Making the Elevated Track Sections

Our latest work session, which was a long day of working, was to lay out the track locations on the plywood base and then cut the plywood in the "hill" section of the layout so we can elevate the track.

Here we are, ready for a work session in Jeff's shop; that's Norm on the left, Jeff on the right

We began by positioning the full scale pages on the plywood base until we got them into final position.

OK, so we had a little help getting the patterns into position on the plywood base

 The next task was to transfer the pattern to the plywood underneath.  To do this, we used a dressmaker's pattern tool called a pounce.  A pounce is a wheeled device with sharp spokes that poke through the pattern to the material underneath, in this case the plywood.

A dressmaker's pounce, also sometimes used to simulate rivets and nail holes in scale models

The recommended practice was to trace the pounce marks with a Sharpie, which was supposed to bleed through the holes left by the pounce and leave a trail on the plywood.  This, we found, was only partially successful, and we ended up re-tracing the pounce marks with marking pens so we would have lines we could follow when cutting out the plywood.

Here Norm is tracing the pounce wheel marks with a Sharpie; while some of the ink flowed through the holes, it did not leave the expected clear line for the saw to follow

We retraced the pounce marks, often better visible by the dents left in the plywood, so we would have clear lines to follow when we cut out the patterns with the jig saw

Next, we propped the plywood on 2X4s so we could cut out the patterns with a jig saw.

Jeff is cutting along the cut lines that mark the edge of the roadbed sections; in all cases we also marked the planned centerline for the track itself so that remains visible on the roadbed

Once we had the plywood cut, we clamped it into position at varying heights to plan the elevations we want to have for the final layout.  This is a critical phase, since it affects the rate of elevation and the difficulty trains will have climbing the ascents.  So, we only temporarily clamped the plywood into place to give ourselves plenty of time to think about things before we finalize them.

The layout with the plywood cut to shape for the roadbed and clamped into rough position to simulate elevations.  The plywood bent smoothly without kinks and it looks like this method will be successful in making a smooth-operating layout