A Small project

[josh993]

Hi all,

 

Have been considering about putting a small layout above the workbench in my shed now for a while, The shed isn't particularly big (6ftx5ft ruffly) However this is big enough to fit a small layout on a 7ft radius in! So have been tinkering around in Templot and came up with the attachment below.

 

 

The size is 6ft by 4.5ft and the black line is where the baseboard will end, the lines with numbers attached show the size of the V crossing. The fiddle yard will begin where at the left hand end of the 3-way and will probably be a traverser unless anyone else has any other ideas?

 

The idea of the layout is to give me a insight to a few things, one is to try a small layout with sound and see if dcc and sound is something for me and secondly to get a insight into hand built track work in which there are 2 options:

 

1) is to use copper clad for points and SMP flexti-track for everything else. (Swaying towards this one at the moment)

 

2) is to use go down the real timbers and chairs route?

 

Is there any benefits between the two, except the 2nd option looks more realistic?

 

Now beings I'm considering to go down the hand built track work route, the other thing boggling around in my mind is should I try it in p4?

 

My main concern about the scale is I don't think I have ever seen a successfully running P4 layout at any of the exhibitions I've been to

 

For stock it will be early diesels with all green ends including a Hornby 31 (fitted with sound) and a Hornby 08 (Currently being resprayed with green ends and may even get fitted with sound one day )

 

Say its just a ruff Idea at the moment, but could do with something to run my collection of green diesels and keep me occupied till a bit of space for a full on future project so could this could easily become a reality

 

Thanks in advance

 

Josh

[10800]

1) is to use copper clad for points and SMP flexti-track for everything else. (Swaying towards this one at the moment)

 

2) is to use go down the real timbers and chairs route?

 

Is there any benefits between the two, except the 2nd option looks more realistic?

 

To an extent this depends on what exactly you mean by 2). Do you mean ply sleepers and glued functional chairs or rail soldered to rivets with cosmetic half-chairs? Mixing two systems will have implications on getting the rail level compatible (not a real problem but needs thinking about) because with copperclad there is no gap between the rail and the sleeper. Have a look at the DRAG TT2 blog http://www.rmweb.co....=blog&blogid=26 to see what I mean - but don't forget here we chose this approach for convenience rather than authentic appearance because it's a test track that won't be a scenic layout as it stands.

 

Now beings I'm considering to go down the hand built track work route, the other thing boggling around in my mind is should I try it in p4?

 

My main concern about the scale is I don't think I have ever seen a successfully running P4 layout at any of the exhibitions I've been to

 

Ouch! All I can say there is you haven't been to the right exhibitions But give it a go - if you are only running diesels it should be pretty straightforward.