Looks like a nice space so the hard work payed off. Time to get crackin. Did you have as hard a time screwing something into that brand new drywall as I did? Bout killed me lol
Thanks, that was the hardest part!
Not to the new bit yet, having no trouble with the old stuff other than no second stud on the bottom! Put blocks in the 'new' wall but on the old one we have to use the vertical studs. The bit we have done is SOLID!
Used this as an excuse to ditch the old Ryobi and get some new DeWalt action! Plus we are FANATIC about pilot holes! 1x4's like to crack!
The angled supports are the "Bee's Knees" for this type of benchwork.
If at all possible, if you do make switch panels for turnouts or whatever, make them so they swing away and don't stick out. You can get friction stays that allow them to hold up while you use them and then push down out of the way. The ones at my clubs that are fixed, sticking out, I'm always knocking my hand or hip on when concentrating on my train.
NG - Looking good. Glad you started the post. Wish you had seen this post I made a long time ago for wall mounting. A bit cheaper than lumber and incredibly strong. Maybe for another part of the layout. It also gives you a little more space under the layout. My layout for the most part is along the wall. I have had a guy well over 250 pounds put his full weight on the layout and it didn't budge. The supports are half inch rigid conduit. Learned this trick from an old cabinetmaker.
View attachment 52649 Here you can also see the 1x4 supports for the open grid, cookie cutter method. I did use plywood, mainly for its strength and stability to temperatures for flat areas such as towns and yards, and then cut sub roadbed pieces from sheets of plywood. Used a lot less plywood this way. It's easy to make changes in elevation this way, and access to wiring and such under the layout is a lot easier also. You can see some hydrocal dripping down on th efirst support from scenery above.
Keep the posts coming. Heard a lot of talk, but now I'm seeing some action. Well done.
NG - Looking good. Glad you started the post. Wish you had seen this post I made a long time ago for wall mounting. A bit cheaper than lumber and incredibly strong. Maybe for another part of the layout. It also gives you a little more space under the layout. My layout for the most part is along the wall. I have had a guy well over 250 pounds put his full weight on the layout and it didn't budge. The supports are half inch rigid conduit. Learned this trick from an old cabinetmaker.
View attachment 52649 Here you can also see the 1x4 supports for the open grid, cookie cutter method. I did use plywood, mainly for its strength and stability to temperatures for flat areas such as towns and yards, and then cut sub roadbed pieces from sheets of plywood. Used a lot less plywood this way. It's easy to make changes in elevation this way, and access to wiring and such under the layout is a lot easier also. You can see some hydrocal dripping down on th efirst support from scenery above.
Keep the posts coming. Heard a lot of talk, but now I'm seeing some action. Well done.
NG - What you have to come up with now is a PLAN. What type of layout do you want. Do you want to have long trains run continuously around the layout, a switching layout, of a bit of both. I don't have any idea of what the total space you have available. Try to make your curves as broad as possible being that you apparently have some of the newer diesels. They would look a bit goofy on a 15 inch radius.
While I was building my benchwork I was working on a plan of what I wanted to do. Growing up in the 50's and having spent a lot of time riding in the cabs of different locomotives, I decided to go with the transition era. This did limit me somewhat to the types of locomotives I could run, but was exactly what I wanted. I am set in the late summer of 1957.
You don't have to constrict yourself like I did, but apparently you will be in the modern era. Choose a location. Apparently Michigan is your choice. What industries are in the area you are going to model, if you are going to model a particular area.
A good plan will probably help make things easier for you in the long run and help keep your interest in the layout. Look at some of the forum members layouts. Curt, Garry, Ken with the D&J and David for instance. They have a theme set in an area that they have interest in. A little research into the area you're interested in will be a big help.
A track plan. You can scratch it out on the back of a napkin or use a program such as Scarm. I personally never had a plan drawn because I knew ahead of time that my layout was going to ba a point to point and I wanted to have plenty of room for industries to switch and wanted to have towns to detail. I only wanted to have the track go through any scene only one time. Not a problem. From the way you have been talking, you want to have trains running continuously.
Try to maximize the length of your run if you can. Do you want to have engine servicing facilities? What industries do you want to have. Planning ahead you can have room for these and other features you may want to have. I screwed up and had to tear out a bunch of track because some of the buildings wouldn't fit into my existing track work. Have any structures you may want partially built ot at least have the footprint of the structure available so you can adjust the track work ahead of time.
A decent plan can save you both time and money. I consider myself lucky because my plan worked out for the most part and the layout does just what I planned it to be.
That's what I did was more or less free forming as I went, but I did have a good idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I would suggest staying away from sectional track and use flex track. This way you won't be licked into a set radius. Flex track can be reused if need be or moved. With the dimensions you just posted, you could end up with a fairly long main line run. If possible, you could widen the end of the table just at the end and increase the minimum radius. That's what I did here. I ran it out to 68 inches to allow me to keep a 32 inch minimum radius.
Large modern diesels will looks so much better on a large radius, and your big boy will also look a lot better. It's your layout so you don't have to set a particular time period. You can do anything you want. I chose my time period and location because this is what I was familiar with. The locomotives that would have been running in that period as well as the industries that would or could have been in operation at that time. Although I am freelancing, I chose to start as close to prototype as possible. I do have locomotives from the Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific which I connect to and made sure that they were spot on for the period.
Again, you can do anything you want. A lot of people prefer to have power from numerous railroads on their layout. It's their choice. You have a blank slate to work with. You can also consider having hidden staging tracks that you can park long trains on when they're not in use. I keep a few inbound trains hidden to bring "on stage" to deliver to industries along the layout and then send outbound trains there, which will turn into inbounds.
I would hate to see you just throw track down just to get trains running without some sort of planning. This could get expensive some time down the road.