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I had posted a few pics in Photo Fun of my very lightweight modules and my friend Andy sent me a note asking for more information.  So I thought I would share some info here on the forum.

 

First some pics:

 

 

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The reason I made these up was so that I could do a 1 day temporary layout without trying to set up a full set of Hi-Rail modules.

 

They are just luan sheets with Lionel O Gauge Tinplate track attached.  When setting up I have 6 banquet tables brought in and arranged in an oval shape.  The lightweight modules just sit on top.

 

The straights are 80 inches long by 7.5 inches wide.    Tracks are 4.5 inches apart on center.  They are made up of two 40 inch long straight tracks.  These photos show only 2 of the 4 straight sections.  There are two more that were not in use for the photos.
 
The curves are O72 / O81. 
 
Its all Lionel traditional tubular track.  Except that  O81 curves were made by K-Line.
 
The wood is luan.  The heft of the Lionel track actually reinforces the flimsy luan.
 
I attached the track tot he luan with black plastic cable ties.
 
I needed 3 sheets of luan originally.  Because I made large 180 degree turns out of two of the sheets.  (About 7.5 feet by 4 feet).  However they were kind of big and unwieldy so I recently cut the inner semi-circle out of them and then cut the 180 degree turns into four 90 degree turns.
 
Those are what was show on my deck.  (PS I washed the deck after taking these photos!)
 
I saved the inner semi-circles and have begun to put O54 and O45 curves on them (I will add 3 inches to the normal O42 to get O45 and keep the 4.5 inch centers.
 
To hold them together I bought little 1.5 inch wooden discs from the craft store.  They are about .25 inch thick so I glued up three deep, then I cut each in half.  I glued a half to each module end on the top.  They are unpainted in the photos.  I connected the tracks and then wrapped a rubber band around the circle.  You can kinda see it in the second pic.
 
 
I use these modules for a 1 day show I do locally called Haverford Heritage Day.  I get 6 folding banquet tables brought in (96x30) and I arrange them in an oval and put these on top. Pretty quick setup and tear down.  They are very light weight and just lay flat on the table tops or my deck.
 
This evening I finished a smaller semicircle of O45 / O54.  I plan to make another semicircle like that and then

4 more 80 inch long two track mains.  With any luck I will get that all done for the next outing on Sunday June 7 and I can run 4 trains at once.

 

P.S. the MTH Dreyfus was York Swag - It's Chuck's fault :-)

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Images (4)
  • image1: Whole Oval
  • image2: Drefus and connector
  • image3: 90 degree turn
  • image4: More Dreyfus
Last edited by BillP
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This is one of the O45 / O54 half turns.

 

They will fit nested inside the O72 / O81 turns.

 

Prepping four new 80 x 7.5 inch two track straights as well. 

 

All four are cut, sanded and painted.  One even has track. 

 

Next steps: complete trackage on the other 3 straights, add little round half circles for rubber bands and lastly test them out!  (clear off deck furniture!)

 

 

 

 

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Images (2)
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I was testing the modules today on my deck.

 

 

 

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Four loops total, 042(O45),   O54, O72 and O81

 

All the wire connectors checked out ok. 

 

I did find that some of the semi-circles that hold the rubber bands popped off. They were only glued.  So I re-glued and then secured them further with wire cable ties.

 

Lastly you see the bright morning sun on my deck. That makes for bad photos with the high contrast to the shady parts. 

 

However the sun also did a job on my Z4000.  I left a Z4000 in the sun for about 30 minutes while I took lunch.  That was enough to set the unit into overheat mode!  Put it in the shade and put a fan on it for about 15 minutes to get it operational again.

 

 

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Images (7)
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John, It sure does look that way...

 

Zoom way in on Pics 1, 2 and 4 and you can see a little black box that is actually an MTH Rail King PRR E33!

 

It was hot in the sun, so I did not pull out cars and stuff :-)

 

I will be under a tent for Heritage Day.

 

I know about the sort of clean, now that the deck is a little clean its much easier to see that it needs to be refinished...  It's never ending.

 

 

 

 

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