Model Railroading > New Scale, New Era, New Layout!

Recently switched gears in the hobby. I had an 1970's SP inspired HO scale layout for many years before it was torn down following a move to a new home. Alas, all is not lost in that venture as a new SP inspired HO layout will one occupy the loft area of a new garage to built soon. Now for the 'new' part of this story...

I had always dreamed of modeling in a larger scale, namely O scale, because of it's size and my eyesight as I have aged over the years. One big drawback for me was it's SIZE in that it takes up a lot of real estate! Oxymoron, eh? Another was the high cost of available equipment, pretty pricey compared to HO. I have always had a soft spot for narrow gauge railroads and with Bachmann releasing fairly affordable On30 equipment over the years I finally seized my chance to build that O scale (albeit narrow gauge!) layout with some logging and mining (what else would you build a narrow gauge railroad for!)

I wanted a free floating, shadow bow shelf type layout design built as three modules for ease of construction and installing. I researched some methods using 'C' shaped ribs made from plywood that incorporated the layout benchwork below and the lighting valence above along with the backdrop to the rear. In my design the upper 'shelf' does double duty not only for the LED lighting valence, but also as a place to display some railroad memorabilia. The past few weekends I have been a slave to the table saw, miter-chop saw, power drill, screw guns, nail gun, sander and finally the paint sprayer.

So here is where the future narrow gauge Dardenelle & Eastern Railway's progress has made it so far....

Pic #1- Shows ALL the layout module's framing cut from two sheets of 3/4" plywood and ready for assembly.
Pic #2- The completed framing for the Logging module. 39" deep by 48" wide. The upper shelf is 24" deep by 48" wide.
Pic #3- This image shows all three completed module frames just resting on the 'French' cleat attached to the wall with lag screws into the studs. The modules were later brought into final alignment and are lag screwed into the studs as well as joined to each other. Very solid construction and fairly lightweight given the overall sizes of the completed modules.

I still need to attach the 1" thick foam base to the modules. I do have some grades (2% and 4%) for trains to climb. I will be using Woodland Scenics foam incline sets and Homasote roadbed from California Roadbed (have used this combo before with success). Track and turnouts are from Micro Engineering [EDIT: I had originally thought about using Light Iron, but cost vs. time won out!]. Scenery base will be all foam materials to keep the weight down, as well as using lightweight plaster material for any rock work.

Now to figure out what backdrop material to use. I have used painted Masonite in the past, but always had to deal with the joints. I have been thinking about styrene or maybe the aluminum flashing method as either of these methods offer a single continuous piece of backdrop that can be finished in several ways. The finished backdrop is close to 20ft in length and approximately 16" tall. Any thoughts about backdrop materials?

Stay tuned....
SV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/15 17:31 by SandingValve.

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Congratulations on the Layout progress, a wonderous thing sometimes.

There's a layout being built near Portland Oregon using rolled sheet metal for the backdrop. Don't remember the dimensions except there are no seams, not sure if it's 100 ft rolls or what, but it definitely has no seams.

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...
> Now to figure out what backdrop material to use. I
> have used painted Masonite in the past, but always
> had to deal with the joints. I have been thinking
> about styrene or maybe the aluminum flashing
> method as either of these methods offer a single
> continuous piece of backdrop that can be finished
> in several ways. The finished backdrop is close to
> 20ft in length and approximately 16" tall. Any
> thoughts about backdrop materials?
>
> Stay tuned....
> SV

TCnR Wrote:
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> Congratulations on the Layout progress, a
> wonderous thing sometimes.
>
> There's a layout being built near Portland Oregon
> using rolled sheet metal for the backdrop. Don't
> remember the dimensions except there are no seams,
> not sure if it's 100 ft rolls or what, but it
> definitely has no seams.
>
> SV
It is hard to work with.

Uncle Joe

I've read about the sheet metal being a little cumbersome to manage. If there was some kind of 'flexible track' with a groove for the metal to slide into and some 'tabs' to attach it to the backdrop supports that would be ideal as it would keep the metal in alignment and allow it to 'move' somewhat with the temps and humidity.

Also curious as how to mount the styrene. It would be a little thicker than the metal. My question is what about expansion and contraction in relation to the wood? Since this is indoors there isn't too big of a temperature or humidity swing. Having either of these backdrop materials buckle would be a catastrophe!

Hopefully my solution will come 'over the horizon soon' so I can get to laying track and roughing in the scenery.

SV

Yes, we want to see this 0N3 layout as it comes along.
 

Here is the basic trackplan. Being that this is a narrow gauge pike the minimum radius is 15" which is more than enough for my Porter 0-4-2T's, Plymouth 0-4-0 diesel, a Shay (Wiseman 1920's conversion) and a Climax to travel on. Most of the rolling stock is coal hoppers, short log cars and a handful of other standard Bachmann cars. With fairly short trains of 5-6 cars, the maximum grade is 4%. I did some initial testing with curvature and grades before proceeding with the benchwork and everything checked out okay.

SV

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