From Design to Working Track #1

We finally have two Cab Controlled working loops which have adhered to the guideline 'using what we already have' - and used a score of other parts we didn't.

For a beginner, I can only say the journey from design to track laying has been as much of a learning curve as creating the baseboard and design was.

Turns out, translating the design on to the baseboard is yet another, different, skill, requiring a great deal of patience and planning, and limited by some immoveable - seemingly obvious - practical constraints. For instance:

• fixed curves take up a fixed space
• a double track crossover ties those two tracks together and influences the spacing of everything attached to it - like a double loop
• placement of turnouts, especially when powered, is dependent on the construction of the baseboard
• available cash

As obvious as these constraints were, most of them weren't obvious to me as a beginner until I took to the board with track and track pins in hand.

Phases and Stages

Naively, in retrospect, I had laid out several phases to complete the Norfolk Southern loops and yards, and Sandersville itself. My 'slice of fried gold' went like this:

• Phase 1: lay the double loops with crossovers, the Tennille/Sandersville interchange yard, and the RailInc. passing sidings/yard
• Phase 2: lay Sandersville
• Phase 3: have a cuppa
• Phase 4: play with trains

Reality, it seems, is a harsh mistress.

I looked at what we had:

• some left over flexitrack 
• the E-Z track curves for the loops
• some 3 amp wire
• one SL - 395 medium turnout

I looked at the plan and realised, just to get the two outside loops going we still needed:

• trackbed
• six more turnouts
• more flexitrack
• track pins
• rail joiners (insulated and standard)
• a new soldering iron
• switches for Cab Control
• track cutters
• incline starters and risers
• some 3mm MDF for the raised section and to help raise the flexitrack to the level of the E-Z track (which stands about 5mm above the baseboard)

Reality rained down.

It soon occurred to me that I would have to stage the phases.

There are hundreds of dollars to commit in each phase and even this plan hid the practical aspects of model railroading.

Laying Tennille Norfolk Southern Main and A/D Track - Or Phase One, Stage One

Primarily, because of the investment needed in just getting the loops going, I decided to do the 'front part' of the loop and make the investment in the Tennille - Sandersville interchange, main line and A/D track.  So the phase was further broken down into stages:

• Stage 1: lay the front part and temporary track for two loops
• Stage 2: install powered turnouts for the crossovers
• Stage 3: lay the curve inclines and track and raise the back, laying temporary track
• Stage 4: lay the RailInc. yard
• Stage 5: lay the Tennille-Sandersville interchange yard

I realise this means having to re-lay the crossovers once the motors are purchased, but with the curves only 'pinned' in place, I can dismantle them to provide easy access to the crossovers at each end.

Finished 'ends' of the NS Tennille-Sandersville interchange, main and A/D track

To Twistlock or Not to Twistlock

Over a short period, I purchased the required kit and also decided that the crossovers would be powered, controlled by one switch each, so as to avoid crossover catastrophes - both turnouts would fire at the same time ensuring a through path would always be available.

I looked around at turnout motors, which all seemed like a lot of work, and then randomly found the Peco PL-1000 Twistlock Turnout Motor. Before purchasing, I Youtubed installing the twistlock because, frankly, it seemed too good to be true.

I watched the sales video from Peco and then watched the bloke from Aber Halt Junction actually installing the motor and decided it was a go.

I approached the baseboard with something like trepidation, prepared to lay track, so much planning had all lead to this point in time and... realised two of the Twistlocks would be over baseboard supports...

This threw me for a few days as I mocked and re-mocked up the curves and turnouts.

Technically, the plan hadn't changed, but its placement on the board had, because of the placement needed to fit the turnout motors.

I decided that I would need to install at least one Twistlock before laying the straights, to get everything in a position where it would work - this included thinking about the RailInc. (rear) yard turnouts and the space needed for them, which had been shunted sideways along with everything else attached to the loops. 

Fortunately, the local train shop guy at Iron Horse Hobbies instilled me with some regained confidence when he said that he'd used the PL-1000, that it was as easy as the Aber Halt Junction video and that he wouldn't be using anything else for turnout motors from now on.

I got home and approached the baseboard with even greater trepidation - had I got it right this time?

I laid the MDF and trackbed, waited for it to dry, positioned and repositioned the Twistlock motor template, then repositioned it again, raised the drill and...

...it was a really simple, easy, installation. A very good product that even a complete beginner like me can install - and I mounted it 'to the left' (reversing the template) to save space as the instructions offer. 

Peco PL-1000, Twistlock in place - seriously, if I can do it, anyone can

With the initial placement of the loop finalised I set about laying track - finally.

Transitioning to/from E-Z Track

Having played around with test tracks and having polled the forums, I realised the Bachmann E-Z track sits quite high above the baseboard - approx. 5 - 6 mm. I needed to come up with a way of transitioning into flexitrack and peco turnouts from E-Z track.

At first I was just going to slice the connectors off the E-Z and use 1mm - 2mm shims to gently transition to the 3mm Woodland Scenics trackbed, as the forum guys seemed to indicate was the thing to do. But I decided that in the future, I may want to sell the E-Z track and slicing off the connectors would make it worthless.

I also had to take into account one of the guidelines for the layout, it had to be taken down and stored on its side in the garage. I decided that I'd make little dioramas using 3mm MDF as a base, that could be taken off the layout for storage. Track and 'flat terrain' (like grass) would stay in place but things like structures will be removed. As such, the non-E-Z track could be raised up without looking weird (because the surroundings would be raised about 3mm and the track would sit at about 6mm) and without slicing into the E-Z track.

So I went for forming the track bed around the connectors and some amateur attempts with a chisel have done the job. 

First I drew around the connectors to form a template, taped the paper template down on the MDF (aka trackbed base), and chiseled away the unwanted MDF.

The transitions have worked well, although the MDF was variable in its thickness it turns out- one end was 4mm.

Now I can shape the bed once other yard track is in place and ready to be ballasted.

Mocking Up and Short Straights

I'm not sure how many times I mocked up the crossovers and turnout areas, but its really paid off. The final configuration of turnouts and short straight 'fillers' from Atlas 2509 Snap track Assortment, while it adheres to the planned design, is different to the plan and takes into account the many physical constraints encountered above.

I highly recommend beginners have a couple of sets of short straights at hand at all times for those situations where you go 'oh dear, that's not going to fit'.

In my case this was having to shorten the side straights in the fixed curves using 1.125'' rather than 2.25'' sections, included in Bachmann Assorted Straight Short Sections (N Scale) 44829, because the 'Twistlock incident'.

After that, I realised that fixed parallel curves act in a certain way and that, using the Peco N 6 foot gauge as a minimum, I could in fact make the straights in the inside curves slightly longer than the outside without risking rolling stock and locos of passing trains, side swiping each other on the curves.

I also admit to caving in to the amateur 'cram as much track into the loops as feasibly possible' trick, but mocking up and short straights have made this possible.

Carving Up Your Precious Track - Using Peco Streamline Turnouts

During mocking up, I also realised that working with Peco Streamline turnouts means having to carve up track to make it fit.

For experienced railroaders I guess its nothing new, but to a beginner, I nearly had a heart attack when I realised I had to cut into the plastic ties!

But polling the forums via Mr Google confirmed that it is indeed what's needed. You have to slice away ties to make track fit around Streamline turnouts. Followed by even better advice, if at all possible, do not slice into the ties on the turnouts (for fear of the TOs going out of gauge), use straight sections of track and slice into them.

The red circles show where the trims were made on the straight (blue) track and I avoided trimming back past the little false-nails-clippy-thingies that hold the track in gauge, so that the track held in gauge.

Electrics

I am the destroyer of soldering irons.

About twenty years ago, to clean my soldering iron, I filed the tip and kept on using it. The resulting bright orange glow that developed from the tip and the iron was alarming.

More recently I totalled the tip on my new iron by wiping it on a sponge, without first wetting the sponge. Its totalled. Blackened, pitted, an ex-tip.

I suck at soldering. I think I did two reasonable solders before killing the tip... its gone, its shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible.

But, and some would say its a big one, I persevered and soldered up all loop blocks without melting the ties or forcing the track out of gauge, or burning the house down.

Common rail wiring bus

Earlier in the the game I had added a new guideline to the list of guidelines for the railroad, minimal soldering and simple electronics. 

Following the 'using what I had' guideline entailed using the two analogue controllers.

I'd decided on Cab Control and isolated sections during design, then adding the new guideline, I decided on Common Rail wiring and Atlas #215 Selectors to reduce the amount of wiring and soldering or "Keep it Simple Stupid".

Atlas Selectors made it quick and easy to get Cab Control going - have yet to purchase clips to tidy the wiring

Using KISS as a guideline, I connected up the common wires to a common rail bus, connected some to the track and connected the 'powered' wires for each block, turned everything on, flicked some switches and hey presto, dual cab, block control.  

Trains seemed to lose juice on one section but that was as easy to fix as adding a wire to the common rail bus and the section, and hey presto again, juice fixed.

Tripping the Double Loop Fantastic

Although we are a long way off from 'permanently' finishing the Norfolk Southern portion of the railroad with anything like prototype operations, and although its been twenty years since I first dreamed of running two locos on the same track, we now have two operational loops.

But its been worth it. When my step-son saw two trains going around the loops, there was a genuine 'this is so cool!', followed the next day, when he got home from school and asked "Can I play with the trains?"

You know what little buddy, yes, you can finally play with the trains.

Job done.

Baseboard and Layout Design

Testing inclines before purchasing and laying terrain and track

Baseboard

The final design for the baseboard took the guidelines outlined in the previous post and was ultimately constrained by the great leveler for all model railroads, available space.

I got the final length and depth by measuring how intrusive the layout would be in the room it was going in. I did some rough estimates for the operating 'hole' using chairs, my wife and step-son - much to his enjoyment. A quick check of an N scale layout at the local club confirmed how many N gauge tracks could be reasonably laid side by side on 30cms/12'' of board.

I did some research regarding layout building, including Mr Google and The abc's of Model Railroading by Model Railroader (1989!! but basics still hold true), and settled on 9mm ply for the board and roughly 2x4 for the frame (I live in a metric country so the framing was actually 4.5cm x 9cm).

Patience was a virtue of the summer as my wife had had a car accident back in November and we were still waiting for a vehicle that could tow a trailer and haul the timber. But we borrowed a SUV and trailer for something else and lets just say, I optimised the opportunity.

We double checked the plan, cut and laid out the timber to check, cut wiring holes around the framing, and got building. My wife was awesome and pretty much got down to building with me after she'd read the plan and understood what we were up to. This thing was definitely a two-person job!

Rigidity was my only concern and I've perhaps overengineered the frame, but it seems to have come out solid. The legs take the whole thing a few millimeters over the NMRA standard module height which is more than enough to duck under to get to the operating area.

Layout Design - The Tennille/Sandersville Interchange

Let's just first say there have been many, many iterations on a theme. 

The last time I tried a layout there pretty much was no internet. So I had a 'brain moment' and went looking for Sandersville RR on Google Maps. I found it, and my step-son and I spent hours travelling over Sandersville RR and NS RR at Tennille in satellite mode. The first decision was what to do first and we settled on getting the double curves operating for 8-year-old fun and the Tennille yards for a bit of switching action.

Prototype

Turns out there are two yards, more or less, near Tennille, the Sandersville interchange and a huge yard for Rail Car Services (I've shortened to Rail Inc.) and their rolling stock servicing industry. I also noted that as the main line nears Tennille, it splits to double track before entering either yard.

As an aside, there is also an operational wye at the interchange (which heads to Wrightsville), which I thought was cool.

Sandersville Interchange - Google Maps

 

Yard near Rail Car Services - Google Maps

To the South ('right') of the interchange lies the NS Dillard yard at Savannah, to the North ('left') of the RailInc. yard lies the NS Brosnan yard in Macon. (Images above have been rotated to fit on the page).

Design

I started designing using the trusted old gridded paper and pencil, but downloaded SCARM for free and started playing with that. I didn't like it at first but once I accepted how it worked, used it to design two yards on the layout straights between the curves.

Now flextrack and I don't really like each other and the review session on easements I did via Youtube left me, my wife, and step-son in complete stunned silence. Having had issues with my very first layout, I decided I wanted larger than minimum, fixed curves, so that I didn't have to use flexitrack and 6-axle diesels and longer rolling stock, could operate without easements.

I'd been given a handsome voucher for our local model shop and they really only stocked Bachmann E-Z Track. I did a first run of the layout in SCARM using it completely but then read about the variable quality of their turnouts (no spring/device to hold the points in place once switched).

So I bought a 17.5'' and 19'' set of E-Z-track curves and straights for the ends of the layout. I know its not 'cool' for model railroading using E-Z track and that I should be hand-laying the entire layout, but I am a beginner and everything in my modest fleet of locos and cars takes the corners, and entries/exits to/from them.

Subsequent designs used Peco Streamline for the points and felxitrack for the straights.

In the end I kind of merged the two prototype yards together to create the Sandersville interchange and decided on having two passing tracks on the other straight, RailInc., section, to give four tracks creating a 'visible staging yard' and resting place for complete trains.

But, and some would say its a big one, there was a niggling in the back of my mind - I didn't know how yards really operated. I decided to Google yard design and was very glad I did.

I found an article called the "ten commandments" of yard design and learnt what an A/D track was, and about ladders, leads, and classification tracks. Suffice to say my interchange yard completely changed again. 

Turns out, I had fouled the main, the leads, the ladder and the A/D track, all in one design. I re-did the design and even then, after watching a yard operations/design video on YouTube, found I had still fouled one of the leads. The video was really good at providing a visual for the theory and Ron explains his North Yard in easily understood language.

Norfolk Southern - Sandersville interchange at Tennille - 'finished' design

I'm pretty sure I've nailed a decent operating yard now with the finished design above (comments welcome if I haven't). SCARM was good in the end as it allowed me to make mistakes on the screen rather than when laying and I've used it to design the final intentions rather than an exact replica - using it as a guide and list of track parts.

I'm also pretty sure, having mocked up some turnouts on the baseboard, I'll be able to squeeze another classification yard in as the runaround is 1.6m long at present (long enough for a number of cars) and using Peco streamline means there's plenty of width left on the 30cm wide sections - sacrificing 'finger room' between tracks in the yard.

I've subsequently bought some of the assorted short track segments from Atlas and Bachmann as I've already had one of 'those' moments test laying the track; the streamline Peco turnouts are indeed streamlined and need some short straights in and around the crossovers!

I then thought about the electrics and because a guideline of the railroad is to use what I already had, including the old DC controllers, I went for Cab Control and followed the guidelines in The abc's of Model Railroading.

About an hour and 15 coloured pencils later, I'd produced a reasonable block diagram.

Here comments are also definitely welcome as that interchange point on the lower right (part of yellow block) still has me questioning where the block should end - i.e. should it be part of the ladder, curve/lead, or A/D track as it is in the diagram?

The RailInc., five track beast of a yard at the top is actually too wide to get Sandersville on the straight section (which will meander around the rear of the layout), so it will be superseded. But it gives an idea of the RailInc. yard and using SCARM to play around has prevented me buying stuff I can't feasibly use.

But as beginners do, the fun did not stop there.

I realised that the 'RailInc.' yard at the back would be right next to my intended, meandering Sandersville RR. I decided raising the main and yard at the back would separate it and provide a sense of place; separating the NS RR from the Sandersville RR (it would also allow for an escape route out of the loop for SAN - as I've effectively trapped the short line in the main line loops).

I stuck a 4% incline on each curve in the design and went looking for Woodland Scenics inclines and risers.

The advice from my local train shop was an emphatic 'DON'T'. N scale and 4% don't go together very well, in fact they advised me to leave the inclines out all together unless a 2% incline was used and all locos were tested first.

This would be a problem as I really wanted to separate the NS 'RialInc.' yard from SAN. The only thing for it was to test the incline. So I got some 3mm MDF and some 1" dowling and bashed together a horrendous test track with bluetac and tape!!!

But I'm glad I did, as nothing would make it up the 4% rise we started the testing session with. However, everything nailed the 2% with flying colours.

The rolling stock has all been weighted as per NMRA standards and all locos pulled 12 cars up 2% without a problem. Double-heading the Dash 8 40Cs, we got up to 15 cars without a problem and then ran out of space - with still plenty of juice to go.

Then we tried a scale speed of about 20mph, just crawling up the incline and still got to the top.

I have very old locos and even this 25+-year-old loco made the grade (so to speak), the LifeLike, GP38-2 pulled better than anything else, but I am so glad I tested everything. I would hate to feel the disappointment I felt at testing the 4% rise, after actually laying the track.

Given the 2% rises will be on a curve, that's pretty much a 3% rise and so I'm happy all locos did 12 cars on a 2% (that, lets face it, had some 'drooping' portions more akin to 4-5%), as average train length will only be 10 - 12 in any case, a little more when double-heading.

The trials and tribulations of just designing a layout have been a journey in themselves. To get to this stage I've had to learn about the following:

• researching the prototype (real) railroad
• yard design
• layout design and length of trains and cars 
• curves and easements
• minimum curves for US 6-axle and 4-axle locos
• different track types
• building a baseboard
• weighting rolling stock so they roll properly
• scale speed
• grades and model RR inclines
• DC Cab Control , block design and common rail wiring

But the track I've been waiting on has arrived and the turnouts for the main line/A-D track are ready to go.

Guess there's nothing left but to start laying some track!

Another problem to overcome at some stage, is wondering dinosaurs. Got up one morning to find this beast had escaped from his pen and mauled a coal train... thing is, my step-son was away at the time, so this was my wife's sense of humour!

In the Beginning

Image: City of Sandersville, https://www.sandersvillega.org/sandersville-railroad.cfm

Back in the early 90's I tried my first model railroad, an HO scale Southern Pacific. It was going to be a loop with a switch industry in the middle. I bashed a small baseboard together, put a small radius loop on it, bought some kind of double track, 4-way, super crossover, and wondered why the 6-axle diesel wouldn't take the turns.

I was young and impatient, the kit was sold.

In the 1995 July edition of Railroad Model Craftsman, there was an article called Modelling the Sandersville Railroad. Inspired, I decided my mistake was HO scale and I promptly went and brought a 6-axle Norfolk Southern Dash 8, a GP38-2, a 9 3/4' complete curve, flextrack, and built two small baseboards. Amazingly the Dash 8 loco could make the turn, but I moved around a lot so the baseboards were used for storing wargames figures.

I was still young and impatient, in 2000 the kit went into a box and there it stayed... until now.

Trying to think of something to do with our 8-year-old over the summer holidays, while mum was working, I naively decided to break open the box and have another go. The goal was to get two double loops going using DC and Cab Control before school started. 

School started yesterday and though the baseboard is finished, no track has been laid, although another Dash 8 showed up at Xmas which was awesome.

I entirely underestimated the whole process - because I am now old and impatient.

But I must have mellowed somewhat because this time, the kit is not going back in the box.

Pre-Planning - What the Layout Needed to Do

The first thing to do was to check what still worked, so we got a wargames board and put a test track down.

Amazingly the two cheapo controllers still controlled and both locos still went choof-choof around the loop. Success! I went and bought a compass, some gridded paper and got down to planning a proper layout.

The first design was pretty much what you'd expect. Classic 4x8 (or 1.2m by 2.4m for metric fans), double loop. I showed my wife and she said, for the record, "That isn't going to be very exciting and isn't it meant to have a hole in the middle where you sit?"

Yes, my wonderful wife basically said "make your layout bigger", so I did. And as things progressed, it really got me thinking about what we needed the layout to do. So here are the practical, kinda prototypical guidelines I came up with. The railroad needed:

• to cater for an 8-year-old ability which would grow over time
• to cater for my 50-year-old ability and impatient need to build the entire railroad
• the Sandersville main line interchange with Norfolk Southern at Tennille
• a bit of NS main line/continuous running
• a representation of the Sandersville short line and industries
• to use what we already had
• the whole thing had to be able to be taken down and stored in the garage(!!!)
• minimal soldering and simple electronics (added post-design after reading about model RR electronics)

Using the guidelines, various iterations have resulted in an 11'x5'(ish) or 3.6m x 1.6m with an operating hole in the middle, two outer loops and space for Sandersville RR to meander around the middle. This resulted in most of the track and all of the turnouts being within arms reach.

I also decided on the layout having two modes. Quasi-Prototypical mode for grown ups to play trains and Toy-mode for 8-year-old awesomeness.

In Toy-Mode, the loops will function as 'continuous running' fun. In Proto-Mode, the inner loop will serve as the Arrivals/Departure track and leads for the Tennille yards. There has been multiple iterations of a design which I'll cover in a later blog.

So there you go, after twenty years and two months, the baseboard is built, the layout design is finalised (mostly), and I'm waiting on international shipping to deliver some track; Sandersville here we come!