Yes, another new guy


L

leesheridan

Lakeview Oregon
But my first thread was to solve a problem from happening on the layout I'm planning. The response was great. I'm a retired missile and explosive worker. But then I went back to work raising cattle and hay and that seemed more than I wanted to do so I sold most of the heard. During a visit to see our grand daughter in England (son's in the USAF) we went to the RR museum in York and one of my other hobbies of building street rods and custom cars got sight of the loco's in England's history and I decided to come back to my trains. I started in N scale but the cattle moved that out of mind and now that the cattle are mostly out of the way it's a good fit, trains and cars of the art deco period. I'm 57 but when my dad died a few years ago I got back all the HO stuff I had bought for him. So, it's HO for now. I've turned the 12x25 tack building into mostly trains but I know my horse will appreciate getting a warm bit in her mouth rather than a cold one now that there's heat out there. SP because that's what was behind our house growing up and I still remember some of the hobo's names I met back in the 50's. And I'm one of the reasons the auto industry put sides on their rr cars.
 
Howdy, Mike, and welcome aboard. Any guy that's worked with rockets and explosives is a friend of mine. :) I spent most of my adult life somewhere within hearing distance of an SP horn so they are one my favorite lines too. Sounds like an nice space you have to work with. Once you decide on the kind of track plan you want to do, or even just get ideas, post them in the Layout Design and Building sub-forum. Lots of great guys here, and we can help save you some money and not make the same mistakes we've all made over the years. :D
 
Hi, mike! Explosives expert, I can use your talents......Hey, we have a get together at Jim's after he leaves for vacation and he want's some plants and trees moved if I show upfor the party! Your welcome to attend as my guest if you can make something that goes BOOM and moves the plants and trees with little to no effort!Hehehehehehehehehehehehe....... Once again welcome to the sight!
 
tree party

I would love to be there. You just can't get enough of stuff blowing up. It's just the commute from south central Oregon that would get me. But then it's three and a half hours to a freeway in any direction, and 100 miles to the nearest wally world, and I don't miss the any of it. The only thing now is that anything I want for the layout I have to get via internet. So I was glad to see that the forum has info on buying.
 
UP2CSX said:
Howdy, Mike, and welcome aboard. Any guy that's worked with rockets and explosives is a friend of mine. :) I spent most of my adult life somewhere within hearing distance of an SP horn so they are one my favorite lines too. Sounds like an nice space you have to work with. Once you decide on the kind of track plan you want to do, or even just get ideas, post them in the Layout Design and Building sub-forum. Lots of great guys here, and we can help save you some money and not make the same mistakes we've all made over the years. :D
Click to expand...

Hi Jim
I got help with one area already. But another one I have is that I will have some tunnels that in one case will be about 3-4 foot long, so the only way I'll be able to trust the track integrity will be from the bottom and crawl underneath. I really don't want to cut into the top of the mountains so is there any other way to deal with an explosive incident?
thanks
 
When it come to Mountain Access for track, It's Modelers choice! Just take into account your age and Physical shape! Crawling around under a layout is tough enough and getting older only makes it tougher. I like side access via keeping mountains to the back edge of the layout leaving the back side facing a wall and having a 18" isle to get to the mountain!
 
Hi, Mike, and welcome...if a little late for me to do dat. :D

The way to think about under-mountain access, very seriously, is to plan for no derailments under there. That means flextrack in as few joins as possible and on well planed roadbed that is, itself, well fixed in place.

You would use one sliding joiner at one joint between two lengths of flex, ideally, although even better would be one 3' length for the whole tunnel. But the one or two joins with metal joiners would not be soldered so that the rail ends can accommodate the movement of the bench below them due to changes in humidity and, in some rare extreme cases, in temperature. Humidity in wooden benchwork is what generates about 85% of any measurable change in the track gaps.

Secondly, every rail end must be dressed with a metal file to slightly bevel the top leading surface of the rail head, and the same must be done for the flange face of the rail head. This slight ramp on the two faces practically reduces the odd mishap due to flanges being lifted by sharp cut edges to zero.

Use caulking and nails to fix the hidden track in place. You want to avoid any sinuous deflections over time if possible.

All that aside, there will come a time when you forget that you left some passenger cars in one of the tunnels, maybe a whole train, and you will run another train into the tunnel at speed. Something'll give, and that usually means lateral displacement of at least one item...and probably some damage if you run your trains at unrealistically fast scale speed. If you don't want a screw-off mountain top, your only other two choices are a side panel out of sight, probably behind the visible bench, or a duck under, crane your neck to see what you are looking for, and reach up and feel gingerly for the one or two items that will have to be pulled out and reset on the rails out in the open. The engines, unless you are on a steep grade, will pull the rest out of the tunnel for you once the badly derailed and hooked items are cleared.

One other tip. If your hidden track will be elevated extensively, either off the main framing or well above the floor, the next available "stop" on the trip with gravity, make a fence along the roadbed to corral the train that derials and wants to fall off. It was my solution. I had some left over spline roadbed leaf lengths, and just made some vertical posts along the right of way and screwed one length of the MDF spline to the posts, thus providing a safeguard for my expensive locomotives.

-Crandell
 
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a catch all

Crandell
I like that idea of a sort of catch-all. It could be lined with bubble wrap or foam and then mount it on an angle. I've also ordered my supper flex and regular flex and it should be here any day. After going to the York England museum and seeing the Mallard and the Royal Highlander I had to have them in OO. The Mallard was no problem but the Royal Highlander made by Hornby only put out 1500 units and sold only in the England market. I hunted like crazy and finally found the Highlander, #1480 from England and had never been taken out of the box. I'm getting old enough that I've decided not to leave everything for the kids so I'm going to enjoy running the expensive trains as well as the cheaper ones. And yes I'll have the layout for SP with the Daylight but life's to short not to enjoy it rather than leave it in a box on a shelf or just in a display case. And oh yea, I'm a professional kindling maker. I do custom wood work and carving. I would like to make a wood coach out of real exotic wood. I just have to find a plastic unit that's not assembled so that I can scan it in plastic and then turn around and cut it in some sort of exotic wood. It would be a real jewel running around the track.
 
Mike,
Boy, a three to four foot long tunnel is going to be a problem without a hidden access panel of some type. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, including giant spiders taking up residence inside the tunnel and derailing the trains. If you can do the side access, as suggested by Chris, that would be ideal, but you are going to need some kind of access. Crandell has given you good advice about tunnels and track laying. The only thing I'd do different is add a section of rerailer track just far enough in the tunnel not to be seen, at both ends. That will pick up a piece of dragging equipment and get it back on the track before a major disaster ensues.

Don't listen to Chris when it comes to explosives. He's already dangerous enough when he just uses power tools and huge lawnmowers. I shudder to think of the damage he could do with some C4. :D
 
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