Framed layoutbase

Hello Beverly,

you asked about layout base techniques for bigger layouts. Since the pictures are already stored in this board, I will answer here.

In this message you can see my very first layout in the first picture. That was just a plywood plate with the tracks fixed with douple sided tape at some places. I used it to learn about wiring of different circuits from different power sources, and wiring for turn outs and sections where I could park a train. And finally I included a reverse loop too. The yellow flags all around the layout marked the numbers for the turn outs and isolation tracks and such so I could find the correct button on the control boxes faster. The plate was about 100 x 200 cm (approx. 39.37" x 78.75" ).

Then we decided to build something more advanced in terms of scenery. That is our current project which is progressing very slowly. In the second picture of the message you see the track plan I found in an old Maerklin book (item 0322). This was drawn for a size of 55 x 95 cm (approx. 21.65" x 37.40" ). Since I had more space available I developed the track plan in the third picture. Now it has 75 x 115 cm (approx. 29.5" x 45.3" ). Because of this we could loosen up the straight lines in the front, and we could reduce the grades a good part.

In the archive from the old ZCS board you can find my old gallery . The first and the third picture shows this layout in it's first steps. Even if I made a mistake with this we did work on on it. Basically I just took a plate and did cut the outline of the track areas that should rise. Then I did bend up those parts and fixed them with blocks underneath. The mistake I made was that I now have no reserve for a lower level of scenery. The holes in the front panel are meant for drawers. One for the control panel and the other for storing rolling stock while it is not in use.

This layout is meant for our living room, it will get a clear cover to protect it from dust. It is a fairly strong frame base, but then I'm known to extend the margins of safety wide on the safe side in my different works. But even so it is not too heavy to be carried if I wanted to show it at a meeting or such somewhere. It can also be transported in my middle class station car. Anything bigger would have to be transported in a van, on a roof rack or it would have to be diverted in sections or modules.

For the hills we used this technique:

first some frames to shape the rough idea:

[img size=(600)]www.zcentralstation.com/components/com_joomgallery/img_pictures/general_z_scale_1/Uwes pictures_14/frames_in_the_mountains_20090419_1960885738.jpg[/img]

and then we covered it with some layers of newspaper. We connected the frames horizontally with toothpicks.

[img size=(600)]www.zcentralstation.com/components/com_joomgallery/img_pictures/general_z_scale_1/Uwes pictures_14/mountain_base_20090419_1473474128.jpg[/img]


In a new project I would use a lighter frame work, and won't use a complete base plate. I also will allow for a decrease in the scenery level, either for a valley or a river or lake or what ever I imagine.

Uwe,

Thank you for posting the photos and for showing me the way to your archived gallery.

I look at your 100 cm x 200 cm layout and think right away that our proposed 60 cm wide layout will be too narrow for separate tracks for three trains. This is good to see that our idea will not work by looking at your photos. Now we have a better idea of our limitations.

It has been suggested to me to use MTL flex track for our layout. This is a good choice because it will allow us to curve the tracks in any way we wish. We have worked with flex track on our micro layout, though I hope we don't have very many tight curves on the larger layout like we did on the micro layout

Your post has provided food for thought. Thank you

Hello Beverly,

my old 100 x 200 cm layout was just for test purposes, and it showed me also that it was to wide for a comfortable work on it. As you maybe can see at the top border of the picture, there is the light switch at the cable. It was always interesting to reach out for it. Also if I wanted to reach for a train in the back corner I always had to look out for the front, that I didn't push a train from the tracks there at the same moment. The width of a layout is always limited by the distance you can reach out without support. The 75 cm of my current project is about as far as I would go in width, and I'm about 1.86m...

And if you disregard the four tracks in the back, and place them in a shadow yard below the main level, you can get away with about 70cm I believe.

We have two 2' x 8' (60 cm x 244 cm) sheets of blue insulation foam in our basement. I thought I might as well bring one up and put it in the kitchen location where I'll be working on the larger layout. Famous last words, I'm afraid Maybe you can imagine the humour in my attempt to get the sheet of foam around the hairpin turn to go up the stairs There is absolutely no way to get an 8' length of pretty much anything around that turn, but did I see that possibility in advance??!?? Um. NO!!! At one point the foam was stuck and of course I'd already realized it couldn't go up but I had to try anyway

I ended up taking the foam out of the basement through the garage and up the front steps through the living room then into the kitchen. I'm still laughing at my folly What a day I had a good laugh at myself AND I have a work area similar in size to what we think we might use. Note to self: 8 feet of layout is going to be a bit too long

Beverly, Most of us have had similar situations. Usually, it is the guy next door that asks why you didn't cut it to size first. We all survive and patiently wait for the next big adventure. Cheers, Jim CCRR;)