ok guys... I havent posted anything on thsi for quite a while, and theres been some...significant....upheavals. I;ve moved from the 16x12 room I had to share with the guest bedroom into what I thought was a 12x12. Turns out its actually 4" less that that. Since 2 walls have to be accessible, I;ve elected to make a double deck 9'8 x 9'8 layout in HO. Lower deck construction has commenced. I managed to find 3 solid doors (not HCD's), and will fix them together as I get to them. I am currently working oon the lowest door and all track is laid and almost wired. I came across a whole lot of 1" polystyrene foam in various sizes, so I'm using that as the sub-roadbed and hot gluing track to it. Coming along nicely. Firstly, heres the track plans : Lower deck..bottom door is complete but wont be a dock..will be a cement plant. The top left is a helix that goes up to the top deck. The first loop of the helix actually extends outside the 'cylinder' a little so the track can be part of the continuous run segment....trains enter the heolix, do a half loop, and come back out to the lower deck, or stay on the helix and continue up. Upper deck...no continuous run... will post a photo shortly....puter goin crazy
heres a pic of the first part of construction. track is laid on styrofoam 1" thick. blue circles denote insulating joiners, red circles indicate power feeds. all the visible track is hot glued down. turnouts in the center will feed 2 yard tracks that will parrallel the track on the far left.
Disi, Looking good! I gotta say one thing... Most people remove the locks before building a door panel layout. Styrofoam for sound deadening? Interesting idea. How will you support the upper deck? I see pre-fabbed legs on the lower deck.
Solid doors. That should make for good construction. It surely reafirms my belief in the use of doors.
The locks are superfluous... LMAO....and its only the lock centers that are still there. The legs are actually saw horses, at this stage. The entire layout will be lifted a few inches when I put 'real' legs under it. At thist stage its 3 solid doors that make up the bottom, left side (then a 2" gap) then the top left corner. The rest will be more conventional benchwork. The doors still need to be bolted together, obviously, to stop them moving around, but still allow me to use em as a door again if I have too.. LMAO (yeah, like hell!)
Hmm, I dunno..maybe that could be used as a security measure. Could tell visitors that the layout doesn't function unless the door is unlocked! Mike C Phoenix Az
I changed it a bit guys... eliminated the helix because my Mikado REALLY doesnt like the grades required to get clearance in that radius, and went with a nolix. The nolix starts in the top right, goes along the top and left walls, then down the bottom door before hitting a switchback with 5' tail and climbing back the other direction. It emerges in the top right corner on the top deck. I also added a continuous run to the top level, just because I could. As fas as construction goes, I intend adding a fillet between the left and top dors (I need to fill a 2" gap there) and then all my 'door work' is complete. I can then finish the entire yard before going into more conventional benchwork for the 4' section in the top right. At this stage the saw horses will still be the support for the 3 doors, but that will change when I Start doing the benchwork for the balloon. Heres the new plans. : lower deck upper deck
I was just going to ask what radius your helix was as it looked really small and tight, thus increasing the grade even more. But I see you have elected to go with a switch back. The radius in the upper deck at the bottom, by the turntable looks tight, but I am guessing you tested your motive power on it to make sure they will work.
