Two Worlds RR
Hi all,
I'd like to share with you the start, progress and re-start on my eclectic HO scale layout.
A rr modeller since I was a child, I've been interested in US-themed rr's since the early 1990's. SoCal/Cajon Pass and the Santa Fe /BNSF transition era was to be the theme for my layout, had I not fallen into a great appreciation for the south of France and the French railways.
How to accommodate all of this in a single layout?
Well, I tried. One side of the layout has 2 levels, on top there is Southern California (inspired by Pelle Soeborg's layout), on the bottom level there's France with a small town and its station, and the hidden staging.
The other side of the layout hosts a Cargill grain elevator which could be either in Europe or in the US, depending on the operating sessions.
It may sound a bit confusing, here are a couple of screenshots of the preliminary plan.
The basic structure was up when I found out humidity and moss were damaging part of a wall, and reaching that spot for fixing it required taking down 3/4 of the layout.
See the far corner on the left? the most inaccessible one of them all...
I tried to think positive: that was my chance to re-do the layout structure.
I decided to use plywood instead of solid wood. And most importantly I decided to go modular so that if we ever move I just need to use a wrench, not a chainsaw.
And, as of last weekend everything you see in the above photo has been disassembled and I put together the first 2 modules. There will be a total of 2 single-level and 4 double-level modules.
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On the previous structure I focused on speed, I just wanted to lay some tracks and start running trains. (wrong approach, I know)
On the new modular structure I'm focusing on a precise and solid benchwork, taking my time and doing things properly. So far I'm very happy with it.
Next weekend will be fight-the-moss day, once that's taken care of I will continue with the layout.
Oh, I forgot to mention I live in NW Italy!
Ciao,
Guido
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Bridges
With the tracklaying in the hidden stagin yard completed, I turned my attention to the bridges area.
My layout format is a walk-in. Tracks run along the walls forming a sort of oval shape, there is a 20", 50cm wide entrance and there are 2 lines on two different levels crossing this gap.
I designed and built a double bridge, the higher one uses a Central Valley Pratt truss bridge, the bottom one is built out of wood and covered with Micro Engineering truss bridge sides.
The whole thing is laser-cut from 3mm, 4mm and 6mm plywood.
You can either duck-under to get into the layout or, each bridge can be lifted-out. Magnets and a double tab-and-slot system hold the bridges in place. Power to the rails uses small wires and an RCA connector for each bridge.
Well, 6 months after taking down my old layout structure and starting a-new, the bridges are back in place.
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Hello Guido
WOW! First class carpentry and first class track laying. Wonderful. This shall be an interesting thread to follow.
Which part of Southern France will you model? I really like the Bordeaux to Bayonne segment, and I am bias as well. In any case thanks for sharing.
Boone giornata vi ha Guido
Hi MLW, Thank you, this is
Hi MLW,
Thank you, this is not my first layout but it really is the first time I'm forcing myself to take the time and do things properly, double checking everything before securing it, I want to privilege reliability over "getting things done quickly so I can run my trains".
The Southern France area I'm modelling is freelanced, the prototypical inspiration comes from the Marseille to Nice line. That means hexagonal-stone walls, light earth colors for the buildings, the landscape is usually quite dry and barren and not sooo much different from the SoCal area I'm modelling on the top level.
Ciao,
Guido
Tracks are in place at the
Tracks are in place at the south end, bottom level of the layout. As soon as my new Proxxon drill arrives I'll cut the tracks at the junctions between modules. My old and trusted Minicraft (bottom left in the photo) is starting to be a bit tired and cutting rail+ties+cork is just too much.
The first turnout of the bottom level station is in place. The two spur tracks use a thinner cork to simulate lighter rails, the transition from 5mm to 3mm thick cork will be under the switch, this way the tracks will be level (I don't like runaway cars...)
Level 1, completed
Last night I finished laying the tracks on the bottom level. The photos show what will be the small town station. The station building will be located on the outer side of the curve, and there will be a short spur with a freight depot.
Part of the mainline is already wired, I need to connect all the feeders to the DCC bus on the rest. I hope to publish a video in a few days!
Guido
Wiring
With the track laying on the bottom level completed, time to turn my attention to the wiring.
First task, Color Coding. Each track in the hidden staging, each powered turnout have their own color, and finding wires in so many different colors was not easy. DCC bus, blue and brown, 14V gray and yell/green, 12V red and black, etc.
Being modular means the wiring needs to be modular too, so each module has one or more 8-way connectors at each end. In addition to the color coding I found some very handy labels that you slip on the wires so it's easier identifying which one is which.
I used AWG14 wire for the DCC bus, the 14V line for the Peco switch machines, and the 12V line for the relays that turn the power to the hidden staging tracks on or off.
AWG20 wire for the drop feeders and connections branching out from the main buses.
AWG24 wire for the turnout frogs.
My reccommendation: do not attempt wiring a layout without a good wire stripper!
Guido