Just getting into this hobby and enjoyed your presentation. Also... love the Tee... I spent some time in Diego back in '90 and '91 for obvious reasons. ;-)
Hi Kevin, thanks for answering my question about the Pennsy layout. Although I like the modern equipment on my layout I have 3 steam locomotives that I run on my layout from time to time. I can see your attraction to the Pennsy. Good luck with the new layout and have fun with it. Randy
Looking good Kevin! Sounds like me having so many plans to get through before settling on a plan you like. Nice to see it coming together. Cheers Gregg.
Thanks for the great video. Good technique. I am at the same point on my layout and have learned one very crucial lesson. Make sure the glue you are using is safe for the foam. Some Liquid Nails adhesive is not safe for insulation. I melted a whole module and had to start over. Rolling scenery is good, but not in a yard. LOL
A very easy method for this transfer is to use a "punch wheel". This is a toothed wheel that you run down the middle of the blue print and it makes little holes in the paper. Then you use a bag with black chalk in it and "pounce" it (just bang it on the pattern). This is available from Micro-Mark and is used for placing rivet patterns on things but it works great for this transfer method. Get the largest toothed wheel you can. I've used this for the past 40 years. Also I have found that 2 single pieces of any code track (I use code 100 - only because I had several single pieces). Solder the track end to end and it makes a great curve finder because it tends to take a smooth bend. I start on a straight section and pin the track down. Then start at the other end and pin it to the straight track. The bend the track takes is very stable in that the curve is usually very gradual. This works on any scale of track. On the current layout I have decided to put all of the Non-main line track on the foam and this presents a small problem. How to get the track to go from the cork bed to the foam so that the motive power and cars won't bottom out. This is done by using a 3/4 to full piece of flex track and mounting the last 6 inches to the foam. Then I take a 33 foot rule and place it on edge to make the grade constant and use thin cork (or actually anything from wood to plastic sheets) to fill in and shore up the track so the grade is consistent. I then fill the spaces with fine sand so I don't use a lot of ballast. The sand will form the shoulders of the road bed and a 50 - 50 glue and water mix will make the sand as hard as rock. I use the cheep glue like you have and have never had to rush to put the cork down. You do nice work and I like your videos. keep up the work...
Hi, I have a foam base, and then use Liquid nails for Foam Projects. Smear this out and then set your sub roadbed or track. Track nails will go thru this skin and grab very well. The nice part is that you can get a putty knife under and your track and cork will easily come up if you need to move things. Bob
Seems like running a roller across the newly glued cork strips...would be a good additional step, to make sure cork strips are firmly adhered to the foam?
Thanks for the feedback. A roller certainly wouldn't hurt but I haven't ever found it to be necessary to ensure the cork is firmly pressed into the glue. Cheers, Kevin
when placing roadbed or track you want to strong glue but not glue that is tacky or has a quick cure time or eats your subroadbed. for roadbed use Dap 230 or Liquid nails for foam and wood, and white glue. what you don't want to use is wood glue, gorilla, or locktight these glues come out of the gun tacky and once they are down they cure automatically. Liquid Nails, DAP 230, and white glue can be reactivated if you make a mistake glues that contain resin will harden and they can not be removed only thing that can remove them is a coal chisel but you risk destroying your layout. always go with glue that can be reactivated.
Is there plywood under the pink foam? Or just sitting (glued?) on the bench framework? What is the distance between your benchwork cross-members, 16", 24", other? Thx.
Yes there is plywood under the foam. The benchwork cross-members are 36" apart. With a full plywood top and the width only being 30", 1 cross-member seemed plenty stable enough. If I was building wider benchwork, I would have placed them 24" apart. Cheers, Kevin
Great video, it's easy to find videos, tough to find concise well presented videos. I am curious if you wanted a 'ground level' type roadbed why did you use cork at all? In fact, why did you use foam rather than straight to plywood? The obvious answer is to match the other modules, but I find builders are adamant about one method or another, yet I can't find reliable info on why or what is best. As you can guess I'm in the early stages of planning, ready to leap, but I'd prefer not to jump into the shallow end. Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks for the compliment on my video. If you watch any of my videos of my Colorado Joint Line layout where it shows the yard in Denver, you'll see that I just put the track directly on the foam in that area. I have the track go up a short grade as it leaves Denver to get the track up to the height on the cork. For the switching layout, since the area was a lot smaller, I decided to go ahead and use the 5 pieces of cork rather than put a short grade on the layout. I use foam for sub-roadbed because it is easy to carve into or even just press down on to create small ditches and things. The profile of most track track has a small ditch running along next to the ballast that is below ground level. This is a lot easier to create in foam than in plywood or homosote. Hope this helps and answers your question. Cheers, Kevin
Hi Kevin, nice switching layout! Looking forward to seeing it with scenery and buildings on it. Unless I missed one of your videos, why did you decide to build a switching layout when it looks like you have a lot to do on your main layout. As always, looking forward to seeing the next video. Randy
Randy, thanks for the compliment on my new layout. I talked about the background for why I decided to do this switching layout in my April layout update video. The part about the PRR switching layout starts at about the 12 minute point. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6C-yrf4f0HE.html In short, I've always liked Pennsy; there are lots of neat Pennsy specific models coming out right now; and its a chance to do something completely different than my Colorado Joint Line layout. Cheers, Kevin
Edwin, thanks for the compliment on the video. I use the AnyRail track planning software. Once designed you can print your track plan in actual size (1:1 scale). That's what you see in the video. Cheers, Kevin
It's going to look great bud! Please catch me up to speed. Are you now modeling the PRR? It's my favorite Fallen Flag but O always loved your BNSF and western freelance railroad
I've always modeled a bit of both the Pennsy and the Joint Line (Santa Fe & Rio Grande). My main layout is still the Joint Line, but I wanted to have a smaller layout where I could feature and run my Pennsy stuff. Who nows, maybe in the future my main layout will be Pennsy with a smaller Joint Line layout on the side. Cheers, Kevin
Very nice. Penny is one of my favorite fallen flags. Also what happened to your N scale KC layout? I was very excited about that because I live in the KC Area
Thanks. After getting the n scale KC layout up and running I found I never ran it. Anytime I went to run trains or work on the layout I did that on my HO layout rather than the N one. It was a lot of fun to build, but once built I lost interest. So after about a year of non-use I took it down. Cheers, Kevin
Scale Model Trains & Colorado's Joint Line Aww that's sad. At least u still got the HO layouts and they truly good looking. Much better than mine! Keep it up!
That's my normal technique for working on the layout. Additionally, it helps me find all the tiny, sharp, and spiky objects that I lose in the carpet. Cheers, Kevin
I lived on Diego in 1987 - Worked NAF AIMD W/C 610 aka the vans - Vans are long gone but that pad can still be seen. - www.google.com/maps/place/Diego+Garcia/@-7.301617,72.4019458,267m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x249273fe6d69b0ad:0x3b3c07570eb0d1c5!8m2!3d-7.3195005!4d72.4228556
I'll see how this one turns out and were it goes before deciding on something larger or not. So far I am very much enjoying the different era and prototype. Cheers, Kevin
Troy, life has been getting in the way of my hobbies for the past several months. More videos will be coming in the future. Just not sure when. Cheers, Kevin
