Bernard: I saw that article, too. If I'm interpreting it correctly, didn't they drop the tortoise and perf-board into the foam hole from above? I wonder if putting ballast on the track (so it is essentially permanently attached to the layout) would prevent you from ever doing maintenance or repairs on your tortoise? omg: Unless you were willing to totally tear out the ballasted track for several inches in both directions from the turnout, plus side to side for the entire width of the perf-board.) On the other hand, if you had only attached the tortoise to the perf-board with wood screws, perhaps you could leave enough clearance to unscrew the tortoise for repairs. (But I'd think screwing the tortoise back on after repairs/adjustments would be a real pain in the caboose because the 1.75" of foam supporting the perf-board would obscure the screw holes... and cutting away enough foam to allow 1:1 size fingers in to hold the screws would also cut away enough foam that the perf-board would no longer be supported.:sad: ) Those of you using foam...or who also saw the article: am I missing something that would make future repairs/maintenance possible without tearing everything apart? (Missing important points has certainly happened to me before!!:embarassed: )
Dave, Excellent Point! Future maintenance would be extremely hard, I think one of the points the author was doing was eliminating the long rod that would have to go from under the table, through 2" of foam (or more) to get to the turnout. For my future, if I mount the tortise under the table on the plywood, what type of rod would you recommend to attach to the turnout. (I guess it would have to be stiff inorder to support the control of the turnout.)
I am Suffering Serious Yard Envy! Very nice! Is that sheets of cork? Do you have a track plan or did I miss it?
Hi Grey One, Yes those are sheets of cork, you can order them with ten in a box and I believe they are 5" wide. They are made by Midwest products. (I also ran out and used regular cork roadbed to finish) On the very first page is the blueprint of the layout in a thumbnail, it has been revised with the help of this forum. Originally only 10 trains could fit into the yard now 20.
Bernard: A few years ago (on a previous layout...sorry, no pictures of this solution), I had to mount a tortoise about 2 or 3 inches below the turnout. I used the piano wire provided with the tortoise but extended it by placing a brass tube over the end of the wire. The tube was about 2 inches long and about 1 inch longer than the part of the tortoise piano wire that extended above the tortoise's fulcrum strip and was only slightly larger than the piano wire. The bottom of the tube rested on the tortoise's fulcrum strip that the wire passed through and the top of the tube was just under the turnout throwbar. I then ran a brass rod down from the turnout throwbar about 1 inch into the top end of the brass tube so the tube formed a connector with the tortoise's piano wire in the bottom half and the turnout's brass wire in the top half. At another spot on that same layout, I had a turnout throwbar at the bottom of a Woodlands Scenics foam incline about 1/2 or 3/4" above the subroadbed. This was just a little bit beyond the reach of the tortoise's piano wire, so I tried to use brass rod of (about) the same diameter. The brass wire was too soft and flexible and I couldn't find piano (steel) wire at my local hobby shop, so I used a thicker brass rod and filed the end of the brass rod to fit into the hole in the tortoise's actuator. (It would have been easier to ream the hole, but I DIDNOT ream the hole because I figured I might eventually need the tortoise someplace else that did NOT require a bigger diameter rod.) If I recall correctly, I had to make the hole through the subroadbed a little bigger than the (1/4"?? 3/8"??) diameter suggested in the instructions because the tube hit the edge of the hole in the plywood/homosote subroadbed and didn't let the throwbar move its full distance, but just reaming the hole a little bit was sufficient.
Here are some more pixs of the layout, I jump around a lot so that when I finish something in one area and wait for it to set or dry, I'll work in another area. In one of the photos you will see a train on top of what will be a large mountain, I decided to run a small oval through the mountain and this is for my older DC trains that I find difficult to convert to DCC. (Those old 3-pole motor minitrix are hard to isolate the motor from the chassie same with some of the old Tomix trains, that's what you see running on top.) The 2nd and 5th photo is a shot of the cover of the large mountain, the whole top come off for matinence of the track and to get to any trians if there is a derailment. In an earlier post I showed what the inside of the mountain before I make the top. You also see a curved bridge I made, under that bridge will be a future stream running into a small lake to be made in that hydocal area of white. Dave, I've drilled the holes under the turnouts for future switch machines but haven't installed them yet but thanks for the information on how to do it, I'll have to experiment with it. There is one area that is 4" of foam to get to the turnout (yuck!) That's why the MR article interested me as a possible solution, but you are right, matinence in the future would be extrememly hard.
Which of the bullet trains do you like the most? Can you give me an idea of the size of the yard? I am planning my own. Thanks!
Hi Grey One, The yard I would say is about 3' wide and 7' in length. As far as my favorite bullet trains that a little difficult, I really like the tilt trains "Komome" (2nd train in the yard pix, next to the 800 bullet the same one you have and another one I really like.) There are 3 I'm not wild about, the orange TGV. The coupling isn't great and the pentagraphs are extremely fragile on the engines. The Sunrise Express has a problem with the couplers on the motor unit, they will fall off. I had to do work on them so they would stay on. And last, the 700 bullet. For some reason, because the cars are longer, I had to design the layout radius for this train. If the 700 can make the radius, all the trains will make the radius. But as I said, you really got a good one, the 800 is great.
Benard, Thanks for the reply. What is the minimum radius for the 700? My main line will have to be 15 due to a 4-8-4 I bought for Rrrr. I just acquired the "400" from Ed. I love it though it is a bit noisy. I wish I had the nerve to paint one up in Great Northern Empire Builder and the other in Baltimore and Ohio Blue / Gold. Have you found any drawings of any bullet trains?
Grey One, I have a Bullet train 100 which was made by Kato I think in the 80's. It runs beautifully but also is a little noisy. My min. radius is 17.5" and max is 22". Besides the 700, I also have a 500 and a 800 bullet, they have the longer cars, so I didn't want to take a chance on those three trains wouldn't make the radius. But your 800 has no problem making the 15" radius on unitrack, since I used Altas flex track could that have made a difference? Try this out, isn't a link to Japanese bullet trains and what trains have been made into models and which companies are making the models. Hope it's helpful: http://japanese-model-supplies.com/JBTM/ Joe Daddy, Thanks. Everyday I commute to NYC by train and before going into the tunnel into Manhattan I pass Sunnyside yard which is owned by Amtrack. sometimes you get to see the Acela in the yard, what a beautiful train. I've always wanted to travel on it and hopefully someday I will. But I was lucky enough to travel on a Bullet train in Japan, there was nothing like it, it was so smooth you felt like you weren't moving. When did you take the Acela and where did you travel to?
Joe Daddy, Thanks. Everyday I commute to NYC by train and before going into the tunnel into Manhattan I pass Sunnyside yard which is owned by Amtrack. sometimes you get to see the Acela in the yard, what a beautiful train. I've always wanted to travel on it and hopefully someday I will. But I was lucky enough to travel on a Bullet train in Japan, there was nothing like it, it was so smooth you felt like you weren't moving. When did you take the Acela and where did you travel to?[/quote] Bernard, While I live in Colorado, my work takes me to the East coast occasionally. I had the pleasure of riding the Acela 4 times last year from Baltimore airport (BWI?) to Penn Station. What a way to travel, beats the bird all to there and back. And I rode the local from New Haven to BWI as well and it was nice too, a bit rougher ride than the Acela. It is the comfort and room you get in a train. Too bad we cannot get similar service across the country. Nice pictures dude, Love them trains. I model the 50's ATSF, but I just like trains. Joe Daddy hisself
Here are more photos of the progress of the Bullet train layout. I've been workingon the West side of the layout and have been working on the small mt and portals. I'm at the point were I've add the ground cover and rock formations.
Here are some more photos of different area of the layout. I'm trying to arrange where I want to put to small towns on the layout in the west area. Both will be along side the river with maybe the main attraction on the large town a "fishing tourment" in progress. Also everything on the DCC side works with so far no problems. The first photo I'm playing around with a small city area with a hospital on the North/east section but I'm not sure what I want to do there as of yet.
That's looking great! I really like the Japanese bullet trains, but I really like the Enoshima Dentetsu & Kiso Forrest Railways. I'm lloking forward to watching your progress. -Cody
Thanks Cody, I'm learning a lot as I go along. What's that old expression, experience is what you get when you were looking for something else. But I'm having a great time building it. Do you have any photo of the Enoshima Dentetsu & Kiso Forest RR that you could post? I'm curious to see what it looks like.
Hi Grey One, That is a tough question because prices on these items are so varied, plus some of the trains are not always available. There is a seller in Japan, Jun at Plaza Japan (on ebay) who is very reliable and his prices aren't bad. (Plus his shipping is very fast, I got items in 2-3 days from Japan.) Even though there are no taxes, you will make it up in the shipping. I really lucked out on one set when the store owner had the priced marked low. I asked him why and he told me there is no motor in the set. I took a chance and bought it, I took it home and it ran, it's then that I realized that he didn't know the motor wasn't in the head engine but in the middle car. The next time I went to the store I told him and he was really good. His policy was, "That was the price I had it marked at and a deal is a deal." He never ordered any more bullet trains because he told me he had a hard time selling them.
It's good to hear there are honest folks on eBay! I've dealt with PlazaJapan and he's pretty good with extremely fast shipping. Osaka, Japan to NJ -> ordered Tuesday, got it Friday!!!!!!
Hi MK, Good to hear form you, how's Jersey? Plaza Japan was a big surprise but you really have to hunt to get a reasonable price on the Kato or Tomix sets. I had on ebay seller in Japan who had great prices but an average rating. I took a chance on a small item got it 3-4 weeks later but wrapped in a brown paper bag sealed with scotch tape, I don't know how I got it in one piece (or through customs packaged that way.) On Bullet trains or Japanese Rail it's rare that you can find them at your local hobby store. Even a lot of the online stores don't carry them.
