Layout Underway At Last


Everything looks great. Sorry to hear about your mother but getting back to working on your layout will help take the stress off of all of Life's pressures. Glad to see the progress you've made..........it gives me something to aim for. Please keep us posted as you continue your build.
 
Sorry to hear about your Mom, wow 96!
Just wondering what grade/radius/ your helix is? Also the thickness of the material?
Very nice work so far, looks professional!
 
The basic parts of the helix (sub-roadbed and supports) came from Ashlin Designs. (http://www.ashlintrains.com)

I added some elements to insure good alignment between the segments of the sub-roadbed.

I wanted the helix as a whole to have a little "give" in case some of the wooden elements wanted to expand/contract. The vertical supports (made from 1x2s) are not glued/screwed to anything but rather are held in position (or will be) by little wooden "brackets" (you can see them in the picture) at the tops and bottoms. The result keeps the vertical supports within about 1/16" of the "correct" location but allows that little bit of "give".

The sub-roadbed (1/4" MDF) is NOT glued into the slots in the vertical supports.

I also installing "guard rails" made from "plexiglas" strips (1-1/2" high by .080" thick). The outer pieces are hot glued in place, the inner ones are held with #6 machine screws/nuts (I wanted to retain access to the track). I thought about making these strips my self but decided that was just too much work. There are online firms that have a wide variety of plastic materials, that will cut the pieces you need. I used ePlastics.com (http://www.eplastics.com).

The track radius is 30". The rise is 4" per turn. The resulting grade is about 2.1%. I should have gone with a bit less.

I took my time assembling it all. I am quite pleased with the result. The track work is very smooth, the grade is even and a few test trains I ran suggest that all is well.
 
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Well finally finished laying the track in all areas except over the helix. That comes next.

I was looking over all of the work and as you might expect came across a few places that I am going to rework.

For instance, I cut gaps into some curved track (30" radius) hoping the curve would hold - it didn't. At the gaps the track straightened out. So that is going to be reworked.

I also decided that the initial blocking scheme was not quite right. So some gaps are going to be moved around.

I installed some temporary wiring so I could run so locos in certain areas to confirm that the track work was satisfactory.

On the rear slope up to the upper level there was a section near the curve in the back corner that caused me fits. As you come out of the curve, heading down, there is a crossover. I redid that area several times, adjusting the slope, etc until I was happy with the results. I was very glad to have the finished. I was beginning to think I would never get it right.

More work to do so I best get back to it.
 
Now that most of the track is down I am nearing the wiring phase.

To make the work less difficult I put together the creeper shown here.

I purchased an adjustable unit from Amazon that looked like a good starting point.

I took the casters off of it and attached it to the "creeper support unit" to get me up to a comfortable level.

Just FYI the vertical piece running the length of the unit is centered, giving me open areas on both sides where I can stash stuff I will be needing while working. Some refinement is planned to place tools, etc close at hand.

Some preliminary wiring has shown that it is going to make life a little easier.
 
Your layout looks great!!!!


Just a maybe stupid question, why put down the foam under everything?

thanks, lasm
 
1st: So Sorry to read about your Mom. 2nd: your layout looks GREAT! Really looking forward to watching it grow!!
 
logandsawman said:
Your layout looks great!!!!


Just a maybe stupid question, why put down the foam under everything?

thanks, lasm
Click to expand...

Since I am going to have a lower level for staging yards I wasn't going to be able to have much in the way of scenery below the level of the track, the foam just makes it simple to carve out drainage ditches, ponds - that sort of thing.
 
All of the track for the upper level is in place, all blocks are wired with occupancy detectors, all turnouts are powered, all IR detectors are in place.

The engine yard with turntable (which I built as a removable unit) is nearly finished - just a little more wiring to do. It will then be dropped into the hole over the helix, lead tracks installed and wiring completed.

Trains have been run manually and under computer control - all is working well.

One test was running two passengers trains under automatic control. It was great fun to watch them leave the passenger station area, one after the other, run a circuit of the mainline and then back into the passenger station area. The second train arrived while the first was backing in - the computer slowed and stopped the second train and when the tracks were clear the computer started up the second train and began the procedure to back the train into the passenger station area.

The passenger station will be

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2943

with multiple

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-2949
 
Thanks to all for the kind remarks.

I am at work on the engine yard "module". I completed the last of the wiring yesterday and am in the process of programming the turntable and verify that all if working. When I am satisfied then I will hoist the module up and drop it into place in the allocated space and then tie it into the existing engine yard leads.

Looking forward to that.

The next step in wiring is to connect up all of the electromagnetic uncouplers and get them configured in Train Controller.
 
Its not my intent to revive a dead thread, but is there any chance there are pictures floating around of this layout at it's current state? I just read through these 6 pages and am really interested now in how it looks. I'm also very curious about how you're controlling the layout. You say that some software will be used - I want to do the same thing. I am an electronics engineer and have a bunch of experience in programming too. Of course, the dreams are always bigger than reality, which makes me curious what you ended up with.

Even if nothing was done since your last post here, it still looks great! I wish I had the space for this!
 
Hmm...

This is odd - two very old posts that I never saw.

So just in case these folks check in...

The software is TrainController GOLD...

http://www.freiwald.com/pages/traincontroller_gold.htm


I haven't made much progress lately as life keeps getting in the way.

I did get all of the electro-magnetic uncouplers wired up and they are working well.

I had problems with the Cobalt switch machines and replaced them all with Tortoise.

I get the turntable module installed and connected. It worked for a while and them something failed. After testing I fear the part that has failed is going to be near impossible to replace without removing the whole turntable from the module which will be a lot of work. The nature of the turntable is such that all of the stall tracks overlap the rim of the pit and thus you cannot just lift the turntable out.

I haven't tackled this problem yet as I am hoping for some flash of inspiration showing me a better way.

I have the layout to the point were I can reliably run multiple trains under computer control. This has proven quite popular with visitors to see up to 5 trains running at the same time, leaving the yard, returning to the yard, stopping in sidings, etc.

Now that summer is over and the guests have all gone home I will have more time to work on the various projects that are in the queue.
 
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