out.

Any updates on the layout Roger?

Here's an update with the most of the track in place - still have an trestle to put in, but at least I can run some of these new DCS engines! Long way to go...

Going in the layout room:

To the left:

The big bridge:

Around he room from left to right...

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.


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Like I said - a long way to go.

Roger,
Looks good. No wonder you were excited about it in York!

Hey Roger,

It was nice meeting you at York and now seeing the layout you were talking about.
This is really turning out very nice, great benchwork and a lot of track!

That bridge is also a nice focal point for the layout. Can't wait to see more photos as you add more to the layout!

Steve Tapper

What a clean and tidy beginning. Just a few thing to think about before you get too much farther...

- What about some below grade storage tracks?

- Sometimes less is more....less track leaves room for operating acessories etc...

Great Job!

Awesome. I like the layout so far.

Roger your layout is coming along great and it is good to see the pleasure you are getting out of it already. Keep up the great work.

quote:

Originally posted by steve tapper:
Hey Roger, It was nice meeting you at York..... lot of track!

Steve, great to meet you as well. It's one of benefits of both the DCS meeting on Wednesday evening and Thursday at Fridays. See you in the Spring!

quote:

Originally posted by Ahitpy:
- Sometimes less is more....less track leaves room for operating acessories etc...Ahitpy

Ahitpy, you are obsolutely correct...I am guilty! Fortunately I have an adjacent room where I will be doing phase 2 and will factor in more open space.

Very nice work Roger, great start! Going form the planing stage to the starting stage is the bigest step.

Thanks for sharing, and keep the pictures comming as you progress.

Looks great!
I wish I had your will power. I could not wait to run my trains, so I tossed Plywood on whatever I had that would hold it up and laid track. I have now put proper benchwork under that part of the layout and am loath to tear it out to rebuild under it. And I learned something about my basement floor when I added the second section. Level??? Not even close. As in off 6" in 20 feet. I'm working up new leg lengths as I go now. But, I can run my Trains