Progress on my Small Layout

Shaping up real nice.

You have made some very good progress on your layout. Also very good workmanship. Please keep us posted with your progress.

Looking forward to updates...good job!

 

Peter

Excellent!!  I like the use of the I assume Woodland Scenics Styrofoam ramps for the up and over.

 

I'm a huge fan of small layouts like this.   Nice work!

 

Quick question.  I'm having a hard time reading the grid in your plan picture.   This layout looks to be about 4.5 x 8 feet?  Just curious.

EscapeRocks,

You are about right. The size of the track plan is about 4.5x8ish and the layout rests on 5x9 woodwork.

And you are also correct on the usage of woodland scenics products for the risers. I'm still playing with them a bit since the inclines are a bit steep in some areas.

Nice!  It is coming along well.  

 

Which Big Boy? Lionmaster or RK?

While I wish it was Lionel's Lionmaster, the one I have is the Imperial Railking version with PS3.

It's a good engine, even though I am still working out some kinks with the tender randomly derailing in places. I know it's because of the tight curves and I've seen the drawbar catching on the backside of the engine and causing the tender to jump. It's a bit frustrating.

Very nice track plan. Reminds me of a classic Lionel Dealer Display Layout. Nice work!

Thank you so much!

What is the grade?

Looking very very nice so far, please keep us updated with progress photo's

 

 

Alex

Hey Sinclair,

The inclines are more or less 4% due to the size of the layout. Anything smaller wouldn't have had enough space to get enough clearance around the layout.

I have found that the incline that begins in the center of the layout and loops around to the girder bridge is closer to 5%, which is a problem that I need to try and fix. I need to experiment with the risers there to see if I can push them back enough to achieve a 4% grade.

My concern is that if I push them back too far, the engines will not have enough clearance under the tunnel/girder bridge in the center of the layout.

If those steep grades give you fits, maybe you could create a separate elevated section with that figure 8, and have a crossover instead of an up and over.

 

Rick

This is a really nice smaller layout. Great work!!

Keep us posted on further development.  Looking forward to seeing more of this.

Nice work and design!!

Thanks for all of the compliments and suggestions everyone! I'll make sure to keep everyone posted!

That's looking great! I know it can be challenging working out the clearances; they never seem to come out to what you put down on paper. It'll work out though and you'll have a lot of fun watching it all come together in the end.

The Woodland Scenics inclines work good.  I used them on a narrow gauge logging layout at one time.  I had to make sure I didn't go from 0 grade right into 4%.  I had to taper from 0 to 1 to 32 and so on.  Unfortunately it takes up more room.  I am like you, space is always at a premium.

Looks like your getting the details "ironed out"(first photo).

 

1950's Lionel layouts used steep grades compensated with magnetraction and voltage control on the down slopes. The speed control in your loco will cover that problem.

 

Nice work, should be fun!

That is a great layout and a nice track plan

 

-rog

Very ingenious track plan- makes optimal use of the space you have. My passion is scratchbuilt structures and rolling stock. I don't have any trains yet. If I ever build a layout, it will be a small one too due to space constraints. Good luck to you!