More Roadbed!

As we explained in a previous post, we're using cork for the roadbed, gluing it to the plywood base with brown silicone sealant.  We had traced the planned rail locations using a pounce, or dressmaker's wheel, and then darkened the lines made by the pounce with a marking pen.  Following that, we inserted push pins at the mid-point of the lines, spacing them about every six inches or so.

The yard section of the layout, with push pins marking the centerpoint of the intended rail lines.

Then we laid out the cork against the push pins, cutting it to shape where needed to fit the turnouts.  We pinned the cork into final location to ensure that we had everything cut to fit the way we wanted it. 

A section of cork cut and pinned into location, ready for gluing.  This section will become the logging camp when the layout is finished.

Then, we lifted the cork sections and spread silicone sealant generously in the spot where the roadbed was to lie.  We pressed the roadbed back into position against the pins marking the center of the rail lines and, again using push pins, tacked the roadbed firmly down to the plywood base.

The main line and a passing track with the roadbed glued and pinned into position.

Because the silicone sealant is messy and because it was often easier to smooth it into place by hand, we wore gloves. 

The "hill" section of the layout, with all cork glued into position.  Note the test section of track pinned into position in the foreground.

Neatness didn't count here.  The fact that the silicone was spread around the plywood won't matter once we add scenery later.  We intentionally chose the brown sealant so any of it showing through the seams in the cork would not detract from the earthy appearance of the roadbed.

We laid one section of rail to test our planned method for joining sections on curves.  Since most of our layout is curves, this is especially important for us.  The method we'll be using is to stagger the joints in the rails by about six inches so no two rail ends appear side-by-side.  Although this is somewhat non-traditional, we feel it will make it much easier to avoid kinks in the rail at the point where joins occur.  Our test proved us right.  The fit of the rails when joined by our method was perfect and should lead to no derailments at those points.

The yard section with cork trimmed to fit and pinned into location, ready for gluing to the plywood base.

 In our latest session, we managed to get all the cork fit into final position and glued all of it except the yard portions.  We'll finish those in our next session and then start laying rail.  We're pleased with our progress and excited to see the bare bones of the benchwork taking the shape of an actual railroad layout.

We're laying roadbed!!

A new phase of the NF & CR Ry. has begun....we are laying roadbed!!  The benchwork is complete and we have moved on to putting cork roadbed down.  It was exciting to actually start to see the roadbed start to take form.  We had experimented with running some trains up the grades and around the curves by just taping some track to the plywood but pretty soon we will start to lay track as well!

Norm putting adhesive caulk down onto the plywood.

We are using an adhesive caulk to glue the cork to the plywood base.  Norm spread the caulk with a putty knife following the centerlines that we had previously drawn.  Since the caulk would cover up the lines, we put push-pins along the centerline.  This also helped in placing the cork...we were able to just press the cork against the pins to follow the centerlines.

The caulk was easy to spread...but a little messy!

Once the cork was down, we used additional push-pins to keep the cork in place.  It was a little messy but it all went together well.  Next time....we will wear gloves!!

The cork went down onto the caulk and was pushed up to the pins.  Additional pins were used to held the cork in place.

Aiden even got into the fun and helped nail down a few push-pins.  He is having fun helping with the layout but I think he really would be happier running some trains!!

The supervisor even nailed some pins down!

Finally, some pictures of the roadbed at the end of the day.  We are doing the outer-loop first so that we can lay some track and run some trains.  It will be both exciting and amazing to watch that first train make a loop around the layout!!

Cork roadbed going around the outer loop

Close-up of the roadbed.

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

Using Templates to Plan the Track Locations

The AnyRail program we used to plan the location for the Atlas FlexTrack we'll be using lets you print out full size patterns for the track and turnouts from the plan you've developed.  Jeff, who designed the layout using AnyRail, printed out 97 pages of full size layout patterns!  Our next task, which we undertook yesterday, was to piece together all those sheets and tape them so they would remain in place.  It was a job that took several hours to accomplish.  But, we can now see in realistic size just where the track will be placed and whether we want to make any adjustments to track location before we start laying roadbed and track.

Jeff is piecing together the pages for the yard

The yard completed, it's on to the loops serving the "town" area of the layout

A portion of the "town" area, showing the passing track that will allow mainline trains to bypass local freight trains

A view of the whole layout, with the yard in the foreground

What will be a mountainous area, with logging camp, elevated outer loop and a tunnel (indicated by the solid blocks); the log pond and sawmill are at the right rear

The completed "town" area, with the mountainous area in the background

For now, the patterns are laid out in their approximate final locations.  We still need to screw down the plywood so it's fully secure--we only tacked it in a few places so it wouldn't more around while we were testing the track locations.  Once that's finished, we'll position the patterns in their final locations.  Then we'll use a pounce--like seamstresses use to make patterns on cloth--to trace the centerline of the track.  And we'll use an awl to mark the location of the turnout throws so we can drill the holes for the Tortoise machines with accuracy.  That will then let us lay down the cork roadbed and prepare to lay track.

Sure, we could have done all this by the seat of our pants, drawing the lines for the track directly on the plywood base.  But by using AnyRail, we took our planning through several iterations until we had all the features we wanted and fit everything into the space we've got.  The printouts are merely the culmination of that process and they are carrying us a very long way toward our ultimate goal--getting track down so we can run some trains!