Layout planning: The Fyan Spur of the Frisco

bem1492 May 15, 2020

  1. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    How far is it from the rail to the ground level? If it is a high bridge, a deck girder might look good. In your earlier diagrams, the bridge looks to cross a road and a river. I think a 2 or 3-span bridge would look good here. Theoretically, you could have a main span and approach spans, but that may be too complicated for its length. A low-sided bridge would make the trains more visible and could be a cool place to show off locomotives and rolling stock.

    Prototype curved bridges are made up of multiple straight spans joined at an angle. Curved spans could buckle under load as the weight isn't on the chord between the supports. The deck and rails are of course still curved but the load-bearing components are linear. You might be able to kitbash a bridge from Walthers or Micro Engineering kits or you may have to scratchbuild. The Micro Engineering viaduct kit may be a good place to start. I have seen photos of people make curved bridges out of that kit before. Or check out Kibri bridges too. I think they have a curved bridge kit.
     
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  2. bklynman01

    bklynman01 TrainBoard Member

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    Just an idea...
    Why not bring the track down to the table level in that area? Working with goop sounds fun, but would take a lot of material and work to get it all there. Bringing the track down means you only have to work in the transition areas which you could make super gradual over long distance to try and disguise the slope.
     
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  3. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Hey Blayne,

    For your ground goop, I have an almost full bag of ground paper insulation, it’s way more than I will ever need, I’ll split it with you if want.
     
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  4. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    The bridge probably would be around 14' or so above the road, which runs next to the creek. I thought that it might be the case that a curved plate girder bridge would be made up of straight segments, which means they would need to be wider than a straight section to accommodate the curve. Thanks for the info and your thoughts!
     
  5. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    I thought about that, but the distance over which I want to make the transition is three feet or so. I didn't think that was long enough to make a smooth transition, but maybe it would be; we're talking only the height of the roadbed.
     
  6. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, Dale! I may take you up on the split. (I have some, but probably not enough.)
     
  7. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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  8. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Ok, just let me know.

    I’ll be happy to share.
     
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  9. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    Just a couple of thoughts. If your grade is not too high off the road or river bed, you could use a welded steel trestle fabricated from structural shapes. That would no doubt be appropriate for your era and would be fairly easy to build. Also, you might consider laying your track and setting your structures on a sheet of cork (available at auto parts stores among other places) rather than using roadbed. Benchwork is looking good, BTW. Like the whole idea of the cabinets and lighting system, too.
     
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  10. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    Track laying phase 1 is complete. This includes the track on all modules except the creek/road module (far end, to the left in the photo below) and the two front-side spurs (coal/gravel company and team track). I'll be doing a little thinking and measuring (comparing to kits and such) to figure out the specifics of how the two front-side spurs should be laid out. But I hope to get what I have wired soon so I can run some trains!

    I widened the distance between the tracks of the runaround (down at the corner) because I thought they were too close together.

    Taking advice from Tom (RailMix), I plan to put cork sheet (same height as roadbed) on some areas of the town to cut down on the amount of ground goop to be applied, and I plan to put the structures on foam core board (same height as roadbed) so they can be removed more easily.

    I am a teacher and summer is coming to an end. Work on the railroad probably will slow down a bit from here.

    20200809_131142.jpg
     
  11. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    I just had to know ... so I alligator-clipped my Digitrax DCS100 to one end of the rails and ran one of my switchers through all the track laid so far. No problems encountered.

    20200809_145020.jpg


    Though I'll mostly be running 40'-or-less rolling stock, I connected two 50' boxcars to GP40-2 #765 and ran them back-and-forth through the inside corner to see if there were any coupling or other radius issues. No problems encountered.

    20200809_145605.jpg
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2020
  12. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    What radius are you using on the curve? Because of space limitations I went with 18”. The wye is 22”. I can run everything I have for the port on it. Including my SD 40-2s in SKOL paint.
     
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  13. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    The radius is about 23.5" on the inside track, so I should have nothing to worry about.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2020
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  14. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    I got a couple of days to work on the layout, thanks to the Labor Day holiday. I wired different sections of track on each module to two terminal strips (one strip for each rail) using fork connectors. These are the red connectors in the photo below.

    20200909_155445.jpg

    I then built power bus wire pairs with fork connectors at the terminal strip end (the blue connectors in the photo above) and Anderson Power Pole connectors at the other end (as seen in the photos below). The Anderson Power Poles make it easy to connect disconnect neighboring modules. (If you've never used Power Poles, you should check them out. I use them in model railroading and in ham radio.)

    20200909_161207.jpg
    Here the Power Poles are disconnected. (Sidenote: adjacent modules are connected by a pair of spring clamps that have been assigned to permanent duty here.)

    20200909_161126.jpg
    Here the Power Poles are connected. Very easy to connect/disconnect!

    After wiring but before reconnecting the modules together, I took each outside and painted the track, as seen below.

    20200909_152610.jpg

    The structures in the photo above are just sitting there, but I'm starting to paint/weather them. In the distance at the left, at "Gertie's Gravel", you may be able to discern that I laid down some sheet cork in the area and cut a hole for a gravel unloading pit under the track.
     
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  15. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    The modules are somewhat wobbly on their own, but when attached together - especially with the "L" shape, they do not move easily.

    This will be a "semi-permanent" layout. That is, the only time I plan to take the modules out of this configuration is to move them to a different location (which I hope will never happen). So, I think I'm going to follow an idea I saw on a website to lay down duct tape at the joint between adjacent modules and landscape right over the tape. Then, if the layout has to move, one peels up the tape (and grass, weeds, etc.), moves the layout, lays down new tape at the joints, and apply landscaping to the tape to blend in to the surroundings.
     
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  16. RailMix

    RailMix TrainBoard Member

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    Nice progress. Looks great so far. I like the idea of the duct tape, too. That should work well.
     
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  17. trainman-ho

    trainman-ho TrainBoard Member

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    Be careful...Duct tape can be a real hassle to remove after it had been in one place for a long time, say ... six months. It has a tendency to separate between layers, and separate where it shouldn't!!
     
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  18. bem1492

    bem1492 TrainBoard Member

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    Good to keep in mind!
     
  19. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Letting mother nature weather for you is cheating isn't it lol

    Liking this
     
  20. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Blayne,

    How’s the RR coming? I’m sure you are making progress, an update would be nice!

    Dale
     

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