Starting an Old Project

I finally started something I have been talking about for a while now - my model railroad. I drew some plans several months ago, and just a couple weeks ago I finally sat down and figured out what it would take to make them a reality, then I got started. About two weeks ago, on a day off, I went over to the lumber yard in town and picked up some lumber to build the benchwork, and then I put it together that afternoon. It is not a large railroad, and I already knew exactly how I would assemble the benchwork, so it went together pretty fast. All I really had to do was cut and assemble. The benchwork ended up being pretty sturdy, as you can see in the pictures, for two reasons. First of all, I studied construction management, and tend to build everything like it is the foundation for a skyscraper, and second, the 2x4's were cheaper than the 1x4's, which I had originally planned on using.

I will be using two inch extruded foam insulation as the surface on which the layout will be built. That provides a surface that is plenty sturdy, yet easy to work with. I decided not to glue the foam to the framework just yet, because I can do some of the basic wiring before putting it in place. Once the foam is in place, any work on the wiring has to be done from beneath the layout, which means working overhead. Since it is easier to work on something you can stand over, I decided to install the basic wiring before I glue the foam in place. Today I had a few hours to kill, so I finished off the wiring in one section of the layout.

The layout is divided into sections, for portability. I do not have any intention of taking it to shows or anything, but it will very likely have to move in the future. We do not plan to stay in Glendive permantly, and even if we did, we would eventually buy a house. The layout bolts together in two places. The wiring will have jumpers connecting the sections, which can be removed easily, and so the entire thing can be taken apart and moved when that becomes necessary. The bolts will ensure that when the railroad is reassembled, the sections will line up exactly as they were designed to.

I am waiting for some electrical parts to arrive, and when they do I will have a few more things to install before the foam. Once they are in place, I'll glue the foam insulation to the top of the framework, and start laying track. I started cutting the foam today to the proper size so putting that on will be a simple matter of gluing it down. I should be able to get that started this weekend. I plan to lay, electrify, ballast, and weather the tracks before getting too involved in anything else. after that will come the structures and other scenery. Since the layout will represent a fairly industrial part of a fictional town, the scenery will be mostly industrial. There will be very little natural scenery, but it will maximize operations by including quite a few industries served by rail. Besides the industries, there will also be a passenger depot and a rail car shop.