Weekend Update 17/09/11

Hey everyone,

No trackwork this week, have been busy arranging the next couple of weeks work. shortly I'll be ordering some track and points for the initial run of the track, the helix kit, and the cork roadbed. Until then, here is a picture of the finished CTC panel in CTI that I'll be using:

Weekend Update 10/09/11

After a slight delay over the weekend, I have managed to finish early this week what I wanted to finish on the weekend - the lower level roadbed:




Left Hand Side ("Spencer")



Future Site of Staging



The Peninsula, with Theta Loop and the Branch line with the 2% grade towards Theta down the rear of the peninsula - since this picture was taken the spline has been laid properly for the branch


I have decided to change my construction timeline by not laying the upper level roadbed until both helixes are installed - this is mainly for two reasons:

1. The roadbed will need to attach to the helix in some way on the upper level, and it has to swing off the helix to do this. Rather than lay the spline and then need to re-lay it later, I've decided to hold off second level roadbed progress. Compared to the first level it is a lot simpler, as the spline will be single track.

2. The two helixes are prefab kits to ensure reliability, as I don't trust myself to make a reliable helix with a steady grade and curvature. To save any headaches later on, I'm going with a kit with a ~19" rise between the two levels, which is ample.

With this change I've decided to move up the track laying and roadbed stage for the lower level, so I can lay track for the lower level and helix before starting the upper level. I may not lay the track, incase I need to make minor adjustments - but I'd like to make a start on the roadbed at least.

You may notice in a couple of photos that as I began to put the spline onto risers, I lowered the loop line around the peninsula. Rather than using double layers of cork, I've opted for this solution instead - luckily as well the wood involved in the other parts of the roadbed is a couple of millimetres lower than the spline, which should give a good indication of main and secondary lines.

Thats it for now, pics are below...



Left hand side, not sitting on risers




What I started with, before installing the risers and other parts of the roadbed




A view looking down the Theta branch towards the peninsula




Here the Theta Branch Leads into East Theta




A view showing the grade difference of the branch and mainline. Also note the slight change in height between main and loop lines.



Weekend Update - 05/09/11

So in the past weekend, and the week leading up to it, I have managed to complete the primary roadbed for the lower level. I am in the process of ordering a Helix and some extra wood to fill in the gaps where the rest of the track is - I am only using spline for the mainline run, as it will give me some flexibility with the placement of the sidings and smaller sections of track.

In other news

-Managed to install a TCS M1 decoder into a Bachmann SD45, and am beginning to fit micro-trains trucks to some walthers stack cars. Am still waiting on a shipment of FVM metal wheelsets to be used for Block Detection.

-Am currently researching the Helix Designs, I am still going for a prefab kit, and will be ordering it in the coming weeks.

-All going well, roadbed and track will be going down sometime in October, with some sort of trains running by xmas - even if it is train order working!

-Aaron.

Laying of the 1:1 track plan, and beginning to lay the key spline

Initial Clamping

More Clamping 

The completed Lower LHS Spline

Continuing forward around the peninsula

Beginning to clamp the second curve

The completed LHS Spline

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Another view of the RHS Spline, and the loop line on the peninsula

Weekend Progress 28/08/11

Well its all finished, the baseboards, lighting and background have been completed.




Completed Left Hand Side






Completed Right Hand Side



 All in all it was a pretty straightforward process, Friday night the LED lights arrived at 6pm, by 10:30 I had this:




LED Lights installed

 By Saturday night, I had installed all of the remaining backscenes, and begun filling/sanding/painting the backscenes. Once I bought the paint home I realised that it was far too blue:

Looks more like the ocean, not the sky...

Fortunately I found a large tin of white paint in the shed, same brand and low sheen.. So after mixing a bit of both, it bought it to a much more natural colour:

Sanded and ready for a proper shade of blue

So on Sunday afternoon, 2 coats of blue paint now looks something like this:

When I first hooked up the LED's, I calculated I would probably need 4 transformers, at 5A each. While at Bunnings on Saturday I walked past a cheap multimeter and checked the four transformers - they where only pulling around 1.7A each, so I merged the two sides into a transformer each:

Thats it for now, next week I start the spline roadbed, which will be a bit of a challenge.. during the week I'll cut and tape the layout 1:1 plan together so I can mark the risers before I start the splines..

-Aaron.

Evolution of Design, Part 1

So my previous post was a quick introduction into the layout - Since construction is still about a month away, I'm going to review the design process and show how the layout has evolved into what it is today.

Lower Level - v1:

Upper Level - v1:

As you can see, it is quite sparse!

After talking to some people about the design, and researching the actual baseboard layout, it was realised that there was a lot of wasted space on the second level, even with 25cm wide modules. If you look at the second level, you can see it has a 'teardrop' shape. This serves two purposes:

-Large Radius curve, and subsequent crossing loop - allows the trains to look realistic as they traverse this part of the track, tight curves cause the bogies to swing out from under the chassis otherwise.

-Ability for crews on the line to pass in the ailes where they would congregate: The control points, and the upper level yard.

I'll mention here that I'm a member of the NMRA, and subsequently I have tried to design this layout with NMRA Recommended Practices and Standards. This allows the minimum radius to be calculated depending on what type of locomotive is being used. Since the layout is geared to modern image 70ft+ locomotives will be common, for example  GE GEVOs, SD70Ms and most likely SD90MACS. Consequently the curve radius is quite large. In the design above the track radius through the teardrop is 26" for the main, and 24.5" for the loop. The minimum curve radius is 15" on the helix, and 23" on the curves leading to the peninsula.

Evolution of Design, Part 2

yoIts been a while since my last article on the design stages of the layout, so here we go with part 2. I am going to cover the first couple of versions of the plan, there is about 5 or 6 revisions before the current form.

Version 1.0: (pretty sparse, aint it?)

I got a lot of my inspiration from the CSX Dixie Line, http://csxdixieline.blogspot.com/ - if you see Jamie's plan you'll see I have followed a similar form. I started with a basic form, to get the curvature and basic track plan down. As you can see there is no benchwork integrated on the drawing, just the premise that the width is 25cm for each module, (except the peninsula)

Version 1.0a

From what I can acertain the only difference between this and v1.0 is the addition of basic geometry for the benchork, moving on to:

Version 1.3 (don't ask why I skipped versions 1.2 and 1.1):

After working on the basic geometry on the previous plans, I have further developed this to split the layout into 'modules' to streamline construction. you may have noticed in some of the photos on the blog that the build has been in stages, and that each area is of similar design. I believe at this point operations was starting to become a contributing factor in layout design, as building the CTC Panel started to change parts of the layou to streamline operations.


Version 1.3a:

This version has a slightly expanded yard, and the lineside towns and industries are starting to form. At this point, the towns where known as Alpha, Beta, Theta, and Gamma. Only one of those names exists on the current plan.

The Peninsula is known as Theta, and in the next couple of revisions is one of the more re-worked areas. on this plan you can see there are two areas of theta, both containing branches. since they are lineside on the loop they can become bottlenecks for through freight trains when arranging a cross. Because of this, it was removed in future versions. An inclusion of the double track helix is also a method to reduce traffic congestion on one of the busiest parts of the line, as well as a part with the longest run time between crossing loops.

That will do for this post, next time I'll delve into a double track design, and the reasons why i didn't go down that path.

And to finish, a couple of YouTube videos of trains on Cowan Bank - can't beat the old 44's...

Track Plan

Name: UP/BNSF Steino Subdivision
Scale: N (1:160)
Size: 4.5m x 2.8m
Prototype: UP/BNSF Shared Trackage
Locale: Midwest
Era: Modern
Style: Double-deck, around the walls with peninsula
Mainline run: 28.49m
Minimum radius: 12.75" (on helix)
Minimum turnout: Peco No.6 Frog, largest turnout.
Turnout Motors: Tam Valley Controllers, Micro Servos.
Maximum grade: 2.5 percent in helix
Signalling System: CTI Electronics CTC Custom build
Roadbed: Spline/Plywood board

Lower Level:

Upper Level: