regme

Hi Before I make a final decision, if I use 50mm XPS foam as my base board, what is the best way to attach all the wiring underneath? I've seen people have a 3mm ply and glue the foam to that and others that have just glued to the foam to the supports. If I go without the 3mm ply, I thought about using cable nail clips and push them straight into the foam, not sure how long that would last, maybe drop some glue on the nail before pushing them in. Any thoughts. Cheers

I'm not sure I can visualise that, is the bell crank under the board?

I have mounted servos before from the underside using the centre hole, but sometimes the wire drops too low in the hole or comes out too high. This is due more to my ability to cut it the right length in the first place or I just didn't get the servo/point motor mount dead centre. I has hoping for a more forgiving way of doing it. For an N scale layout the holes on the outside of the point so I basically bend the wire into the hole from the top and had another hole a few sleepers down where the wire went down to the servo underneath. A photo would have helped. I guess I could do the same thing with the hole in the centre. I just wondering if there was another way of doing this.

Hi Is there another way to throw a HO scale peco point, rather than using a wire through the hole provided. Can you use the pins on the outside, using a servo mounted under the board? I'm not going to use surface point motors. Cheers

So in a cut situation, I would mark out the extent of batters and the edge of the formation. I would cut the formation part out with a jig saw. Then cut along the batter line with the jig saw set at 1 in 2. Using a piece of ply the same width of the formation, place it within the cut and support the ply from the baseboard to get the gradient. In Fill it should be the opposite, need to think about that one.

Hi I'm trying to make up my mind, regarding the use of plywood or 50mm foam as my baseboard. I have been leaning towards the foam, because I can shape it for landscaping. However, one thing that I haven't been able to figure out or find on online is how to incorporate a gradient using foam, plywood is easy. Going up from the foam base, it's just a matter of using risers, however I still have batters to connect to the formation. To make matters worse all my gradients are on curves, I can't seem to figure out how to cut the foam at 2.5% with a curve and batters as one piece. I know you can buy risers at various gradients but that was a last resort. Now that's going up, I still have a gradient going down, how to do the reverse of the same thing going up only going down. I figured to just cut a "trench" to the width of the formation where the track is going and use plywood to create the gradient. Then cut the batters with a jigsaw at the slope I'm after. It's just that interface between the foam and plywood. Or do I just have foam where there are no gradients and use plywood where the gradients area. I would cut out the foam, so that the plywood is flush with the foam for say 100mm before the gradient starts and glue the two together. I don't think using screws in foam is going offer much strength. Cheers

Thanks Huw, for that post. I have downloaded the e-book, some light bedtime reading at over 600 pages 😀 Yes the car dumper and train load out (TLO) will be motorised and I have found a few articles for the both so that will get me started. As you mentioned, I was going to build both away from the layout, it will be easier especially when it comes to the animation and lighting of both. The hard part will be keeping the wiring neat, as my current layout is a dog's breakfast. The responses have definitely given me food for thought and a place to start from. Also I'll have a thread / name for the layout, once I have the baseboard constructed, were all my faults will be exposed. Cheers

Hi Thanks for all the responses, I thought this was a loaded question when I pressed post. Also it has answered some questions I have and provided some food for thought. So to answer a few of the questions. The layout is based on an iron ore operation so it's very simple, one main line, sidings for the train load out, car dumper, maintenance shed and some storage sidings. The point motors are going to be servos, I have used both Hornby point motors on my current layout and servos on my small layout. Both are controlled from a control panel with it's own power supply, so I'm going to run with using servos on the new layout. Currently I control the movements from the main line to the sidings and vise versa with switches turning the power on and off. Maybe I could do this a bit smarter using block detection. The big one is controlling the train load out and car dumper. As Michael pointed out, it's not unduly interested in electronics it's my lack of knowledge in the subject and where to start and to ask the right questions. I'll check out that MERG site My thoughts where to somehow future prove the layout so that I could expand as my knowledge increases and I don't have to start again. Maybe that's asking too much. Cheers

Hi Now that the layout and baseboard are 90% there, I've started to put some thought into the electronics side of things. I have a NCE Power Cab, which I may add the PB5 Booster later. All the points are electrofrog and will have their only power supply and controlled with a control panel. Same with the lighting, it will have it's own power supply. The layout will not be computer controlled, so what other electronic gadgets should I be considering, Arduino comes to mind, do I need voltage and amp meters. Really not sure, I have seen a lot on underside of layouts, but found no real explanation of what is being used or for what. Cheers

I hear what your saying, I'll work out the weight of the longest module and if I can keep it under 15kg, all the buildings will be removable just because if I did have to move it, it would easier that way. I'm doing an iron ore layout so I want the main structures to be on one board rather than split over two boards. I checked out your link about base board construction, however no images, would have liked to see your approach.

Well after taking into account the suggestions, I have fore gone the legs all together and have gone with cabinets (need to make it decorative). So the opening in the front is 1700mm enough to crawl through and the cabinets are 900mm high so the final base height will be1040mm. To put it into perspective there three walls around the outside. The supports are about 600mm apart but this needs to be fine turned once I get the building footprint sorted, all the point motors miss the supports. There are two sets of drawings for the locos and wagons that have no boxes, with space underneath to place plastic tubs and anything else train related. This will still allow me to up-end each module to work on as I won't fix the modules to the cabinets. Hopefully, I haven't missed anything.

The two end boards are separate and in this pic there are four side boards but I was looking at having them as one 2.9m board rather than two 1.45m long boards. No chance of bolting one side to the wall. The trestle idea sounds good. Also if I incorporate storage space, then cabinets to put all the stuff I have in will also be good. This will test the woodworking skills or just go to Ikea. So much planning involved.

Thanks, I have checked the location of the point motors in relation to the supports (learnt that the hard way) This is what I have currently designed, moving the legs in would help with where the layout is, but I could work around it. What is PSE?

Hi Putting the final touches on the baseboard construction and someone mentioned that rather than having the legs in the corner. Have it so that the ends are cantilevered. The baseboard is going to be 2900mm long by 600mm wide. The recommendation was to place the legs 700mm in from the ends, which means I don't need a leg in the middle. The frame is going to be made from 90x19mm pine timber. Still tossing up as to whether to put a 9mm ply or 50mm xps foam as much as I would like to use the xps foam, I'm not sure how to do the inclines and connect it to the foam. So is a 700mm overhang too much when I measured it out it just look big. Cheers

I saw some 4% grades from woodland scenic

So I have finalised the grades and clearances, so the max grade is 3%, just need to work on the contours. I was going to go with bridges but the batter slopes were not working so I'm going with tunnels instead. Would like to get a creek in there somewhere, but will see how it goes.

I have had another go to smooth things out, now the shunting side of things seems to have fallen in a heap. I was hoping to get a maintenance shed in there, but it's not looking good.

Your right the crossfall or camber doesn't affect the grade of the inside rail, I always thought superelevation was there to make you faster around a curve and stop you sliding out at least for roads.

So when you have a constant grade on a curve the inside rail will be steeper and the outside rail will be flatter, when you introduce super-elevation it makes it worse. Bear in mind that the grade change is dependent on the width, so HO scale it might not be that bad (will work that out later). RobinofLoxley, I have also been considering super elevation, I'm not sure about rail, but in road design you usually put or super in so that 80% of the super transition happens before the tanget point the other 20% is within the curve. Also you can introduce a spiral curve that will help with the transition (bit harder to work out but there is "stick method" that will help create a spiral curve. As for you two curves I think you short straights are to short (not sure what scale or the radius you are using) but in HO scale I have found that having a short transition between curves causes problems with the couplers as there is not enough angle to take into account the transition from one curve to the next, especially if the couples are body mounted. So I would have a curve, spiral transition, straight, spiral transition curve. The straight would be at a min length of your longest wagon or loco, which what I'm doing. My transition are 360mm long with the curve being offset from the straight by 10mm - hope that makes sense. The grades are the tricky bit, I have since worked out all I need is 80mm separation at the cross-overs (includes the depth of the bridge), so I have one going down (to the dumper) while the other two (loader and main line) are going up, so the max length I need is 1.7m for 50mm. As for the vertical curves (transitions) I managed to find some design guide lines, which when converted to HO where pretty massive. I'm not sure as to whether I should have a change of grade of 1% over the length of a wagon or the loco (150mm or 280mm respectively), but I agree going from 0% to 2% or 3% will cause problems. Anyway the one golden rule I have learnt is "If it looks good, it will feel good".

I was going to make the modules 1.2 x 0.6m. That's the next bit, working out the batter lines to see what I can get away with and also the grades.

Hi I have had another go at the layout to try and make the reach more manageable. Cheers

Hi Thanks for that, especially on that recent topic, I guess it just comes down to preference. Cheers

Hi I was told that when it comes to laying track Code 100 is more forgiving that laying Code 75. With Code 75 I need to get the baseboard, foam base, the cork and track perfect otherwise there will be plenty of derailments if I get it wrong. What's the general feeling about this? This will be my first real attempt at a layout, so the skill set might not be up to scratch. Cheers

Hi Had a quick search and depending on which version you, if its the free you might be out of luck. Have a search on "explode text NanoCAD 5" found the Nanocad forum and someone else was having a similar issue for a laser cutting Cheers

Thanks, it's going to be DCC. Unfortunately the trains will run in the same direction purely because of the loader and dumper, not sure how to swap the direction with the space I have available. I'll have another go at changing the layout and buildings around to create some more space