Iain Rice book - Small Smart and Practical

One of Iain Rice's books has a very nice illustration. He shows "cookie-cutter" blobs on a shelf layout. I'm planning something similar - probably will use gator foam. Mine will  be rectilinear. I'll swap out buildings and vacant lots to maximize photos.

I'm pretty sure it's "Small, Smart and Practical Track Plans" from Kalmbach, but can't put my finger on it right now.

I’m using it on my Richlawn

I’m using it on my Richlawn RR.  Both the Fluke Transformer and Hoovertown Downtown scenes are on removable modules.  You saw them when you visited.  The removable modules are very nice on small layouts to allow for switching out for variety.

Don't recall that detail

Don't recall that detail Rich, but that's probably because I am dealing with 'information overload' in combination with a failing memory....

Mark, I saw a reference to that book you mentioned on Amazon, but I don't think I have the time to look at ANOTHER book on layout building.

I tore out a section of my layout

and replaced it with five "dominoes". I can't find any photos of the basic construction but it is foam core board with balsa wood bracing. Very light and plenty strong. The photo shows one of the dominoes being worked on at my desk. Anything I do in the future will probably be based on this method.

Very interesting topic

Very interesting topic here!

Rick (Sutton), i would be very much obliged to learn about the thickness for the foam-board and the balsa frame you used. Given that i got my tracks on 5mm cork sheet, i need to build my modules (similar to yours in concept, so that i can work on them on my workbench) on a 5-7mm thick base at most.

Hi Yannis

Here's a few photos of the modules/dominoes that I built to allow for removal to workbench. No track is on a domino, only structures and scenery. 

Area of domino modification. 4 sections surrounded by track on heavier construction. The track sections have had strips of wood added for the dominoes to bear on.

Domino construction. Foamcore is 5mm thick and balsa 1/2" (13.48mm). 

Removable scenery?

Rick, I can see the advantages of making removable modules for buildings, but does it really help much with scenery only modules?

1/4” MDF

I use 1/4” MDF as a base to build on. I complete each scene that might include several buildings and streets and trees vehicles and people. There are a number of advantages, you can build it on the workbench without having to reach into the layout, you can turn it upside down to install lighting, and a big one, you can remove it later to dust and clean it. I will do all buildings and scenes this way from now on.

Ken

No, I don't see any advantage to removable scenery only modules. Modules with a structure that blends into simple scenery....yes.

When I build a structure the only plan is in my mind and evolves as I go along so having some extra wiggle room for scenery, roads etc. on the module is very helpful.

Seasonal

I know some people model a specific day, but I always thought it would be neat to change the scenery for the seasons. Seems like this method would be useful for that.

Of course this would not be practical on a large layout as you would have storage issues.

Rick many thanks for the

Rick many thanks for the detailed reply and the explanatory pictures. They really helped. I take it that you placed the joints at strategically selected points where the asphalt road has a patch or transition etc?

I am planning to use this method since the start/design of my layout in order to deal with dense/deep urban scenes.

Unfortunately i cannot use these materials (foamcore/balsa) since i need each base to be at most circa 6-7mm thick. Given that i will be using 1.5 to 2mm styrene sheets for roads etc, i think i ll just make the whole base out of styrene laminations and have overlaps where there is a joint between the domino parts, selecting the placement of the joints at asphalt transitions, road markings, patches etc.... (open to any advice here both on the materials i mentioned and selecting the transition points/joints!)

In the past i have made removable scenery only pieces for my previous layout using foam. In my opinion that was easier (than urban modules/dominoes) since i could easily cover (blend) transitions between the dominoes using foliage etc...

Good eye Yannis

Yup, the module joints follow road and track edges wherever possible and hide from the eye pretty darn good.

I think that just about any material that is stable enough to not deflect while being moved by hand will do the trick. The stiffness requirement may restrict the size of each module.

 One more thing. I have found wood to be a very useful material for the foundation and inner walls of scratch built structures. Light, easy to obtain and larger pieces can used inside the building to solidly attach the structure to the module both to the benefit of the structure and increased rigidity for the module. As an example the barrel roofed Golden Pacific structure that is to the right in picture one is constructed with a thin plywood base and plywood side walls and once glued to the foam core makes for a very solid module and still plenty light to pull out of it's location......although that is not in the plans as I have moved on to other structures.

Thanks for the plywood

Thanks for the plywood tip!

Rick how thick is the plywood that you are using? Have you noticed any issues with warping etc?

I ll try and have a finished domino piece myself out of styrene (hopefully pretty soon) for a scene i am working on right now.

Plywood

I use 5mm (3 or 5 ply) poplar plywood. No noticeable warping but the photos illustrate that I'm pretty liberal with the glue and wood pieces!

Very solid!

Thanks for the very informative input Rick.

It seems that the modular-domino approach is very helpful-useful.

All of the scenery,

All of the scenery, industries, and the city scene on my layout is removable to expose the hidden track, and work on scenes.

Mike.

N-scale?

That is pretty lt-weight construction there Rick.
Am I correct that is n-scale??

And what brand foam-core was it that you utilized? It seems there are quite a few varieties of foamcore.

I am planning to use this

I just had a look thru that link you provided about your new layout build. Had a couple of questions,..,

1) What scale are you building in? I don't think I saw that mentioned?? You might put that on your site.

2) What is the reason,..." Unfortunately i cannot use these materials (foamcore/balsa) since i need each base to be at most circa 6-7mm thick."

Hi Brian

I'm a die hard HO guy.

 I don't know the brand of the foam core board. I purchased it at a Michael's craft store where I was able to talk the framing person and buy a large piece of what they used when framing a picture.

I suspect that is the 'paper

I suspect that is the 'paper faced' variety. I'm learning more about this stuff as I read about it on some of the 'forgotten / lost' subjects on this forum, particularly contributions by Prof_Klyzlr, and with a few recent inquires with my local sign shop. 

If I'm going to utilize such a product, I want to make sure it will stand up to some rather harsh conditions we can experience here in FL

Scale...

Brian, thanks for asking, the layout is HO scale, I mention it in the title of the blog's opening post.

The reason i mention the thickness constraints is that my track is on 5mm cork roadbed (sheet) that is laid on plywood subroadbed sheet. The adjacent pavement level must be no higher than the top of the railhead. Thickness of my tracks is circa 5mm, so i got a distance from plywood to top of railhead of 10mm approximately which is limit for the thickness for my domino-module. So i was off by 2-3mm when mentioning 6-7mm, i actually got something like 8-10mm max-thickness to work with when placing domino pieces onto the plywood so that they match the railhead height. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks Yannis

Thanks for that explanation. I was also unsure as to the extent of your construction at this point, as I did not detect cork roadbed laying in your blog or photos??

Guess I also missed the HO posting in the title. I better dbl ck with the eye doctor that just did my cataracts.....ha...ha

I have in mind covering all the plywood with foamcore, then making cutout portions with a sharp instrument for those areas I want to be able to 'extract' from the layout at certain times. The track itself then may, or may not, have its own roadbed (cork, perhaps 1/8") laid upon the foamcore.

No worries about missing the

No worries about missing the HO part, i probably should mention it inside the main text-body as well. Based on your feedback i added an index in the main blog post that you mentioned, to various extra blog posts that cover stages of the layout construction.

For example, i cover roadbed here

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/32921

Back to the topic:

I considered foamcore as well (i got some 5mm sheets). Following some experiments inspired by this topic, i see that with a few laminations of 2mm and 1.5mm styrene sheets, i think that i will be able to have styrene dominos similar to the foamcore/balsa that Rick made.

Brian - my Fluke Transformer base

You can see info about it here:   https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/ive-been-thinking-about-dioramas-12209040