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Hi all. Every year at my school, I put up a (HO)display around the Christmas tree. I have had some problems with keeping the track together. My track was a combination of Bachmann EZ, Atlas rigid track, and some flex track nailed onto some boards I had laying around. The parts made of Atlas track wanted to come apart considering I had no way of anchoring the track to the table (metal tables). This year, I have switched schools, so I mostly likely get the floor this year instead. I need a new system so my track stays nice and together.
Requirements
The track stay together if it gets bumped and when trains pass over it.
The curves be wide enough radius to support a Norther class steamer
Cheap (when your still in school, your budget is always small)
switching capabilities
I am not using all EZ track just because the only radius I know of is 18 in, which is too small for the engines I want to run. I will be using DCC in the hopes of setting up a audience interactive display. Any suggestions on a system are appreciated.
Why not mount the track (any kind) to a piece (or two pieces) of plywood or even foamboard? It could be reused each year and is realtively portable.
Actually, E-Z track comes in up to 36" radius now....but it's not cheap. Are you asking abut setting up an oval to run around the bottom of the tree or a layout with switches and different routes? I'd go for a simple oval and forget switching, That's way too complicated for a temporary display on the floor. Get some 2" extruded foam board and cut an oval with as a big a curves as your need and cut out the middle so it looks like a doughnut. Cut it so it looks like a doughnut sliced in half. Use flex track and make sure you have joints at the two cuts. Secure the flex track with cheap latex caulk. It will be nice and rigid. Come up with a Christmas theme, maybe a little villiage, and cover it with something like hydrocal for snow. Whatever you do, it needs to be easy to build, reliable, cheap, and something that will grab people's attention.
As for any interactive DCC control, unless high schools have changed a lot, I'd san that idea. You're liable to find your train headed at about 100 scale mph down the hallway.
As for any interactive DCC control, unless high schools have changed a lot, I'd san that idea. You're liable to find your train headed at about 100 scale mph down the hallway.
That is exactly why I use DCC. I can set a speed limit for each throttle on my Digitrax system. I can also set a maximum voltage on the locomotive, so it can not take off without my permission. I thought about doing an oval on styrofoam, but it limits me. My new school is college, so I don't have a lot of storage space. Also, the track plan changes from year to year as space changes, so I need something that can be reshaped easily (various other uses for my current track some up throughout the year where I get to show off my toys, so I have to be able to change track plans for those moments also). I was thinking of getting some 1/8" plywood and gluing flex-track to it to make it rigid. I am at a loss as to how to fasten the pieces of plywood together, though.
Gomez Addams
Staff member
Kato 3-102
The set above is between $50-$65. It includes several straights, and enough 22" radius curves to make an oval. I'm currently using this set on the floor in our living room, until I can get an HO layout of some kind going.
I put it down almost every weekend, and put it back in the box Sunday evening.
Unfortunately 2" radius is not big enough. I have 22" on my layout and had to stop running 2 of my Northerns when their axles broke. I have a 2rd that has been put on permenant display because of this. I would like to take it off the shelf and run it again. It is a nice loco. I don't know for sure it was my curves that caused this problem because specs say 19" and up are suitable, but I would feel a lot better with 24-26" radii instead.
Foam board framed with plywood is about as rigid and light as you can get. Laying tracks with latex caulk is easy and it's just as easy to get up. Just spray it down with some water, wait for 15 minutes, and then lift it up with a putty knife. The foam is also thick enough to give you some below grade scenery like creeks and lakes. As I said, foam is easy to cut with a utility knife and you can cut it into as many pieces as you have storage space for. All you have to do is have tracks meet at the joints and either use rail joiners or wires from each track soldered to miniature connectors to get the power across the joints. The foam framed by plywood is heavy enough and rigid enough to stay in place and rearranging track is a lot easier with foam than pulling it up from plywood.
You could try caulking track to Masonite.
Disclaimer - I've never done a floor layout in anything but 3-rail O27 so I have no idea how well it would work or how noisy it might be.
Masonite is probably not the best material. It's heavy, not longitudinally strong, and swells up if it gets wet. If it has to be wood, I'd still go with plywood.
We have a Christmas tree layout that is made of 1x3's(for the frame) and 48"x48"x1/4" plywood . I used regular Code 100, cork road bed, and ballast. The frame keeps the plywood from warping and provides a frame to help support the tree. The tree stand is also permanently mounted to the layout and 'scaped to look like a mountain.
The village layout is Bachmann EZ track, but that is a completely different scenario.
Bob
I don't have space to store a nice, solid-mounted layout. I don't even know what the space I will be setting up in looks like yet. I may have a nice corner to put trains in, or I may be in the middle of a hallway where the layout must be oblong to fit. I need something that is easier to rearrange. I really do like the idea of a layout with a tree stand mounted on it, but it just won't work in my case.
Use a piano hinge to fold it up. Hold the rails back 3" on each side( a 6" splice over the breaking point), no doubt in my mind it will work. I sees I gots'ta learn ya to think outsides da box here.
Bob
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