John, The last three modular layouts we (The Foaming River Counters) have built were of 2" foam on a frame of 1x3's with 1x2's for cross bracing. This makes for a very light setup that even someone with as many back issues as myself can manage. Roadbed and track are glued down using silicon adhesive. That makes everything removable if need be. We have built everything from G to Z gauges and have not had a single section of track pop off. We use the ready-made, light plastic sawhorses available at hardware/ home supply stores. We use 2x2's (perpendicular to the 1x2 cross braces) as slots to "capture" the top horizontal piece of the saw horses. Four saw horses per one-4x8' section of layout. I am not much help with what should be the proper spacing of parallel tracks because we do it the old fashioned, trial and error, analog way: we lay the track on the foam boards, then carefully pull our longest cars, and engines with the most overhang around the loops, and then glue the track down accordingly. Not very high tech but seems to work. Good luck :) Roy Inman
From: John Degnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:34:55 -0400 To: "POST : S-Scale Group" <[email protected]>, "POST : S Scale Model Railroading Group"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: {S-Scale List} Building Layout, Need Input I need some suggestions concerning a layout that I will soon be building... suggestions for curves radii, size of turnouts, length of "run-around" tracks and "staging tracks" (as indicated in drawing below)... etc, etc, etc, using ALL Tomalco Track turnouts and flex. This layout is going to be PRIMARILY for use as a DISPLAY at trains shows, conventions, etc, so it MUST BE PORTABLE. I don't want it to be too big to move, but at the same time I want to be able to run at least 50' cars on it... and if possible, some 60' cars. So my objective is to cram as much of this layout as possible into as small a space as possible, yet still be able to run at least 50' equipment. The image below shows the basic (not exact) result I want for this layout : http://www.trainweb.org/seaboard/MODELS/track16d.gif 1. I would like the radius of the "Inner Tracks" to be wide enough for at LEAST 50' cars and still look decent... so what should that radius be? 2. The drawing shows all #4 turnouts, but how much of a difference in the size of the layout will #5 or #6 turnouts make over #4 turnouts? 3. How long should the "Staging Tracks" be to accomodate one loco and at least one freight car without either the loco or car touching a section of curved track? (this is to avoid coupling problems) 4. What should the distance between parallel tracks be? 5. How long of a straight section (easement) should be used between two opposing curves? 6. For the sake of being able to move it by man-power alone, should I build it in two sections (or more?) instead of as a single piece? 7. If the whole layout can be built as a single piece, what framing tyip can anyone offer for such a project? More questions coming as I think of them. John Degnan [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:RailScaler%40comcast.net> The Seaboard Air Line Information Collective and Photo Archive http://www.trainweb.org/seaboard [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
