I have begun construction on my new layout - the U & I railroad. Its an N scale shortline railroad set in the eastern coal country in the early 1900's. The layour it built on a HC door and will operate a small passenger train as well as move coal from the local mine to the interchange point. The track plan (below) may be familiar from another thread. Here, I will share the steps of building the layout. We start with the "plywood pacific" After adding a 1 inch foam base, I jsut can't help but throw some track down and take a train for a few spins.
Continuing with the first steps, you can see here I'm mocking up the elevations. That 4% grade will challenge the early steam locomotives. Good thing its a short line and the trains will be short as well. The next step is to install the woodland scenics inclines for a nice smooth grade and begin adding additional foam board to start building up the scenery levels. More to come soon....
I've always liked that basic track plan. Sure looking forward to seeing how it appears when scenery starts. Boxcab E50
Yes, Its a 4% grade. It goes up 2 inches in just 50 inches of distance. Its on a corner to boot. Before I made anything permenant, I did lots of testing to see how the trains could pull up the grade. Trains will also go up empty and down full. Given that I will be actually loading the hoppers at the mine and emptying them at the interchange, loaded or unloaded will make a difference.
How many cars were you able to pull up a 4% grade and what loco used? The reason I ask is that I am planning on using 4% inclines due to space issues.
Well, sort of. my plan is that as cars go under the tipple, they will be manually loaded with coal through a modified mine building. I will pour coal into a hatch on the back side of the top of the building. The coal will then funnel down into the hoppers. Once the car is moved to the interchange, when it comes off the layout the coal will be dumped back out and the car returns to the mine empty. Update: I have been working to add the foam board to the layout building up the scenery structure and getting rid of the temporary foam blocks that were holding the layout up. Here you can see how I've covered over the inclines at the town end of the layout. I used paper towel dipped in plaster. I prefer to use the plaster guaze for casts you can buy at the store, but I waited until late Saturday night to do this step and there wasn't any place open to get the plaster guaze.
The area around the incline will be filled in as scenery work continues. In really sticks out right now with both sides being so much lower. On the mountain end of the layout, I have begun setting up the lower tunnel and the basework for what will be the higher level. The foam core board is glued in place and provides a nice lightweight base for the mountain and the 2nd level of the track to be built on. In the last picture, you can see a space cut out where a tunnel portal will go.
Lookin good, beginning to make me wish I was using unitrack on my layout, I would be able to have trains up and running, and you've also inspired me to get some beginning photos of my layout posted up. keep up the good work!
Its taken me awhile to get around to posting on the progress. Here are some updates of working on the basic ground shapes.
I need 4 portals for the layout. Rather than buying all four, I bought two and decided to cast two copies in resin. It really wasn't cheaper, but it was a good learning process on resin casting. I have many other things I wan to cast, so this was a good learning opportunity. I painted some the terrain to get a better idea of the shape. Sometimes its hard to tell when its different materials and colors. The next step was building culverts where the creek goes under the track.
More pictures of the culvert going in: This one shows it painted. The ground work around it is still unfinished (obviously).
hrmm posted about your culverts in another thread, just wanted to say again after seeing more pics that its lookin good! What do you use for carving down into the foam?
I just use an old steak knife. There are many methods that are probably better, but I use what I have. I take an old knife and hack away.
I have begun working o nthe tunnels on the far end of the layout. Its not something you hear about often, but I found foam core board a great way to make platforms for the layers above. Once the tunnels are set up, I can fill in the rest of the mountain. I'm unsure what method I'll use for that. It will probably depend on whatever is handy.
Even during construction, sometimes you have to stop and run some trains.... the 2-8-0 consolidation coming right at me. I really like this engine. The coal train crosses the bridge heading for the Klo-E Co. mine. Ok, back to work.... this shows the creekbed running along side the track on the lower level.
I'm filling in the basic scenery forms with plaster and sculptamold. Here you can see the basic form of the creek bed. I used anythng available to build up the mountain. Better than throwing the boxes away, I used them in the mountain: Here is a picture showing both sides of the culvert mentioned above.
Continuing work on the mountain. Here I am using plaster gauze to make a hard shell covering. The finished mountain shape
