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After nine months of planning and constructing and a few thousand dollars my raised train lay-out is finally finished and ready for track. I tend to over engineer everything and since this was my first ever raised lay-out I wanted to make sure it was strong enough (you can walk on it). I also wanted it to be as maintenance free as possible, so I constructed the base structure out of pressure treated lumber and the decking out of trex. The entire layout is perfectly level to within an 1/8", not bad for a layout that's 45 feet long and 25 feet wide. The minimum radius on the layout is 10 feet, so I should be able to run just about anything, just not too fast. The attached photos show the finished layout with some loose track I was laying out to get an idea of where the final track would go.
This weekend around family responsibilities I managed to lay about 3/4 of the outside mainline. Hopefully I will finish it through the week, so next weekend I will at least have one mainline up and running. The inside mainline I will try and start in a week or two, hopefully in warmer weather. It's taking a significant amount of time to lay the track as I am offsetting it so no two joints are in the same place. Every 2 1/2 feet there is an alternating joint on only one side. This is the method my neithbor Dan used and it seemed to work well as it eliminates duel breaks in the track. I am also using Railclamps on almost the entire lay-out. Again, a little more cost but hopefully longer lasting maintenance free lay-out.
For the track I was originally going to use LGB track, but my neithbor talked me into using cheaper Accucraft flex track code 250. So I purchased 5 cases or 300 feet of narrow guage track and expect to use most of it. For the switches, I gave up waiting for the accucraft ones and ordered them from Sunset Valley in narrow guage. They should work as well as the accucraft ones, but at a slightly higher cost. I am planning to have a duel 30 degree cross over between the two mainline tracks with additional switches for sidings on my long freight yard on the left hand side of the layout. Once I receive the switches I will cut them into the outside mainline and be able to finish the inside mainline.
After I get everything up and running so I can start to use it I plan on going back and adding a steaming bay for 2-3 engines at a time. Since the switches are insulated I am also going to go back and electrify the tracks so I can run electric trains when I want to (my collection of LGB).
I'll attached more photos as I lay the track.
Enjoy.
This weekend around family responsibilities I managed to lay about 3/4 of the outside mainline. Hopefully I will finish it through the week, so next weekend I will at least have one mainline up and running. The inside mainline I will try and start in a week or two, hopefully in warmer weather. It's taking a significant amount of time to lay the track as I am offsetting it so no two joints are in the same place. Every 2 1/2 feet there is an alternating joint on only one side. This is the method my neithbor Dan used and it seemed to work well as it eliminates duel breaks in the track. I am also using Railclamps on almost the entire lay-out. Again, a little more cost but hopefully longer lasting maintenance free lay-out.
For the track I was originally going to use LGB track, but my neithbor talked me into using cheaper Accucraft flex track code 250. So I purchased 5 cases or 300 feet of narrow guage track and expect to use most of it. For the switches, I gave up waiting for the accucraft ones and ordered them from Sunset Valley in narrow guage. They should work as well as the accucraft ones, but at a slightly higher cost. I am planning to have a duel 30 degree cross over between the two mainline tracks with additional switches for sidings on my long freight yard on the left hand side of the layout. Once I receive the switches I will cut them into the outside mainline and be able to finish the inside mainline.
After I get everything up and running so I can start to use it I plan on going back and adding a steaming bay for 2-3 engines at a time. Since the switches are insulated I am also going to go back and electrify the tracks so I can run electric trains when I want to (my collection of LGB).
I'll attached more photos as I lay the track.
Enjoy.