Main Deck Construction Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the 5/8" plywood sub-roadbed going in on top of the modified L-girder system I'm using for the main deck bench work. 

I designed my plan on the computer using XTrackCad. Now I had to transfer the track plan to the sub-roadbed. In the past I just picked a few key points off the plan, and basically redrew the plan on the plywood.

Because none of the tracks on this plan were parallel to the edge of the bench work though, and there were a few critical curves with turnouts leading in and out of them, I decided to print the plan off full size and use that as my guide instead.

That proved very beneficial. There were a couple of places on the plan where I hadn't allowed enough separation between tracks that would be on different vertical planes. Funny how you don't always see that on the computer, but you sure do see it in real life! In those places I simply cut the plan apart, then moved the plan to make the necessary adjustments. 

To transfer the plan to the plywood I traced the track centerlines with a pounce wheel. That left little dimples in the plywood I used to guide me in drawing centerlines with a pencil. It's tough to see the drawn out plan with the camera, but here's one picture to show what it looked like.

At this point I was so excited that I grabbed some cork roadbed and started laying some of it down. You can see a bit of that in the last picture. I laid down most of the mainline and only then did I realize I was getting ahead of myself! I hadn't cut the sub-roadbed or made any of the necessary elevation changes needed for the plan. So I backtracked, got out the sabre saw, and started cutting.

One night as I was cutting away into the wee hours of the morning my wife reminded me there were others trying to sleep around here! Well, it didn't happen quite as gentle as that, but you get the idea. So I decided to lay cork in the yard at those times and save the sawing for daylight hours only!

Once all the elevated sections were done I went on to complete laying the cork. Here's how things turned out.

I'm planning a river as shown in the next two photos, but haven't decided yet what kind of bridges to use. I'm thinking a through truss bridge for the single mainline track in the back and a deck girder bridge for the double track in the foreground would look visually appealing.  

I've left the sub-roadbed in for now, and will cut that out once I have the bridges made. 

That's it for now. Next up - connect the helices to the main deck and start to lay some track! Thanks for following along!

Paul that is amazing

Paul that is amazing progress. It seems like it just a little while ago we were all admiring and commenting on your track plan. You are going to be running trains on a truly awesome layout before long.

WooHootwo thumbs up

Slow down

Please slow down, you're making the rest of us look bad.

Looks great, can't wait to get to that point myself. 

Randy

Great Work

Curiosity question: what are the space restrictions where your railroad is located? I say this, with admiration for the work you have done, but the two helixes look like they take up more space than the layout. Are they going to remain open? What kind of scenery do you have planned for those areas? 

Had you the space, an around-the-room configuration with longer rises to higher levels would be my preference. However, not seeing the complete area, I'm sure that these two large benchwork items fulfill your needs. I really like the way you have laid out the track work on paper to visualize space for buildings etc. before laying down track. 

Will continue to follow the progress. Wiring, signals and switch control will be interesting.

Replies

Rob - Without a doubt you are my favorite cheerleader! Thanks for the many kind words you throw my way!

Randy - Not trying to make you look bad. Just excited to get as much done as I can during the cold Minnesota winters. Once summer comes layout production goes way down as I try to milk the warm months outside for all they are worth! As I recall however, following your construction blog, you're no slouch either. The basement improvements you've needed to get done for work on the layout to progress was a major undertaking! So I thought I was trying to keep up with you!  

David - Thanks for the kind words. As to your questions, my basement is subdivided into two major sections. One side is the laundry/storage/workbench/furnace area. The other side is the layout/family entertainment area. Needless to say, with that arrangement, bargaining with the wife for layout space was not the easiest thing to do. So what you see is all I have to work with. Here's how the layout fits into the overall space.

Like you, I would prefer longer runs to gain elevation. But as you can see I didn't have any more room to accomplish that. Thus the need for those two helices. But wait, you haven't seen anything yet! There are two more helices to come to gain elevation to the upper deck. The future helices will be the same size and stacked above those already built.

On my last layout I covered the helices I had with fascia, but cut a viewing hole so people could look in and see the trains. As of now I'm thinking I might do something similar on this layout. However I've recently seen some layout pictures others have posted were the helix was more open for viewing. I kind of liked that and may try and do the same, but we'll see as construction progresses.

Regarding scenery in the helix area, there will be none for the main deck. If you look at the picture above you will see two yellow looking lines next to the helix. That represents the masonite backdrop that will be used for the main deck, hiding the helix from the areas of the main deck that will have scenery.

The upper deck is a different story. There will be a backdrop supported by some free floating 2x4 walls I have yet to build that will spilt the area above the helices roughly in half. The side closest to the aisle will have scenery on it. The back side will not. The following picture shows the general plan I have in mind for that area. Though it does not show the helices, hopefully it gives you a good idea of what I'm trying to describe.

Nicely done

I'm also transferring plans by laying out the XTrkCad prints on the benchwork. I don't have a pounce wheel; instead I poke holes every few inches with an awl, then twirl a sharpie in them to leave an inkspot beneath, then use those as guides to laying roadbed. I even keep our oldest printer under the layout, dedicated to this job (hoping the ink doesn't run out until after the layout is finished, because we're not buying more cartridges for it ).

I like working this way. Just this week, I was able to decide between two yard ladder arrangements by printing them both out and putting them on the benchwork. This allowed me to see (in a way you can't quite on the computer screen) what each one looked like, measure the exact length of the body tracks, etc. The ladder's going in today and tomorrow (then I'll have a double-ended yard! Yay!).

Replies

Ah, the great light dawns. Thanks so much for the explanation and the drawings; gives a better perspective to the "problem." Oh yes, I understand the bargaining process. My wife was "not onboard" with my thoughts about eliminating the furnace, heating oil tank and the washer and dryer. LOL!

Seeing the backdrop block, I'd personally opt for keeping the helixes open. Much easier to respond to potential problems if they occur. You certainly have a lot of action witthin a given space. Looking forward to following your progress.

@ David

David,

I agree with what you said about keeping the helices open to work on potential problems. Right now it's pretty easy to slide under the bench work and come up in the middle of the helix to clean track, make adjustments, etc. I just couldn't think of any other way to support the upper deck sub-roadbed over the helix though without those additional supports. If you've got some ideas for an alternate means of support I'm all ears!

Change in Plan

Having completed the main deck bench work on my layout and laying all the cork, my initial plan was to lay some more track. So I connected the lower helices to the main deck at each end of the layout to begin.

It was then that I started to think about back drops. My main deck has a back drop that follows the wall and then curves into the layout area just before the main deck gets to the helices at both ends. You can see that in one of my replies above. I thought it might be better to install the back drops prior to laying the track. To do that however, I realized I needed to have more of the upper deck in place first. So I changed plans and got to work on the upper deck supports...

The lowered section in the upper deck here will be for a bridge scene I'm planning. I'm hoping to model the bridge in Coopers, WV which is part of the N&W Pocahontas District mainline I'm freelancing. I wanted to post a picture of the bridge here so you can see what it looks like in real life. Unfortunately I couldn't find a picture that wasn't copyrighted. So I'll give you a link instead you can go to if you're interested in taking a look. I hope this is a legal way to do things. If not, please let me know.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=498380&nseq=2

So back to pictures of the upper deck supports...

With the upper deck supports in place it was time to add the free floating walls that bisect each of the helices for the upper deck portions that will have scenery. These also help support those backdrop sections that curve in on the main deck. But then another thought came to mind. If I built those free floating walls before the upper two helices were finished, installing them later would be a real pain.

So the plans changed again, and that's where I'm at now. I'm starting the upper helices. Here's the beginning of one of the helices going in above the other.

As with the previously built helices, I'm starting with a 5/8" plywood base that will provide support for the layers above it. This helix will be a little more tricky to connect to the main bench work below however, since there is already another helix in the way.

I've thought about tying the upper helix support in with the lower helix by adding more vertical wood supports that would span both helices. The other option I've considered is adding totally separate support for the upper helix so each helix is its own separate entity. Right now I'm leaning toward the second option, but that might change as I get further into construction. If you've got any great ideas on supporting the upper helix, I'd sure like to hear them.

As you may have guessed by my stumbling and bumbling around, this is the first multi-deck layout I've ever built. In some ways this layout has been much easier to build than the multi-level layouts I've done in the past. However, I'm learning real fast that the construction sequence for a multi-deck layout seems to take more planning than other types of layouts. At least that has been my experience so far. Have any of the rest of you who have gone to a multi-deck layout found that to be true, or am I just way off in left field?

Well, that's it for now. As always, thanks for taking the time to read this post and respond!

Looks good Paul!

The only thing I see that looks like you need to address before you get too much further is finishing some track out of the helix on the main to the elevated level. You have the cork already in place but the track could be hard to install until you get out from under the next helix see the bottom photo marked 02-23-2015.

Other than that adapting your plan as you go along with the construction sounds like a really smart move. Some times when looking at the real think in three dimensions one will see things that must be done first to make the next step easier or possible.

Great job on the layout so far and thanks for sharing, all that cork laid on the bench work is really looking good.

@ Rob

Rob,

You're absolutely correct about finishing the track on the lower helix. I noticed that too just after these pictures were taken. So I unscrewed that first piece of upper helix, finished laying the track on the lower helix to the main deck, then put the plywood piece back in place. Thanks for watching out for me though! 

March Update

Normally I would make a new post to document the construction progress on my layout. But since I'm still working on the main deck I thought I'd just add the update here. I'm not sure how this can be, but in spite of the amount of hours I've put in on the layout, it doesn't seem like I have a lot to show for it!

Progress on helix #3 & #4 which will lead to the upper deck continues. Though these pictures don't show it, they are each about 3/4ths of the way complete now.

Finally got around to mounting one of the turnout control panels for the staging deck I made a couple months ago. To keep it from getting banged and bumped I chose to mount it on the edge of the staging deck itself which is below and back from the main deck edge.

I'm thinking later on I'm going to add a masonite fascia along the edge of the staging deck to give it a little more finished look. Right now it looks kind of rough since you can see all the wiring.

The mainline on my layout passes over the main deck twice. Although close in proximity to get to the mainline at the back of the deck you either have to go through the staging deck and both lower helices, or go through both of the upper helices and traverse the upper deck. Not ideal, I know, but I intentionally designed it that way to add running distance between the sidings.

Here are some pictures of the mainline track on the main deck that has been laid. I've got about 3.5 more feet of track to lay in one spot before the whole mainline on the main deck is complete. Here are some pictures starting at one end of the main deck and going around to the other.

Here's the mainline coming out of the lower helix from the staging deck, heading eastbound on the main. In all these pictures you can see the mainline that runs along the back side of the main deck on the raised portion of benchwork.

Around the corner...You can see in this picture and the next that little section where track still needs to be laid.

Past the west yard throat next. 

Found out the switch to the team track spur you see in the middle foreground, which originally led into the mainline curve bending to the right, was too close and didn't leave enough room for the curve and the transition into the super elevation. So I moved it to the other side of the crossover between the mainline and the siding. 

Passing behind the yard on the main...

The shadows here will eventually be taken care of by LED lighting mounted under the upper deck.

Around the corner at the east end of the yard. The raised mainline portion will dive into a mountain in the corner at this point. I'll be using foam for the mountains here, since I will need to lift the top of the mountain off for maintenance access to that track.

Around the corner on the east end of the yard and back into helix never, never land! Here you can see one of the helices 3/4ths completed. 

Thanks for following along!

Looking good Paul, really

Looking good Paul, really like the fact that most of the cars in the photo are going to haul coal.