Construction begins

I used 3/16" thick luan to form the base with a 2" thick foam insert.

Holes were cut into the bottom for excess for wiring and mechanicals.

Begining of laying out the track work.

Working out the elevation pieces to get from ground "0" to 4" up.

Working on getting a nice vertical transition curve.

All roughed in ready for some track to test out the grade. The grade figured out to be a little over 9%.

Next is some track work. But first I needed to make it. Next posting will show how I solved that problem.

Bernd

I remember this one.

Way back then I thought this plan interesting, except that there is no "run-around" track that I could see.  How is operation accomplished as you see it?

Operation

Future plans call for two more modules to be built. One will come off the right hand end to a logging engine terminal. The track to the left on the bottom will extend to an eventual coal mine. This will all end at a yard yet to be designed that will interchange with a main line which will eventually be the third module.

Bernd

Two locomotives were used.

Two locomotives were used.  One worked the lower level and pulled the cars onto the lower tail track.  . The other pulled the cars up the hill and worked the upper level..

Built a version of this too..

Back while in college (early 70s) I built a longer version of this RR.  I think it was 10 feet long. Motive power was a set of little Ken Kidder plantation engines that got transformed into 'woods'  locos.  It was a fun little RR to operate and represented my first 'good' RR. 

Rick

Operations

The two locomotive concept, especially on a longer shelf  does sound neat.  Bernd's future plans for additions to this plan looks like a pretty interesting idea. Nice use of an old plan.

Track Time

I was ready to lay some track to test out the grade to the first level to the switchback. But there is no TT track available in Code55 flex. What to do? Well, make my own. I had been trying to come up with a faster way to lay track then individual ties. I wondered if resin was flexible enough when hard. Here's what I did. I built a mini-diorama to for prove that resin track will work.

I used DraftSight 2015 x64 CAD program to design the master molde.

Once that was done the program was saved as a DXF file to input to the CAM program (CamBam) to generate the G-code for the machine to understand. Once that was done it was time to mill out a piece of Plexiglas.

Next an aluminum collar was made.

The center was milled out where the rubber would be poured.

Time to pour the rubber master.

After waiting 24 hours for the rubber to cure it was time to pour the resin track section. The section is not quite 9 inches long.

The end result. Not bad.

I poured several more sections after making a number of rubber molds. It takes about 15 minuets for each section of resin tie strip to cure. So making a couple of rubber molds you can crank out track sections quite fast.

Next I made a small diorama to test the track out for looks and function.

A quick spray of brown to give color to the tie strips.

Rails were glued on to the tie strips with Pliobond© and held down while the glued dried with code 70 spikes. Even the code 70 spikes are to big to be used for TT scale track.

And the track on the module.

That's about where the module stands for now. I did start some scenery work on the mini-diorama to try out an old technique called "foiling rocks". I'll post that in the next installment.

Bernd

A member of our ho module railroad club used it in a module.

"Way back then I thought this plan interesting, except that there is no "run-around" track that I could see.  How is operation accomplished as you see it?"

He built it 2 feet wide and two 5 foot modules put together to make 10 feet.  The diagonal track on the lower level was doubled to make a run around.  The front of the module contains the double track mainline required by our club standards.  The end of the run around track is 12 inches from the front of the layout.  Frequently this module set is installed with another module from another member or one of our corner modules that has a track set back 12 inches allowing for continuation onto another module.

The track going up the hill is quite steep, but there is only room for an Alco S1-4, or an sw type switcher with two 40-50 foot cars to clear the switches on the upper level, so the steepness of the grade is not an issue.

Track Jigs and Turnout kit

This project has been held up for the lack of Code55 rail flex track for TT gauge. What to do. Easy. Make my own. With the resin track sections the part of the problem was cured. What about plain straight track? Well, I came up with a jig from a picture I saw on one of the forums. Little did I know Fast Tracks had a jig like this, except it was the wrong gauge. So I made my own with an added feature. One thing you can't do with a Cricut or laser.

On the other side I milled in a tie spacing jig. The ties are spaced 21" on center. A prototypical tie spacing for the main line.

The jig filled with ties.

Code55 rail soldered to PC ties. The PC ties are spaced every 5 tie on 21" centers like the wooden ties.

A three foot section

A 3 foot section, it's not glued down. Just want to see how it turns out.

But I also needed turnouts, Code55 number 4's. Again I made my own.

Here's the procedure. In a CAD program draw up a turnout of the frog angle you need and draw the proper length ties in.

Next, import it into CamBam to produce the cut path and generate the G-code. First the cut paths.

Next the G-code is generated from the cut path.

The G-code is then loaded into the mills controlling computer and the run button is pushed. This is the end result.

I now have enough turnouts for laying the track on the module.

Next up. Some fixtures/jigs to make the frogs all the same.

Bernd

I thought you might like to see this city version.

There is a YouTube link right at the top of the page.  http://www.cityclassics.biz/news/roadshow_layout.html

A little more action fit into this one.

Den

GS&S City version

Neat little layout. Thanks for posting.

Bernd

Reloaded Pictures

Can't figure out why all the pictures disappeared. The link was there. After reloading with the URL they appeared again. Something changed somewhere. The same pictures never disappeared on other sites. Still have some fixing to do on other posts.

Bernd

I built this is the late 1960's

I built this layout in the late 1960's, about 1968, when I was in high school. It was on the widest side wall of my parents garage just beyond the garage door. Width of the space between door and wall about 12" to 14" and 8' long. Coming from a railroad family I approached this concept a bit different. On the bottom level instead of the track and buildings I had three stub tracks. Third, shortest, track was the interchange track to the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad. The other two yard tracks.

On the switch back I had an industry on the tail track and another industry at the end of the top level. Another improvement I made was to extend the bottom track that was below the top level on the left 6" by curving to the wall and running the track under the hooks we had in the garage to hang coats on. The made the shelf from 2"x4" pine with a second 1"x4" above to keep the coats from hitting my train. 

Operation wise I kept one engine in the yard. Train train came out from under the coats and pulled into one of the two yard tracks. The engine in the yard than moved the cars away from the inbound locomotive and did the switching with the help of the second engine to get cars on the other end of to spot at the industry at the top of the switchback. 

For operation I used Charles Small's waybill concept of a 3"x5" file card with a list of spots for the car with a paperclip. The paperclip was slid down the side of the card as each spot was made for the car. I had movements from the inbound train and to and from the interchagne track.

When done switching the two engines were used to build the outbound train and it ran back behind the coats. No idea that I was ahead of the hobby with a staging yard decades before they ever appeared in print.

Another older thread missed until now

Don't know how I missed this one either. The G&S is my second all time favorite track plan ranking just behind the original G&D. Two absolute classics. I often considered using the G&S plan as the basis for a pike but I always had in mind extending the  overall length to lessen severity of the grade. I even experimented with plans of it in an L configuration. As it turns out I ended up with a sort of G&S style switchback grade on my current pike. It's 4% and completely hidden though. I love this thread. We all know what fine work Bernd does and his idea of casting his own track is quite a good little bit of innovation.

Robert, Michael

Surprised to see this pop up again. Haven't done much on the modules. As a matter of fact I have put the G&S on the back burner and started another TT scale module that was presented in Model Railroader December 1963 issue. The G&S will still be part of the modular parts. If you go here it explains my plans for a TT scale modular set up to take to local shows. http://www.kingstonemodelworks.com/TT.html

Michael thanks for the kind words. Have been busy working on some TT scale chassis's of a shell of a U30b a member on TTnut forum designed.

Bernd