glohubby05
New Member
Well to start things off, my name is Brandon. I'm 26 years old and live in the High Desert of Southern California. When I was a kid, I always had such a fascination with trains, and it led me and my father, who was equally fascinated, to build a HO layout in the garage. It was never finished past trackwork and a little bit of scenery ( a couple mountains made out of plaster) but I had many, many hours of fun watching the train run through the tunnels and over the bridges.
Fast forward to today, be been bitten by the bug and would like to start a layout again. I'm not entirely surprised that the hobby has gone digital and I'm probably going to go DCC. Another thing I'm going to incorporate in my layout is going to be handlaid track. I want to handlay ALL of the track. I'm okay with taking as long as I need to make it right and look as good as it can. I think I enjoy building more than the operating so I'm really excited about that.
I do have some questions about handlaying track that I need answered. First off, I'm not interested in buying a jig to aid me in the construction of the track. I do think those jigs are fantastic, and they seem to be worth the money but I would rather do it all by hand, or build my own jigs cause I'm a true diy'er at heart. So with all that in mind, does anyone have any advice to give to me about hand laying track? What is the best type of roadbed to use under the ties? Cork? And how accurate does the gauge need to be? Obviously pretty close but just how close? For example if I'm off by a half MM in spots one way or another, will it be detrimental to the operation of the trains? And lastly, where can I find some good how to's for hand laying?
I'm looking forward to learning all of the tricks of the trade from these forums. It sure seems like there are a bunch of great, knowledgable people here.
Thanks!
-Brandon
Fast forward to today, be been bitten by the bug and would like to start a layout again. I'm not entirely surprised that the hobby has gone digital and I'm probably going to go DCC. Another thing I'm going to incorporate in my layout is going to be handlaid track. I want to handlay ALL of the track. I'm okay with taking as long as I need to make it right and look as good as it can. I think I enjoy building more than the operating so I'm really excited about that.
I do have some questions about handlaying track that I need answered. First off, I'm not interested in buying a jig to aid me in the construction of the track. I do think those jigs are fantastic, and they seem to be worth the money but I would rather do it all by hand, or build my own jigs cause I'm a true diy'er at heart. So with all that in mind, does anyone have any advice to give to me about hand laying track? What is the best type of roadbed to use under the ties? Cork? And how accurate does the gauge need to be? Obviously pretty close but just how close? For example if I'm off by a half MM in spots one way or another, will it be detrimental to the operation of the trains? And lastly, where can I find some good how to's for hand laying?
I'm looking forward to learning all of the tricks of the trade from these forums. It sure seems like there are a bunch of great, knowledgable people here.
Thanks!
-Brandon