Hutch's Conway Scenic Railroad Layout

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Happy Easter
I got some foam down this morning. It felt great to be doing it but I ran out of caulk, I may get some when I go out.

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My family was at my house yesterday for Easter get together and my SIL told me he knew an engineer from the CSR I'm modeling. I had told him I needed some passenger cars so he asked his friend if he could get some. The answer was yes but at $100 each, I said absolutely not. $300 is not pocket change for this guy. No, I'll wait and get some kits and do them up myself down the road. They did look nice though, I have no idea who made them.
 
I haven't done a thing on my railroad in 2 weeks due to organization of the room. It's good enough now where I can split my time between trains and tool organization. That said started drawing lines on foam and messing with my scraps of incline foam salvaged from "the estate sale". That's enough of that, I'm going to buy an incline set at the local hobby store on my way home tonight. I'm going to work one end only, 24" radius folded loop and see where it takes me. For the other end, when I get to it, I'm going to try the plywood cookie cutter technique. Anyway, something needs to get started and I hope to post some photos tomorrow morning.

What I really want to do with the cookie cutter thing is just use the 1" foam that I have. I think I can make a T-bar out of the foam with the hot glue gun so there's no sagging. I really hate plywood. I hate hauling it and I hate cutting it. I love foam and it cuts nicely on my bandsaw.

Let's get this railroad going again. I had to dig deep to find my thread.
 
Hutch said:
I'm thinking of nails with a bit of glue on them to stick in the foam for laying the track. That should be easy to pull up if I need to. I'm also considering making my own road bed from some of this foam. Easy enough to run it through my bandsaw to thickness and shape into curves. Yeah, I've already spent my current allotment on some beautiful Diesels from BLI so I'm going DIY as much as possible. And why not, I have the tools.
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Skip the nails and just use the glue. Elmers white glue works well and easy to remove if you need to.
 


Hutch: Just for giggles and grins - consensus from other forums is that 1" foam will hold up a good 75Lbs on 16" centers and will not sag over time. Maybe today or tomorra I am going to test the hold up part. Except I will use my body weight to see what it can do; ima 210Lbs. I suspect that it will bend some so I will go to 12" centers and see what I can see. 12" centers is 2 extra cross braces every 8 feet so no big deal there, and doing grades is easier at 12". Ya, I am that lazy. If you are using flex track the problem you could have is keeping the track down with nails. Glue would be in order. In my case, ima planning on hand laying rail so I need to find out if the ties themselves are enough to hold the track in gauge as ballast will hold it down. Do note that 2" foam will hold 96Lbs per square inch with a good backing - think cement floor over foam for insulation, then over gravel.

Later
 
Hutch said:
I haven't done a thing on my railroad in 2 weeks due to organization of the room. It's good enough now where I can split my time between trains and tool organization. That said started drawing lines on foam and messing with my scraps of incline foam salvaged from "the estate sale". That's enough of that, I'm going to buy an incline set at the local hobby store on my way home tonight. I'm going to work one end only, 24" radius folded loop and see where it takes me. For the other end, when I get to it, I'm going to try the plywood cookie cutter technique. Anyway, something needs to get started and I hope to post some photos tomorrow morning.

What I really want to do with the cookie cutter thing is just use the 1" foam that I have. I think I can make a T-bar out of the foam with the hot glue gun so there's no sagging. I really hate plywood. I hate hauling it and I hate cutting it. I love foam and it cuts nicely on my bandsaw.

Let's get this railroad going again. I had to dig deep to find my thread.
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We are absolute diametrics, I feel about like foam like you feel about plywood.

You can buy plywood in 4 x 4 or even 2' x 2' pieces at many big box hardware stores like Menards. I used something called luann, which is cheap plywood with one good side. It is not super strong but provides something that track can stick to much better. You can stick your cork to it or lay your track directly on it for a somewhat louder roadbed.

I have a cheap jig saw that I use to cut it. I use pieces of 1 x 4 pine boards as a base or strengthener, also use the jig saw to cut that. I cut out the track radius by marking the plywood the width of my right of way using a felt tip marker and yardstick. I find this to work very well.

Glad to hear you are willing to mix some plywood with the foam!

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Dave LASM

I think the above product is from Home Depot.
 
Dave, that will happen at the other end of my railroad and I would buy the 2x4 foot ones for sure.

I stopped at the local hobby shop and they were all out of 2% inclines. He told me he can have them by tomorrow, I said that was fine. I know I can order online but I like to do my part to keep this guy in business. He usually has everything I need except sound decoders, maybe that's changed.
 
Hutch said:
I was just going to add 1" foam right to the edge and then add a hardboard facia like I see on many layouts.

Those holes are from the previous owner of this wood. I not only bought all the tracks and buildings but the wood also from an estate sale. The holes I need will still need to be drilled. Thanks for bringing that up.

I'll definitely be adding cross bracing after it's all built.
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Hutch,
Don't wait too long, or you may regret it. Those "loose" legs are just a misplaced step away from a disaster. Glenn
 
The legs are pretty secure as they are, I can wait.

I hope to get my incline from the hobby store today so I can figure out exactly where the tunnel/crossover will be but I wanted to do something so I pinned some track down. Yay!~!~! I think I'll pick up some foam pins while I'm at the hobby shop.

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glenng6 said:
Hutch,
Don't wait too long, or you may regret it. Those "loose" legs are just a misplaced step away from a disaster. Glenn
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In addition to this, what I should do and what I end up doing, usually don't align. I never got the plastic up on the joists either, even though I know it's a good idea. I really need to see some trains running in the next few weeks or less.
 


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