On Sun, May 6, 2018 at 12:57 AM, Ed Weldon 23.weldon@... [small-layout-design]

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The Blick studio wood panels look pretty nice. They look pricey up in the range of larger small layouts, especially with HO sized panels that may require expensive shipping. For those of us who have decent size work spaces at home and necessary tools for building with wood materials such expenses look unnecessary. But for apartment dwellers the story may be different. Next time I'm in town near the big art supply store I'm going to inquire about the Blick panels and if they can be shipped there. I'll say one thing for this approach. I'd be hard pressed to duplicate their panels in the kind of accuracy we need in modular setups. And in the West it's especially hard to find good flat thin plywood like the 4mm stuff Blick offers in their panels.

I've been studying the DIY approach the last few days and I'm learning some interesting things so far about building light in weight. I went into Lowes and found the Polyisocyuranate insulation sheets. All they had that was undamaged was1/2" and 1" thick 4x8 sheets. I picked up two together from vertical storage on a4 foot high store shelf, about 13 lbs, and was able to lift them off and on easily. Two thin sheets glued together with some construction adhesive to double the beam stiffness have one advantage over a single 2" thick sheet. You can easily cut out one inch deep sections of the upper sheet for water features and turntable pits and still retain most of the vertical beam stiffness in a wide layout section.

For my 4 ft x 6 ft layout plan on the lightweight layout piece of the project some additional bracing underneath will be needed. I'm thinking 1 or 1-1/4 high strips of douglas fir or western cedar (lighter weight than the fir) and recessed 1/8 thick door skin panels held on with velcro patches. This will cover under layout wiring and switch machines.

I got to thinking more of Western cedar for light structural use because it is the lightest wood we have around here besides balsa and I have a huge pile of cedar grape stakes from an old fence.

I'm no great wood worker but do have some decent wood working tools including a 14" delta band saw and a small Mitutoyo wood planer. So the idea of turning those light dry cedar stakes into layout structural wood as well as roadbed is appealing. BTW, I sawed out some 1/4 " thick cedar (roadbed thickness) and pushing spikes into it was pure joy. I'll have to do some weigh tests and calculations, but I can see a possibility of saving a couple of pounds in the final layout weight versus the use of cork roadbed. Noise transmission remains a question. The old standard for quiet road bed, Homosote, is too heavy for this project with a 35 lb objective; but it remains the standard for quiet operation.

I tried uploading an image of the 40 year old 4x6 "heavy half" before it's crash diet.? Couldn't get it to work.? Will keep trying.?? Last few days that part has been hoisted back up to make room for some workshop house keeping.?

Ed Weldon

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---In small-layout-design@..., wrote :

Do you have a link for the “art boxes”? I went to the Rex-Art site and could not find anything like what Gerd shows in his video. A search on line turns up many wood boxes with lids or shadow box frames, but not the tray-like ones he shows.

Tom K.

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Tom,

Go to:?

Have fun!

-Joe

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I, too, am glad to see portable, larger "small" layouts. Though I greatly admire the micro layouts, I'd like something with more potential for a longer run.

A few years ago, I came across a wonderfully simple, yet versatile system of building a small layout. There's a fellow in Germany, Gerd, who created a system of 20cm x 40cmx/~8" x 16" modules which can be connected in several ways, for his H0e/HOn30 railway. He has a website at 's an English language blog. He's got a YouTube channel too. His track plans are simple, can be arranged as either point-to-point or continuous running. For his modules, he's using ready made "art boxes", which look well made and just a few inches high. He suggests Rex-Art as a source in the U.S. for similar boxes. They're reasonably priced, sold either in pairs or sets of 6. He's only got 7 modules, which includes 2 for staging but he can make 11 different configurations. He gave up on DCC since H0e locos are pretty small plus he's the only operator so electrical connections between modules are simply 2 banana plugs, which also align the m odules.

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I'm glad there's interest here in larger but still portable layouts. I.e., able to fit in a small truck or SUV and manageable to move in and out of the vehicle by one person using a good size hand truck.? That means a bit under 4x6 feet and minimal height.? So we are talking no more than 35 lbs on each end and preferably a lot less.? Like down to 35 lbs total; so it can be lifted by one person a short distance like up a single stair (8") or over a door jam. Or in my case set on top of the "heavy half" in the back of my Toyota short-bed pickup (with shell).

My project involves two such, both radically different fro each other in construction.? Both contain a continuous loop for test running, etc.; as well as a reversing loop section and connection points for other sections, modules or cassettes. The scale is HO and gauge is HOn3.? There is a common late 19th century theme to both and the intent is for each to be a terminal with whatever space for added modules allows in between.

I've got rough sketch plans for both.? The heavy one is a resurrection of a 40 year old "L-girder/plywood "cookie cutter" design I built for my kids to play with.? It includes the electric hoist setup I built at the time.? When the kids grew up it moved from the family room ceiling to the garage rafters where it hung over my shop collecting dust and rodent droppings on top and various workshop junk, tools and lights hanging underneath. This was the first one I chose to work on while I continue to explore the design and engineering issues around the really light weight other half. Fortunately that one has a more mature track plan at this point.

The old layout lost about 30 lbs of plaster and screen wire and all the HO code 100 atlas track, fortunately never ballasted (kinda incompatible with the family room and kid's play use.)

If any here remember the old "L-girder system, it has risers. I put them together with slotted flat head screws to support the 1/4" plywood sub-roadbed. So out came the risers for the front 2/3 of the layout and I was left with a bunch of plywood "fingers" all at the same height. I decided to keep the original "over/under" tunnel and bridge section at the back. The loose sections at the front are all one level and now. So I reattached them there on 1-1/2" risers to form a valley floor of sorts for the reversing loop that was the major constraint for the layout design. (15" minimum radius). Then I built up the front side of the layout to form a simple two track roadbed climbing that new side of the valley.

So I end up with a layout with high edges and a valley in the middle for sidings and town scenery. Kinda different. But look at all the Colorado mining towns and you'll see trains and buildings in the valleys and mines up on the hillsides with tracks leading to them.

Kinda contrast that with the big rail hubs like Como, Durango & Ridgeway. Big towns built on flat land around major terminal facilities and roundhouses. That will be my other lighter weight 4x6 layout. Expected construction of that is foam sheet and some simple low hills of foam supported by an aluminum structure. Surrounding mountains will be on removable backdrops that will do duty as dust covers for storage. Lots of engineering needed for that; but the track plan was easy to draw after about 10 sketches to settle the exact position of the roundhouse and the reverse loop. In my truck that one will sit on top of the heavy one as a temporary cover for transport. (BTW, the electric hoist setup for the old layout remains in the garage for storing the original layout in it's new incarnation.)

So that's where I am today.? I'll try to get some images together and post them here.?? Been a while since I tried to deal with images on Yahoo groups.?

Ed Weldon,?? Los Gatos, CA