XTrak dusted off

I have printed out the 1:1 XtrackCAD plans for Glanton and Cornhill and they are in place to assist with getting the best edge profile for the base boards.

Glanton:
 The reason all of the staging yard occupancy detectors are lit is because I haven't yet painted the bottom of the baseboard black. For the moment the detectors "see" the underside of the yard.

Cornhill:
 
There will be a lift-out section on the left, bridging the doorway.

The plan in this blog is to cover all of the track work and electricals. Later I'll blog each "module" separately when scenery work starts.

Rob Clark
 

Hey Rob

I really enjoy the wide view of the layout. In addition to the great modeling the overall presentation and the lighting are really beautiful.

Oh boy!

I look forward to following along. 

What did you use to print out the track plan full size? It looks like quite a few sheets. 

Paper, tape and patience

Thanks Rick - much appreciated.

Neil - I use a laser printer and some heavy grade A4 paper. Taping up is laborious but it all works:

 

After using for general layout and board profiling I also use it to mark the exact position of the roadbed.
I'll show this step later when I get to it.

Rob Clark

Large format printers?

There must be a "Kinko's" equivalent in the U.K. Even here in the middle of the pacific it only costs $3 (US of course) for a 24"x 36" print. I no longer own one but had two when in private practice. Now an 18" roll HP is capable of prints as long as the paper. Ironically I never used it for track layout as the "bent stick" has been my go-to method. 

It does seem that using a template to lay out a scene, trace to roadbed or plywood,and have a defined plan would be desirable (in retrospect).  But I, like you, enjoy the process and how it evolves from the minds eye to three dimensions and always open to change or input. 

Speaking of which, what is your idea for this town? I see a lot of sidings!

Grades and transitions

Neil - there may well be a suitable local print provider, but I am retired now, so sticking together a few sheets of paper is no big issue . XTrack is also very flexible in how it allows you to define which elements you want to print.
I have absolutely no idea (at this point) what industries are going to turn up on the lower deck. The only design criteria are a passing track and both facing and trailing point spurs. Things may change when I lay track.
Exciting isn't it ....

Here we see the East bound tracks leaving Cornhill:
 I have cut away the paper between the track bed sections and this will allow me to easily transfer the positions onto the foam road bed when it is applied to the plywood top.

 The rear track heads downgrade towards the staging yard and the middle track heads upgrade towards Glanton. The cutaways and slots allow the road bed to start flexing at the optimum point to get the minimum grade. The rear section has had its jointing plate fastened and the glue will dry overnight. When the loose roadbed section gets glued/screwed everything tightens  up and we get a smooth transition into the grade.

 
In this (uncharacteristically messy for me) photo you can see the other end of the grade with another jointing plate which functions the same as te one at the top of the grade. The staging yard entry turnout can just be seen on the right of the picture.

Rob Clark

Interesting thing Rob, I seem

Interesting thing Rob, I seem to remember either correctly or incorrectly a similar approach to your evolution of the helix. If memory serves me correctly nearly all of your layout was following a general design and then you altered it to get the look you were after. The evidence of your excellent work in the past makes this seem a very desirable means to a great looking layout.

Planning and deviation

Hi Rob - the way I look at it, you absolutely need a plan, but that's all it is - a guide and it's quite acceptable to deviate from the plan, as reality sets in and ideas change. You need to think carefully, but change can be a good thing.

This morning I fastened up the down grade ends and all worked to plan .

 
You can see how the jointing plate forces the slotted lead-in section into a transitional bend. This should guarantee smooth operation from the totally flat yard to the curve starting a downgrade into the staging yard.

Now I need to tackle the other end of Cornhill where we have a West bound mirror image version of this scenario, but complicated by the fact that it has to occur on a lift out section .

Rob Clark 

Excellent

I'm loving this Rob! I really enjoy the "two steps back-photo" as it helps visualize where your different towns are. Keep up the good work. I will be watching this space.

I'm following!

I'm always eager to see the next steps in your building process Rob!

Progress

Rob

Looking great.Love the backdrop. It will add greatly to the feeling of depth and size. Keep the posts coming

                                                                                                                                    Ray 

Doorways, lift-outs and keystones

Thanks Tore,Tim and Ray. Documenting what I'm doing helps a lot with the thought process. Sometimes even just taking a photo of what you have done and then looking at it can trigger a eureka moment.

The West end staging yard feed of Cornhill is in process:

 The approach I am taking is to temporarily ignore the structure of the lift out and just get the bare road bed perfectly aligned and the fixing method established. Then I'll build the lift out frame "around" the road bed depending on how I feel the land contours should go.

Removing the track plan gives a better idea of the construction and problems to solve:

 
I can't use a splice plate here to get a good vertical transition, so the slotted section of the main baseboard has been wedges and then a screw used to precisely set the start of the down grade. The track bed is sitting on a substantial batten and will be located using the "keystone" method. I think the last person I saw doing this was Dave Branum - so thanks Dave. A keystone wedge not only provides perfect alignment buts also a pretty much "fumble free" slot-in method.

Rob Clark

"The track bed is sitting on

    Hi Rob, Your benchwork joinery looks excellent, have you done lots of woodworking in the past?  I usually cut the keystone end plates from 3/4 " plywood so it can act as support and locator combined. I've found steeper end angles ( more vertical, just a bit of batter) work best for keystone plates. If they end up a bit loose one can shim the bottom and sides as needed. I saw a bridge once that had thumbscrew adjusters for the vertical and horizontal rail fine tuning if you want to get fancy :> )    On my new layout I'm just using a support batten with two steel locating pins,so far it's out working ok.   That end of bridge/benchwork connection on a angle makes it harder to layout pc board ties but gives a smoother crossing as only one wheel is on the gap at the same time......DaveB 

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

I'm reminded of the above quote from Helmuth Von Moltke, 19th century Prussian general.

Still enjoying your experiences and progress.

Rob,   looking forward seeing

Rob,

looking forward seeing your progress of lower deck. Great work until that!

Making keystones

Thanks Berhard - things should progress quite quickly now that I am retired .

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."

Chuck - an old (and much respected) boss of mine once said "There are only two kinds of plan - lucky and lousy".
A very wise man ......

Dave - my woodworking has been of the diy variety over the years, so I guess I just picked things up with time. In my case I also pay a lot of attention to what others do, take advice and apply a "I can do that" attitude, which has served me very well up to now.
Talking of taking advice, I like your idea of using ply - a stable and hard wearing material. I have used 5/8" here rather that 3/4" because its a light duty installation:

 I don't know if this is the "correct" way to make keystones, but I just marked them up on 6" x 3" piece of ply and cut carefully down the two key lines with a tenon saw.
Here you see the key being glued to the road bed. The screws are just to hold things together until the glue dries and the clamps hold the key in precisely the correct position. Grease proof paper has been sandwiched in the joint to prevent stray glue getting where it shouldn't.
When this has set I'll apply the two "stones" (which you can see standing on the baseboard) to the left and right sides of the key. Gluing and screwing will ensure an absolutely perfect fit - we hope ....

 
Both ends have been done simultaneously to make sure everything dries in correctly alignment.
When I'm happy that its working ok I will add some bracing structure. The idea is to keep things as light and strong as possible. This has to lift in and out very easily, locate 100% accurately and be durable.

Rob Clark

This has to lift in and out very easily

 Hi Rob, The deep keystones will make the alignment very positive and their depth will help prevent any twisting of the roadbed but might also make it hard to set the section in place.I don't know if the paper will give enough slack or not, battering the end pieces a bit in the longitudinal direction too would be desirable, perhaps you can plane them off on an angle to create some slack? With a curved liftout you also need to consider the balance point and might need some kind of  positive locking mechanism to keep it from tilting( although in this case the deep keystones might be enough to keep it level). I'm using tool box draw hasps on my S scale layout and bolts with wingnuts on my TT scale liftout ........DaveB 

Thanks Berhard - things

Congratulation, Rob!
Wish you many new successes with the new and won times of retirement!

Tweaking probably needed

"Perhaps you can plane them off on an angle to create some slack?"

Good point Dave - I have probably put this together with too little play in my enthusiasm for precision. I have a nice belt sander that I can us to "trickle" the end plates.

"With a curved lift out you also need to consider the balance point"

Yep - it was tending to twist, but I'll wait and see if the keystones stabilize it. I also need to consider some plug less power solution, so perhaps I can combine that with some positive locking - I'll muse on that one overnight 

Bernhard - I am finding (like many people I suspect) that the gift of extra time seems to get used up on "other" things as well as my railroad hobby. Still great fun though ......

Rob Clark

Terminology

Rob please don't take this the wrong way but your terminology was confusing me.  A keystone is the final block at the top of a curved stone arch.  What you are in fact making is a dovetail joint and a very wise selection for what you are trying to achieve.

The only issue with woodworking joints is that most are designed to be a fit and forget rather than taken apart on a regular basis. Wood remains a living thing even after it has been milled and will take up and release moisture as the ambient conditions vary. The net effect is that while the fit can be perfect on one day it may be a bit tight the next.

What I have used with some success is a combination of wood and aluminium.  In your example, you could use aluminium plates as the three dovetail components. 3mm thick plate could be tapped and screwed to the underside of your road bed. Or you could attach the plate to a more substantial hunk of ply. The key point (pardon the pun) is that the amount of expansion/contraction in the aluminium is of no concern to the effectiveness of the joint.

Irrespective, the process you are following is a great way of engineering a lift out. Once one of the three keys has been attached to the sub roadbed, the lift out can be clamped in perfect alignment and the remaining two keys screwed into place. 

Wood working terminology

Peter - the terminology confused me as well. I Googled "keystone joint" before I started work and got pretty much zilch (one relevant image I think). The reason I didn't call it a dovetail was because a dovetail is designed to keep things together and this is designed to  come apart . Perhaps there isn't an official term for this kind of thing or "reverse dovetail" could apply?

Good point about the movement of wood although I am fairly relaxed about this. The UK has seen a significant flattening of temperature extremes over the last few years and humidity levels are also quite stable. We live in a well insulated house and the new build extension that the train room resides in, is of high insulation standards and has only one outside wall.

I haven't seen any movement in the baseboard structures built to date (over a three year period) and this combined with the use of plywood for the lift out should keep me safe. That said, I'll trial the lift out for a few weeks and can change to aluminum keys as you suggest if it gives me problems.

The glue dried overnight so today I can finish basic construction today. But I need to take my car for servicing and rear tire replacement first .

Rob Clark

A pleasant surprise

Bracing now added which provides rigidity and location points for the front valance and rear scenery board:

 
You can't see in this shot, but I have added a couple of screws on the lift out end "keys" which can be used for very fine adjustment of the vertical batter (thanks for that idea Dave). This will allow for any fine tuning in the future if things move a little.
As it is I'm very happy. All you have to do is roughly line up the keys with the slots, leave go and it drops gently into place and locks without a hint of slack. Will it stay like this - time will tell?

Right now it's accurate, strong as an ox and light as a feather, also .......

 
Bang on the  2% grade that I had planned for almost three years ago when the wall battens were put up.

Right now my head has swelled up so much I can barely get through this doorway

Pride however, cometh before a fall - I just need to find out what that "fall" is and when I'm going over....

Rob Clark

that grade is 2 degrees, not

that grade is 2 degrees, not 2% but close. With the length of your trains and the length of the grade I suspect the point is moot.

If it was me, I would build

If it was me, I would build that section out of a piece of dry, reasonably dimensionally stable wood so it doesn't delaminate too much over time. Slipping it in and out of that key is going to make it delaminate, I suspect. 

Just a suggestion, and an observation. 

Paul