Roundabout Nowhere

[Matt Roe]

Well, my 'proper' layout in Code 75 track has been stalled for quite a few years now, and in the meantime we have moved house and welcomed a daughter - with another one on the way! My daughter is now 2 (time flies) and she has a collection of cousins. Because of our proximity to Beer we have Annual Passes to Pecorama, and she has always enjoyed the 'choo-choos' and finds the exhibition fun. 

 

I've been keeping all my old Code 100 track and basic rolling stock, controller, point motors etc up in the loft waiting for 'a time in the future' to build a layout for the kids. This Christmas, to keep the cousins amused, I laid 5 yards of flexi down on the carpet and ran a train back and forth. It then struck me that it was silly to wait for a later date, and I may as well make use of the things I had now to allow the kids to get maximum enjoyment from the trains! Also the notion that trains are just for boys is a bit last century - my daughter gets very animated when watching the train pass by!

 

After messing around with some track plans I came up with this:

 

 

The idea is that it will split into three pieces, one 4x4' piece with all the points, then two 4x2' pieces. The middle 4x2' extension piece will be optional allowing two layout configurations: a smaller 6x4' layout and the full 8x4' layout.

 

Next step - baseboard building...

 

 

[runs as required]

When our 3 children were young (2 sons from 6 down to daughter age 2 ) we lived in a bungalow on a campus in West Africa for 5 years. Like you, I'd secreted in my 'Personal Effects' crate a bundle of code 100, some points, a controller, a crude but runnable white metal Q1, a tender drive Hornby Black 5 and a set of HO coaches bought for me by my wife as a first wedding anniv. present after our (belated) honeymoon on the Simplon Orient Express to Istanbul .

We got hold of an 8x4 sheet of 15mm ply and laid down a circuit very like yours. Initially this was on our covered verandah, but then we had the idea to fix the whole board up on the children's bedroom wall with the track against the wall. When they wanted a play session we simply hinged it down onto the divan beds and running (with a lot of improvising of places and happenings) commenced.

The ply face usually served as a practical pin-up board for the kid's art.

 

Though we took the family's trains on with us to our next posting, we were asked to leave the ply wall panel fitting (still with track) behind for the next family.

dh

 

Edit

Sorry, I've just looked again at your plan and realised ours was a single track oval not a double track continuous run.

Edited January 16, 2018 by runs as required

[Matt Roe]

Baseboards

 

I decided upon just using 2x1.5" unplaned timber to provide the support, with a 9mm plywood top. As the baseboard was going to split into three pieces I ordered some alignment dowels to keep everything straight:

 

 

It seem strange that considering the low price no local model shops stocked these - but maybe baseboards that separate are in the minority?

 

In order to make the attachment of legs easy I decided to give these style of bracket a whirl:

 

 

They seem to work out OK - it doesn't make for the most stable table, but they are fine for the purpose - with additional bracing I'm sure things could be made rock solid. To finish things off I gave each of the legs an adjustable foot.

 

Here's how the top turned out:

 

 

I'll add some pictures of the legs/feet and the baseboard joins when I take it all apart next.

[Matt Roe]

Track Laying

 

I bought myself a pin pusher to make the track laying easier, however things did not go well when I tried to use the Peco SL-14 pins; they were useless with the plywood top. This delayed the track laying until I could get to the shops to buy some replacement Peco ST-280; these worked like a charm. Using the pin pusher was loads easier than trying to hammer them in, I didn't even bother drilling the sleepers - although it you wanted to make sure that you didn't deform them, then you would need to drill holes. All the pointwork had previously drilled holes.

 

In the end it only took about a day to lay the track. I installed an aligned the point motors at the same time as laying the points, this made things much easier and was necessary because I used some M3 screws inserted through the baseboard to secure the point motors underneath. I'll post some photos later.

 

Everything went OK, and I used a 21" Tracksetta for the outside track, but I got the inside track geometry wrong so had to re-lay it (coaches would clip each other). I used an 18" Tracksetta to make sure I didn't create too tight a curve. I hadn't laid track for over 20 years, so I'd simply forgotten about all the required clearances etc.

 

This is how it all turned out:

 

 

Next time: wiring.

[runs as required]

interesting, but I can't quite comprehend how the 4 dowelled 4x2 ft baseboard sections get integrated and stabilised over the single leg position visible in the lower pic.

Are there some 8 ft long and 4ft cross battens tying it together below the table top structure?

dh

[Matt Roe]

interesting, but I can't quite comprehend how the 4 dowelled 4x2 ft baseboard sections get integrated and stabilised over the single leg position visible in the lower pic.

Are there some 8 ft long and 4ft cross battens tying it together below the table top structure?

dh

 

 

Looking at the picture of the layout, from left to right, there is one 4x4' baseboard and then two 4x2' boards. The 4x4' board has a leg at each corner, the middle 4x2' board has no legs and the end 4x2' board has two legs at the end. 

 

The main reason for the leg configuration is that in it's largest configuration the layout will most likely have to span a bed of some sort. The join between the 2nd and 3rd boards holds well enough but it's not flat enough so I'm going to brace it with some more pieces of timber. I need to order some coach bolts that are long enough.

[OnTheBranchline]

Well, my 'proper' layout in Code 75 track has been stalled for quite a few years now, and in the meantime we have moved house and welcomed a daughter - with another one on the way! My daughter is now 2 (time flies) and she has a collection of cousins. Because of our proximity to Beer we have Annual Passes to Pecorama, and she has always enjoyed the 'choo-choos' and finds the exhibition fun. 

 

I've been keeping all my old Code 100 track and basic rolling stock, controller, point motors etc up in the loft waiting for 'a time in the future' to build a layout for the kids. This Christmas, to keep the cousins amused, I laid 5 yards of flexi down on the carpet and ran a train back and forth. It then struck me that it was silly to wait for a later date, and I may as well make use of the things I had now to allow the kids to get maximum enjoyment from the trains! Also the notion that trains are just for boys is a bit last century - my daughter gets very animated when watching the train pass by!

 

After messing around with some track plans I came up with this:

 

Round2.png

 

The idea is that it will split into three pieces, one 4x4' piece with all the points, then two 4x2' pieces. The middle 4x2' extension piece will be optional allowing two layout configurations: a smaller 6x4' layout and the full 8x4' layout.

 

Next step - baseboard building...

 

 

Will Thomas run on the tracks?

[Matt Roe]

Will Thomas run on the tracks?

 

 

Ha, sadly due to the current austerity measures imposed on the network Thomas is currently too expensive to be added into stock. The cost-to-benefit ratio is not high enough for the reward to outweigh the financial demand. Although a certain cousin would be most pleased if this decision was reversed; but as he is not supplying any funds to the TOC his opinion was ignored.

 

The Fat Controller (aka Dad) has decided to supplement the existing 0-6-0 Pannier tank with a 2-6-2 Prairie, although in a used condition from the Lima works. The prejudice toward GWR is almost mandatory in this house...