I decided to make some changes to the track plan. There were two things I wanted to change. The first was to make all the non-crossover turnouts face the same direction. I did this because I will probably add a couple industries to allow me to actually operate this tiny module ala Lance Mindheim style. With no runaround track, I felt I probably needed to have both the outer spurs with the same facing. The second change was to make the curve tracks a sharper radius that puts it more in line with what I will be using on the larger layout. The parallel curved tracks are 36" radius on the inside and 38" radius on the outside, with 2" track spacing. The curves in the first plan were 220" radius! The smaller radius curves will allow me to see what 85' passenger cars look like on more realistic curves and how they perform with 2" track spacing in the curve. In fact, all the track spacings here are 2".
I then printed the track plan on 8 1/2 x 14 legal size paper in landscape mode. The entire track plan fit on 14 sheets of paper. That's still alot, I can't wait to see how many sheets a 13' x 40' layout prints out. I put the sheets down on top of the door and lined them all up with the sighting guides and taped them together as a mockup on the door. I actually didn't print all 14 sheets here, because some of the sheets had only a couple inches of track on them at the outer edges of the plan.
Tracklaying Products
One of my go-to people for model railroading influence is Chuck Hitchcock. His original Santa Fe Argentine Division layout was featured in the December 1983 Model Railroader issue and was the first time I said "That's what I want". He wrote another article about that layout in the Model Railroad Planning 1997 issue called 12 Hours at Argentine. The focus of that article is on passenger train operations and was the second time I said "That's what I want". At some point in the early 2000's he tore down the Santa Fe Argentine Division and built a new layout called Argentine Industrial District.
Chuck used two products in the construction of the Industrial District layout that I plan on using. The first is well known to model railroaders and that is DAP general-purpose adhesive caulk. It appears that product is no longer made by DAP, at least with that name. I believe the same product is now Kwik Seal adhesive caulk. I was unable to find DAP general-purpose adhesive caulk anywhere, so this is what I got. I got the clear version instead of the white. This is what I will use to "glue" track down to roadbed. There were other adhesive caulks available but they all sounded like they were way too strong an adhesive for model railroading where I might actually want to lift the track after it has been caulked down.
Another product Chuck used for the Industrial District layout is Topper Tape. This is a soft foam adhesive tape with many uses but its most popular use is for putting under a pickup truck cap where the cap rests on the top of the bed.
This tape is 3/16" thick and comes in several different sizes but the one I got is 1 1/4" wide in a 30' roll. The cost was under $6 at Home Depot. I like the 1 1/4" width because HO scale track with 8'6" long ties is right around 1 3/16" wide. The tape is also slightly adhesive on both sides and comes with a non-stick paper film on it that peels off. Chuck talks about using Topper Tape for the Industrial District layout in another article in the August 2003 MR is titled 6 Great Layout Projects. His article on adhesive caulk and topper tape is project #2 in that article. Chuck recommends leaving the paper on the tape when laying straight sections of track because the paper keeps it straight as an arrow. Once it is down on the layout the paper film can be removed. Without the paper film it is very curvable but he says you have to be careful not to stretch it out when laying it in a curve.
So, when I printed the track plan out, I set AnyRail5 to have a 1 1/4" roadbed trace to make it the same size as the topper tape. Now all I have to do is cut out the track outlines and lay it down on the door and trace the outlines onto the door, and then put the topper tape down using the outlines as a guide. Here you can see the width of a Central Valley mainline tie section compared to the width of the tape. My plan is to use topper tape on the two-track mainline for a raised roadbed effect, and then the two outer spurs will transition down to flat roadbed to represent non-mainline track.
In Part III I will trace the roadbed outlines onto the door and start putting down topper tape.
Cheers
 |
| The green outline is the footprint of the hollow core door (17 3/4 x 79) |
I then printed the track plan on 8 1/2 x 14 legal size paper in landscape mode. The entire track plan fit on 14 sheets of paper. That's still alot, I can't wait to see how many sheets a 13' x 40' layout prints out. I put the sheets down on top of the door and lined them all up with the sighting guides and taped them together as a mockup on the door. I actually didn't print all 14 sheets here, because some of the sheets had only a couple inches of track on them at the outer edges of the plan.
Tracklaying Products
One of my go-to people for model railroading influence is Chuck Hitchcock. His original Santa Fe Argentine Division layout was featured in the December 1983 Model Railroader issue and was the first time I said "That's what I want". He wrote another article about that layout in the Model Railroad Planning 1997 issue called 12 Hours at Argentine. The focus of that article is on passenger train operations and was the second time I said "That's what I want". At some point in the early 2000's he tore down the Santa Fe Argentine Division and built a new layout called Argentine Industrial District.
Chuck used two products in the construction of the Industrial District layout that I plan on using. The first is well known to model railroaders and that is DAP general-purpose adhesive caulk. It appears that product is no longer made by DAP, at least with that name. I believe the same product is now Kwik Seal adhesive caulk. I was unable to find DAP general-purpose adhesive caulk anywhere, so this is what I got. I got the clear version instead of the white. This is what I will use to "glue" track down to roadbed. There were other adhesive caulks available but they all sounded like they were way too strong an adhesive for model railroading where I might actually want to lift the track after it has been caulked down.
Another product Chuck used for the Industrial District layout is Topper Tape. This is a soft foam adhesive tape with many uses but its most popular use is for putting under a pickup truck cap where the cap rests on the top of the bed.
This tape is 3/16" thick and comes in several different sizes but the one I got is 1 1/4" wide in a 30' roll. The cost was under $6 at Home Depot. I like the 1 1/4" width because HO scale track with 8'6" long ties is right around 1 3/16" wide. The tape is also slightly adhesive on both sides and comes with a non-stick paper film on it that peels off. Chuck talks about using Topper Tape for the Industrial District layout in another article in the August 2003 MR is titled 6 Great Layout Projects. His article on adhesive caulk and topper tape is project #2 in that article. Chuck recommends leaving the paper on the tape when laying straight sections of track because the paper keeps it straight as an arrow. Once it is down on the layout the paper film can be removed. Without the paper film it is very curvable but he says you have to be careful not to stretch it out when laying it in a curve.
So, when I printed the track plan out, I set AnyRail5 to have a 1 1/4" roadbed trace to make it the same size as the topper tape. Now all I have to do is cut out the track outlines and lay it down on the door and trace the outlines onto the door, and then put the topper tape down using the outlines as a guide. Here you can see the width of a Central Valley mainline tie section compared to the width of the tape. My plan is to use topper tape on the two-track mainline for a raised roadbed effect, and then the two outer spurs will transition down to flat roadbed to represent non-mainline track.
In Part III I will trace the roadbed outlines onto the door and start putting down topper tape.
Cheers
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