New Layout - The Ohio & WV

Sounds like you live in the same area I grew up in. I am helping out with a layout in the same area your son lives in. I will be following this.

Dave

Hi Dave.  Live in Steubenville OH - the home of Dean Martin. Long haul to GA to play w the grandkids and work on the layout.

I'm sure i'll be having quite a lot of questions, esp when it gets to wiring the layout.  We know that having to bend each section of curve will be a challenge, esp w a multitude of diff radii but we are willing to put in the work.

Tom   

Tom,

The test layout to try track, etc was a good idea.  I'll look forward to seeing the progress on the new layout.  It's too bad Matt lives so far away from you.  I live not so far from you in Butler, PEnnsylvania.

Tom,

I'm from Steubenville as well. Graduated from "Big Red". Glad to see you make it to see your family and the bonus is the trains!

Dave

Mark, Thanks. Yeah, it's a haul to get here, but this time i got here via arkansas cause the company i work part time for in Pitts shanghi'd me on my way down here.  Made good time: flying low.

Mark, over the next couple of days i'll be posting some pics of the new train room.   

Dave, how bout that - me too - SHS class of '69  We'll have to grab a beer sometime and talk trains.

Final disassembly of the test track layout.  Inspecting the pieces of 1x's that were removed to see what is reusable and updating my wood shopping list.   

Covid & driving distance made it tough, but over the last 2 yrs we've got the new train room prep'd and ready to go.

Here's some progress pics and the finished results.

It took several yrs due to mostly Covid (and driving distance) to prep the new train room and get it ready for table construction.  This post and next will show start to finish progress.   The blank canvas:

Sorry - dbl post - my bad

Tom

Train room prep continued:

more train room construction pics

That’s a lot of work, but it looks great

Thanks Mark. It was a lot of work.

I didn't know you were down the road in Steubenville, Tom. That's good to know! I'm in Youngstown.

The Super O is a cool tough. I've never held a piece in person and know next to nothing about it.

Can't wait to see this come together!

Bill, hey neighbor. Yep Steubenville.  Steel mills and good football in our neck of the woods huh; eastern OH / western PA. Spent 31 yrs at Weirton Steel. Worked all over the plant but mostly the Strip Steel Hot Mill.    The choice to use SuperO was both easy and difficult. I've run SuperO since my first train set in the mid 50's. Was the D&RG F3's AB that came w superO.  Have run it ever since and really like the look of it. SuperO curves are 036 - period. So, for all other radius we need, we're gonna have to bend each piece by hand. (It's an ugly tough process - cutting, pounding etc).  Putting superO together and taking it apart is also a little tough on your hands -it will bang u up.  When i post the layout, you'll understand the amount of bending we're about to undertake.

After testing, we did opt for Ross switches instead of superO (which we have a bunch of). SuperO is only available in 036.  Rosss' selection of turnouts worked nicely into our plan and the availability of the curved turnouts made the diff.  We will be doing some minor engineering mating up the ross w the superO. Outside rails r fine. It's the ctr power rail where alignment issues occur. We'll work it out.

I'll post a pic of superO tomorrow.

Tom

Bill, Here's some pics of superO.  Straights are 9" long. Ties are plastic. Ctr strip (power) is copper. Rails are hollow. Primarily produced by Lionel (as the new great thing in track) from mid 50's thru i think early 60's. SuperO had it's own switches as well - both Manual and Automatic w non derail. Curves were only 036 as were the switches.  Lot of brew hah about ctr rail cutting rollers. I ran the $#ll out of my trains and never cut a roller. Slightly groved some of the older smokers' rollers but not the new stuff (56 on). Think there was a chemistry issue.  We're not purists (hence Ross) but just really like the look of superO. Bending the 036 curves will be a bit*h. We know.   

Thank you for the photographs, Tom.  The track looks great.  I guess the issue of the rollers getting grooved doomed the project.  Like a lot of things, it wouldn't necessarily have to be true as long as long as public opinion thought it was true.

Pretty much! I love meeting steel guys in the region when I'm out and about. I worked at Valley Mould (Ellwood Group when I was there) making ingot molds and large section iron castings. It was fascinating work but a rough environment. I was in that industry for 6 years before the industry slowed down (2014/2015) and I got laid off. I like the history a lot and that's how I maintain a connection with the industry. Steubenville is an interesting place. I've been there two or three times. 

I appreciate the pictures! I also like the Super-O! Definitely a good looking piece of track. I'm surprised track makers don't use a smaller third rail. I had a Lionel book as a kid that mentioned Super-O but I never knew what it was and never bothered to learn now that I'm back in the hobby.

I can't wait to see this layout come together. Are you just going to use cut plywood curves to bend your pieces?

Hey Tom - Recently had these done by Gene Becker in New Jersey - 036 to 072 - his work is perfect 👍🏼

Bill, my son Matt has the bending part down. It's involved. Loosening tie clips, cutting thru ties, beating it w a hammer, lopping off a small pc of rail, resecuring everything.  I haven't done any yet.  I'm sure i'll be learning very soon.  Steel mill guys - sounds like a beer in our future.

Tom

Dorfj2,  Thank You very much. I'm not familiar with Gene.  His work does look very good.  Do you have a contact # or email for him.  We may want to ask him some questions.

Tom

@Mark Boyce posted:

Thank you for the photographs, Tom.  The track looks great.  I guess the issue of the rollers getting grooved doomed the project.  Like a lot of things, it wouldn't necessarily have to be true as long as long as public opinion thought it was true.

Hey, i just figured out how to reply w quote - dahhh.  Yeah Mark, that's what prob doomed it. The production run wasn't that long. And it was also a little more pricey that the 0 and 027 that was popular. The idea of making a more realistic looking track did come back many years later w guys like gargraves etc. But i'll bet the use of the thin ctr rail and the old rumors about it led them to widen the ctr rail.  All i know is my experience i didn't have any problems with cutting rollers. Maybe others had a diff experience. Dont know.  When we get this layout built we're gonna run em hard again, so i guess we'll see.

Tom

@TomSuperO posted:

After testing, we did opt for Ross switches instead of superO (which we have a bunch of). SuperO is only available in 036.  Rosss' selection of turnouts worked nicely into our plan and the availability of the curved turnouts made the diff.  We will be doing some minor engineering mating up the ross w the superO. Outside rails r fine. It's the ctr power rail where alignment issues occur. We'll work it out.

   

Tom - Although I use both stock and modified Super O 112R switches on my Super O layout, I did choose a pair of Ross #11 switches for a crossover between the two mains. Here are some photos of my solution for the center rail mating.

I used short sections of Ross straight track for the "adapter" tracks rather than modify the switches themselves. I removed the center rail from a junk piece of Super O track and cut off the notched ends, leaving enough of the rail to insert into the Ross center rail a couple of ties deep for support. You'll need to remove about an inch of the Ross rail and also file or grind off a bit of the top of the donor center rail, similar to the factory notch for the bus connector.

Great to see another Super O layout being built! Keep us updated on your progress.

F

I suggest you consider an around the walls layout rather than a table.    In any given room,  you get a lot more square footage of layout that way, and you can make all the "shelves" no wider that 30-36 inches and keep everything with in reach.

@rickoshay posted:

Tom - Although I use both stock and modified Super O 112R switches on my Super O layout, I did choose a pair of Ross #11 switches for a crossover between the two mains. Here are some photos of my solution for the center rail mating.

I used short sections of Ross straight track for the "adapter" tracks rather than modify the switches themselves. I removed the center rail from a junk piece of Super O track and cut off the notched ends, leaving enough of the rail to insert into the Ross center rail a couple of ties deep for support. You'll need to remove about an inch of the Ross rail and also file or grind off a bit of the top of the donor center rail, similar to the factory notch for the bus connector.

Great to see another Super O layout being built! Keep us updated on your progress.

F

Rickoshay,  THANK YOU SOOO MUCH.  That is a cool solution to our problem. We'll def ck that out and give it a try.  Your solution looks great w very minimul transition diff. Maybe we'll order soem Ross track to chop up.

I love this forum. You guys are so creative.

Thanks,

Tom

@prrjim posted:

I suggest you consider an around the walls layout rather than a table.    In any given room,  you get a lot more square footage of layout that way, and you can make all the "shelves" no wider that 30-36 inches and keep everything with in reach.

Prrjim,  Thanks for the input.  Appreciate it.  I looked at an around the room layout, but all the space in the center of the room was wasted space. So, I opted for 3 pennisulas.  Utilizing the ctr space gave me the opportunity to get bigger curves and reversing loops.  I know i am craming a lot of track into a small space, but that was the challenge.

Tom

Cinqo de Mayo & Benchwork - whoops

Beginning of benchwork - photo 1 - going good.

Photo 2 - not so much