Working on a 12 x 8 layout, questions

There will always be some sort of gap in the plywood. You can cover it up with Homasote or insulation board but then you will have cracks in that material. I covered up the seams with landscaping material such as ground foam. Start with an Elmers glue and water mixture and then load up on the foam. It covers a lot of seams.

Santa Fe VA,

I have kids in the same age range. We are working on this years layout which will stay up longer than last year's. We were 10X6 last year and this year 12x6 with a small 1 foot extension on the right side for our yard.

Last year I put the plywood on 1X2 frames. Two 6X4 sheets and one 6x2. I just bolted the frames together and set it all on Home Depot 5 gallon buckets. This year I built a 1x4 frame work 32"off the floor Because I have a raised area, seams are not going to be an issue. I will cover what ever I have with scenery. If you can get away from having large sheets of plywood it gets easier to raise up a section. I have my 1x4's 12 ioc.

I have a FLICKR album with lots of stuff from last year and this year. This years pictures are near the end of the album.



2012 Fastrack Layout 21 by tedmackel, on Flickr


2012 Fastrack Layout 16 by tedmackel, on Flickr

Assuming that all of your "pieces" are the same height and square such that they butt fairly tight, I would go with joint tape and mud for the joints followed by a couple of coats of "cheap" paint of the neutral color variety. If you have to break things down later, you won't be out very much money and can do it again.

In terms of support for your platforms, I would recommend investing in a few portable sawhorses, or if you have the desire, constructing your own either from scratch or using brackets. Once you get to that point you can decide if you need some cleats on the underside of your platform to hold it more securely on the horses.

Poppyl

Thanks everyone for your input. This will all be a new experience for my kids and I so any tips or suggestions are appreciated.

We will try to post some pictures soon of what we have done so far.

Santa Fe: The layout that I'm trying to put together is 10 x 8 with tubular track. I'm always interested in layouts such as yours because they are considered as "small" in terms of most of the layouts that people post about on the forum. If you can post your proposed layout plan, I would love to take a look at it. I'm still trying to find the "perfect" layout for me, and my wife is getting tired of waiting for me to put up some type of permanent layout, so I'd really like to see any information about the progress of your layout or the "small" layouts of any other member of the forum. Thanks.

Santa Fe VA
If you are asking about physically and cosmetically holding,[butting]the plywood sheets together temporarily, you can use 6" long steel mending plates fastened to the plywood with 3/4" long #8 panhead screws, all from Lowe's, Depot or other big box[assuming your ply is 3/4" thick the screws will not penetrate through]. This is not designed to hold much weight over an otherwise unsupported joint but will keep it together. The other suggestions of sawhorses for structural support and use of whatever for ground cover apply.

jaymark>> I spent a lot of time looking online for layouts that are in this size range but ultimately will go with a plan on my own. A lot of the bigger layouts have features I can only dream about but will try to fit some of their ideas into ours.

Dewey: thanks for the response. That sounds like a good solution to keep the separate sheets of wood together. One of the pieces seems to be slightly curved and is not even with the adjacent piece. I will probably just screw them together and use groundcover, a bridge or something like that to make it work.

This weekend there is a train show near us in Fredericksburg that we may try to attend. Otherwise, we hope to purchase a large sheet of foam insulation and start working on the upper level. Which brings me to my next question...

My 9 year old wants to have one of the train lines that circuits through the entire layout including rising to the upper level and descending again. The upper level will probably be 2-3 feet wide and about 4 feet long with a tunnel underneath for the other train and hills/mountain features that attach to the raised platform.

What is the best upper level height to use for clearance for a tunnel underneath but also a reasonable grade for the train to make it up and down the raised level without taking too much room? Thought about a circular route up and down (like the polar express mountain layouts) but think it would take up too much room.

Are we better off buying a fastrack graduated trestle system or building our own?