im new to the board, and am building a i think its a 4x6 layout, not sure it was my little brother who bought all the track and built the table, it sat in our basement for a few years and i thougth i would start working on it. now my brother and i are working on it again. my first question is how much clearence should a bridge have under it for another train to pass under? we got alot of stuff done on it last night, pictures will be posted later.
On the bridge clearance, I use the "tallest car" method. Take the tallest car you are going to run and make sure it clears. Otherwise, 2" above the railhead should clear everything.
First welcome to TrainBoard. As Tetsu Uma stated above the "Tallest Car" is a good way to calculate the needed height. Just remember what the "Tallest Car" you have now may not be the "Tallest Car" in the future. I think that an auto rack car is the tallest one of normal production that most people would have. Without measuring it I beleive that it takes the better part of 1.5 inches above the railhead to clear. If you can go with the 2 inches. With that you will not have any trouble. Gary
thats what my plan was but im not sure what cars im going to run seeing as i only have a few right now since im new to the hobby, i will eventually add more and want to be open to alot of different things, so 2" sounds like the plan of attack.
True story... a friend of ours is doing a large layout based on the Northern Pacific. We finally got one of the Atlas First Generation "Pig Palace" 85 foot hi-cube stock cars for him and we've been using it to test out the clearances. All was well. Then, I happened to put an old forty foot car on the track, I forget which kind exactly, but one of the "entry level" items... and it didn't clear! Yikes! It was sufficiently out of scale to actually be taller than the Pig Palace. The two inch clearance estimate should be fine. Just be sure that it's from the bottom of the higher track (including roadbed, plywood, whatever) to the very top of the lower track, usually the railhead.
2" Vertical clearance should be enough. By far my tallest car is a Bachmann N crane & boom car set, which is 1" 3/4 high above the rails. The N scale NMRA gauge also measures just a bit less than 1" 3/4 (or, as we say in metric: 44 mm). Local shortlines often have an excuse to be more restricted, but you have to keep this in mind when running trains :tb-biggrin: Egbert
so progress is being made and most of the elevation is done, and im smoothing it out with some of that plaster stuff. the second question i have is what do i use to lay my track to the wood/plaster/foam? im using bachmann ez track.
I think using a hot glue gun to secure sectional track to the layout is one of the more preferred methods.
Two inches should work on clearance. As far as using a glue gun to adhere track, I would place a small amount of hot glue under each end of each section preferably in the middle of the track. Make sure you keep the glue away from the rail joiners.
Yo one note on track clearance, which probably doesn't apply to you but is worth noting anyway... Two inches *MAY NOT* be enough if you're running electric prototypes, with pantographs. More than a few of us who model the Japanese trains have found that 2", minus a standard roadbed/rail height, plus pantographs, is not quite enough. Something to keep in mind if you think you might ever run an Acela, a GG-1 or a foreign prototype.
so some progress has been made and i think tonight i may lay some track, and get some pictures up too.
