Town and country - automated N-scale layout

[kleiner]

Looking great! Can’t remember if you mentioned this previously but what time period are you modeling?

Unlike my previous layout where I started with a clear objective, this layout is a bit more undecided. The purpose of this layout is to display trains running around automatically to a general non-modeler audience: the kind of people who are barely aware that steam locomotives are different from diesels

The layout will definitely have two distinct scenes:

• One side is going to be mostly forested with some kind of a water body, probably a pond. There will only be a station building of some kind.
• The other side is going to be a modern town scene - only thing is I haven't decided which country

We visited Switzerland a few years ago and even my very non-railfan family enjoyed riding the trains. We spent a few days day in a town called Chur in the eastern edge of Switzerland which is the hub for the Rhätische Bahn meter gauge network. It would be nice to capture the feel of that part of Switzerland

Filisur station:

Street running in Chur (this train is running on the Chur-Arosa line)

 

[kleiner]

Pretty nifty. Japan has always had some cool toy and hobby stuff. I've always wondered why Tomy/Tomica/Plarail has never caught on more here in North America. IMO, their blue plastic snap-together track and battery powered trains are one of the best kids' toy trains, yet aside from a few sets on Amazon, or shipping from overseas, they are nearly impossible to find in the US.

There is a lot of great Japanese N-scale stuff that we don't have easy access to here in the US. I had to buy the Tomytec bus system from a Japan-based seller on eBay.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Unlike my previous layout where I started with a clear objective, this layout is a bit more undecided. The purpose of this layout is to display trains running around automatically to a general non-modeler audience: the kind of people who are barely aware that steam locomotives are different from diesels

The layout will definitely have two distinct scenes:

• One side is going to be mostly forested with some kind of a water body, probably a pond. There will only be a station building of some kind.
• The other side is going to be a modern town scene - only thing is I haven't decided which country

We visited Switzerland a few years ago and even my very non-railfan family enjoyed riding the trains. We spent a few days day in a town called Chur in the eastern edge of Switzerland which is the hub for the Rhätische Bahn meter gauge network. It would be nice to capture the feel of that part of Switzerland

Filisur station:

View attachment 149016

Street running in Chur (this train is running on the Chur-Arosa line)

View attachment 149017

The divided scenes would make the layout standout for sure. I think modeling Switzerland would be really cool!

 

[santafewillie]

Ran beautifully after lying in a box for a couple of ye

Yes! But it's on the wrong side of the road!lol

 

[kleiner]

Yes! But it's on the wrong side of the road!lol

True although this looks like a narrow one-way road! (The Japanese drive on the the left side of the road )

I once rented a car when we visited England. I was a bit nervous initially but after a couple of hours, I had no problem driving on the left side of the road - we drove nearly 1500 miles in a week without an incident. But it took a few days to rewire my brain after we got back!

 

[kleiner]

I have a dilemma. I took an inventory and found that I just barely have enough track for building a code 55 layout. The main thing that is giving me some pause is this: of the four Micro Engineering turnouts I have, one of them is a bit janky from a botched mod I did on it. But there are simply no Micro Engineering turnouts available anymore, even on eBay. I could take a chance and just go ahead but I know from experience that Micro engineering turnouts are fragile so there is no room for error.

Hmm - need to revaluate track choice. Perhaps go with Peco code 55 Unifrog?

 

[JeffH]

I'm a big fan of Pecos turnouts mated up with their electric switch that affixes to the bottom. I chose code 80, though.

 

[kleiner]

I'm a big fan of Pecos turnouts mated up with their electric switch that affixes to the bottom. I chose code 80, though.

I did some more digging and discovered that Micro Engineering is barely alive. In fact, it appears that they are looking for a buyer. The problem is that their tooling is worn out so future production is not looking optimistic.

Regarding Atlas:
Code 55 #7 turnout is not available anywhere
Code 80 #6 turnout has a plastic frog
Code 80 #8 turnout has a metal frog but is just too big for this small layout

So @JeffH is right - Peco is really the only game in town for those interested in N-scale track! I placed an order for some Peco code 55 concrete-tie flex track and four medium radius Unifrog turnouts.

 

[kleiner]

Making progress on the benchwork. I have glued most of the main pieces together and have constructed the legs. I will be using locking hinges to attach the legs so that they can be folded for transporting the layout. My original thought was to use these hinges on Woodlawn but that turned out to be unnecessary.

Workbench looks like a disaster zone

Hinges and the adjustable feet. These feet are the same ones I used in Woodlawn.

 

[Guilford Railman]

Making progress on the benchwork. I have glued most of the main pieces together and have constructed the legs. I will be using locking hinges to attach the legs so that they can be folded for transporting the layout. My original thought was to use these hinges on Woodlawn but that turned out to be unnecessary.

View attachment 149168

Workbench looks like a disaster zone

View attachment 149169

Hinges and the adjustable feet. These feet are the same ones I used in Woodlawn.

View attachment 149170

Looking great so far!

 

[kleiner]

Looking great so far!

Thanks!

 

[kleiner]

Finally attached the first of the folding legs to the benchwork! Note that each leg is actually an L-girder for strength.

Here it is folded down:

And here it is in the vertical position. I know its not vertical but that's the best this hinge can do:

 

[kleiner]

I just folded the leg a few times and the hinge is already not latching properly. And even when it is latched, the hinge is insufficiently rigid.

Looks like I am going to have to rethink this completely. May be simpler to just get a couple of adjustable height sawhorses

 

[Guilford Railman]

I just folded the leg a few times and the hinge is already not latching properly. And even when it is latched, the hinge is insufficiently rigid.

Looks like I am going to have to rethink this completely. May be simpler to just get a couple of adjustable height sawhorses

I agree! Sawhorses might be the way to go.

 

[kleiner]

I found a cheap solution that may work. These table legs from IKEA!

The idea is that I would carry the legs separately and then screw them in for a showing. These legs are really inexpensive , only $7 a piece too. I may head over to my local IKEA to check them out tomorrow.

 

[kleiner]

A big relief - the IKEA legs worked very well. Legs were a bit pricy at $14 apiece but sometimes, the best solution to a problem is to just throw a little money at it. It took all of an hour to install the legs and it looks pretty good now - and, most importantly, the benchwork is stable.

Now, I just need to come up with a fake Swedish name for this benchwork, maybe "Mødell Trënn"

I had to add an extra 1x3 beam pm each side to provide support for the legs.

 

[kleiner]

Taped the foam overlay on the wooden frame. The next step is to sketch out the track lines on the foam so that I can figure out where the turnouts will be installed. That will, in turn, allow me to correctly position the remaining cross beams for supporting the foam between the L-girders.

 

[JeffH]

Good strategy!

This is another reason why I really liked designing the layout using AnyRail (I'm sure other systems can do this too). I printed my layout 1:1 scale, then assembled the paper layout on my table so I could see precisely where key pieces, like turnouts and crossings, bridge connections, etc. needed to be. Then I just used a scribe to "trace" the centerline of the track onto the foam board.

And since those key pieces were the only sectional track I used.. the rest was flex track, so I had plenty of wiggle room just in case I didn't have everything "dead-on" when I traced the centerline. It's a lot easier to have a "fudge factor" with flex track than with sectional!

I really like what you are doing here. Very methodical and well thought out! Bravo!

 

[kleiner]

Good strategy!

This is another reason why I really liked designing the layout using AnyRail (I'm sure other systems can do this too). I printed my layout 1:1 scale, then assembled the paper layout on my table so I could see precisely where key pieces, like turnouts and crossings, bridge connections, etc. needed to be. Then I just used a scribe to "trace" the centerline of the track onto the foam board.

And since those key pieces were the only sectional track I used.. the rest was flex track, so I had plenty of wiggle room just in case I didn't have everything "dead-on" when I traced the centerline. It's a lot easier to have a "fudge factor" with flex track than with sectional!

I really like what you are doing here. Very methodical and well thought out! Bravo!

Thank you for your kind words and I'm glad you like it!

I am a big fan of the 3rd PlanIt rail CAD system myself. I first bought a copy about 20 years ago and have used it for designing all of my layouts. I will admit that 3rd Planit is definitely a very hard program to learn to use but I have grown accustomed to its quirks after all these years. I mostly use only Apple Macs but I keep a cheap PC around solely to run 3rd PlanIt.

I just realize that I haven't posted an updated track plan as yet so I am enclosing it below. Unlike my previous layout, this one is so dead simple so it barely needs a track plan at all. I tried hard to find some way to break the symmetry but decided in the end that the scenery would have to be the main factor to distinguish between the two sides of the layout.

Also, with full computer control, you generally do not want a complicated layout since it gets progressively harder to keep track of trains reliably.

One more advantage of keeping the layout so simple is that I can just manually transfer it on to the foam without using the 1:1 printout method that you mentioned (although I have used that in the past). I am going to use a Fast Tracks jig to bend the Peco flex track precisely to the radius of 10 inches.

 

[santafewillie]

sometimes, the best solution to a problem is to just throw a little money at it.

You're beginning to sound like a politician here!