another person with re-sparked interest

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vio919

New Member
Hey everyone, I'm a newbie here on these boards and wanted to ask some advice. My interest in model railroading has been re-sparked recently (I see there are a few others like me on the boards too) and I'm thinking about building a new layout. I've spent the last few days cleaning my basement and clearing off my old 4x8 layout so I can start anew. Of course, there's not a hell of a lot you can do with a 4x8 layout, but I figure it will be good practice. Yesterday I bought a bunch of Atlas code 83 (all my old track was in horrible condition) and ran a few trains around and it felt great! So here are my questions:

What is the best kind/brand of track bed to use?

Any suggestions for what type of track layout I should create? I want to have a 40's style setting with a small town, a bit of country side, and a small switch yard.

Should I bother soldering my transformer-track connections?

Any other tips would be much appreciated. I'm not a total newbie when it comes to this, but the layouts Ive had in the past were mostly amateurish- I want to go for something very realistic this time.
 
Hi Vio and welcome to the forum , Check Spacemouse guide to Model Railroading . It is an excellent start . he is a member of the forum and can explain a lot of your concerns. As far as roadbed, Cork is the best for a solid base . Atlas Code 83 is good but if you want a more accurate rail Code 100 is better. Peco makes good track also . It depends how much you want to invest. Soldering makes a good solid connection buit it is permanent . Just depends on what you want to do with your layout . In any event research and enjoy !!!
 


Hi Vio! Welcome to the forum. You are right code 83 is much closer to prototype size. Code 100 is a bit cheaper, but is grossly oversized for realistic appearance. They are very similar to use (Atlas). I ripped out all my old code 100 and replaced it code 83 a few years ago. I did keep a bit of my handlaid code 70 track though which depending on the period looks even better. I think Paul had the two mixed up.

The advice to check out Chip's (Spacemouse) beginner's guide is a good one. Lots of good ideas to mull over and a list of a lot of things to avoid. Have fun and don't forget to show us how you are comming along!
 
Indeed, your first stop should be http://www.chipengelmann.com/trains/Beginner/BeginnersGuide01.html, the now famous Space Mouse Guide for Beginners. Paul seems to have one too many omelets at Flo's since he obviously mixed up code 100 and code 83. :)Code 83 is closer to prototype track size.

Roadbeds have undergone a lot of change. Some guys still use cork but I prefer Woodland Scenics flexible roadbed. It's easier to lay and I think absorbs tracks noise better than cork. The other big revolution has been the use of extruded foam instead of cookie cutter plywood for changes in scenery elevation.

You'll soon be reading about DDC as well. That's Digital Command Control. It a real revolution in model railroading because you can have trains running on the same tracks without any additional wiring or switches. Even though it costs more at the beginning, trust me, it's well worth it in terms of reliability and fun.

The standard rule is to solder every rail joiner. This assures you have have good conductivity and current delivery around the whole layout. This is really important for larger layouts but there are a lot of 4x8's out there with only one track connection and no soldering that run just fine.

Now is the time to absorb as much as you can about the new things in model railroading and layout building. You can them start on a plan for your layout. If you use a program like XtrkCAD from http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage. It''s free and comes with a tutorial that makes it easier to use. You can then upload track plans here for comments so you don't make common errors that will bedevil you in the long run.

Lots to absorb but take it a bite at a time and you'll soon have it down flat.
 
Welcome. I too, am getting back into it. While trying to decide what my next project would be (RC flight or RR) I heard a DCC steam loco. That is all it took. I had to get power to some track! but kept stumbling around different designs. I quickly built John Allen's Timesaver (http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/Timesaver/timesaver-trackplan.html) as a starting point and then incorporated that into my final layout. I ran the perimeter of a 10x16 room at 40" high, bent dog-bone with the JATS right in the middle of it. It continues . . .
Enjoy -
 
thanks for the warm welcome everyone! :)

I've been playing around with layout ideas and I'd like your opinions on this one:

2523863400102952493MuhFHH_fs.jpg

http://image60.webshots.com/760/8/63/40/2523863400102952493MuhFHH_fs.jpg

here it is with some rough drawings I did in MS paint to give you an idea of how I envision it. The upper portion of the layout will be a small section of a city or suburb (haven't quite decided yet), and the lower section will consist of the switch yard and industrial buildings. The black diagonal line will be a piece of plywood about 12" high that will serve to divide the layout into 2 distinct locales. It will have buildings and sky painted on the side facing the town, and a rocky surface on the side facing the switch yard. (this will be made out of sculpted foam, same for the whole mountain on the right end of the table) The hill on the left side of the layout is a plaster hill I made a few years back that's about 8" high, so I had to work around it.

2746228820102952493LMfzVv_fs.jpg

http://image60.webshots.com/660/2/28/82/2746228820102952493LMfzVv_fs.jpg

Please be brutally honest with your criticism and suggestions as I want to get this right the first time! I have a hand drawn sketch that looks a lot better than the MS paint pic, so I'll try and scan that and upload it at some point.

Thanks!!

EDIT: For some reason the pics stopped showing up, so click on the links and if it says forbidden just hit GO in your browser to reload and it should work.
 
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It looks pretty good, something that I would definitely consider for myself (I'm still in the upstarting stage too). I especially like the idea of separating it into two different "locales" as you put it.
 
It's a nice looking layout so far. There are few things I'd change. The first is that crossover to get the industrial spur. It serves no purpose since the inside main can be accessed by the crossovers by the yard and serves as one more place your train can derail. :) Since I like street running, I'd have the switch just before the main street and run the track up the main street and over to the industry.

I'd also look at the location of the industry. It seems to have a really long lead for no purpose. If you moved it up and to the left and took out some of that hill, you could start your yard ladder a lot sooner and have more yard capacity. Do a search here for complex ladders to see a way that will also get you more yard capacity in a smaller space. You should also consider adding a crossover track somewhere in about the middle of the yard so your switcher doesn't get trapped when pulling cuts of cars.
 
UP2CSX said:
It's a nice looking layout so far. There are few things I'd change. The first is that crossover to get the industrial spur. It serves no purpose since the inside main can be accessed by the crossovers by the yard and serves as one more place your train can derail. :) Since I like street running, I'd have the switch just before the main street and run the track up the main street and over to the industry.

I'd also look at the location of the industry. It seems to have a really long lead for no purpose. If you moved it up and to the left and took out some of that hill, you could start your yard ladder a lot sooner and have more yard capacity. Do a search here for complex ladders to see a way that will also get you more yard capacity in a smaller space. You should also consider adding a crossover track somewhere in about the middle of the yard so your switcher doesn't get trapped when pulling cuts of cars.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.

My reasoning behind the crossover at the top was so that I would have to travel some distance to get to the industry rather than just going around the corner and being there. This way, an engine would take off from the switch yard, travel around the entire inner main, go around the outer main, and then back into the industry lead.

The hill on the left is something I made out of plaster quite a few years ago and I would rather leave untouched. I like how it looks from the left side of the layout, it makes it look like a country landscape. I don't think I would be able to cut into it without destroying the whole thing anyhow.

I'll do some research on your switch yard suggestions. Thanks for the input :D
 
I see what you're saying but you are creating some operational problems if you're running two trains. Having to cross a mainline just to get to an industrial spur would hold up traffic if you were running two trains. Why not use two switchs so a train on either track could reach the industrial spur? You could still use the longer run when you wanted to but you could then have one train on the outside main runing while the train on the inside main is doing local work.

Even if you don't want to move the hill, how about moving the two mains out to the left some? It looks like you should be able to get an additional 6 to 8 inches with some straight sections and that would gve you a longer run to the yard ladder. Anything you can do to increase the yard size a bit will help since there's not much room for cars there now.
 
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