Gettin it together

Five strips of Peco Z flex track arrived in the post a few days ago. They've sat neglected in the corner of the trainroom since, while periodic rituals involving pondering were performed.

I know I should complete the wiring and build a control panel, but today I accidentally glued a section of foamboard trackbed in place, so figured I might as well go to town while the ball was rolling. This is why I scored 55% in School Certificate English.

An hour or so later I'd managed to lay the double mainline up to the 'summit' and connect up one of the passing loops at its hidden station. The apex of the third level of track is where the uphill mainline loops around to become the down main while also providing (minimal) storage so that an uphill train which has just summitted doesn't have to immediately go back downhill again.

looking 'south' towards a non-existent Goschenen which would be a few miles beyond my summit sidings

Looking 'north' from the summit storage sidings and Wattinger

There's still plenty of feed-wiring and track soldering to be done before a train can finally loop around continuously up and down, round and round, ad-nauseam under its own power, and I do need to see if I can eek out the storage siding trackage at the summit from the few remaining centimetres of track and few fishplates I have left, but it does seem like a milestone has been reached

Half of the untested summit trackage foolishly glued in place

Over the Top

Since it's armistice day (Nov 11), it seems appropriate to steel myself to go over the top and embark on a final big push to the summit.

Lacking the necessary bits of track right now, I'm having to make do with foamboard to see what the path across no mans land looks like. Hopefully that will be resolved shortly and the rails will be able to take their first vertical steps in some months.

Tentative steps. Looking 'north'

From behind. Mug (NZMRG Porirua 1994!) for scale for the benefit of Am-Fet

Getting the Band Back Together

Wassen has moved.

As this had been anticipated, the layout was effectively built in two 'halves' that were pinned together where foamboard sections met at the border. Track that had been finalised was glued down except for sections that crossed the border, and here it had been pinned down temporarily.

Thus when the time came to move, it was an easy task to remove a dozen pins, gently unplug the tracks, and then the two layout halves separated easily. Although each half is fairly large and an awkward shape, if you can find the right balance point, they can be easily picked up with a few fingers thanks to the lightweight and somewhat shonky construction methods employed.

The two halves were carefully stacked on top of each other in the back of a hatchback car and driven away into the sunset.

Now in a more permanent location, they have been reunited and joined for good.

My initial thoughts as to next steps were to get some yard track laid, but pragmatically, I spent last night bolstering the new border joins with extra bracing. As with most layouts of this shape, the whole thing is pretty strong and stable except for in a twisting motion, but the whole thing should stiffen up when some scenery starts to grow in the vertical dimension.

A view from on high. The temporary top level has been omitted for clarity.
And because it would have fallen off. 

This is why I'm not an architect. Luckily not too many people will see this underside.

Pre-Holiday Progress

I'll be traveling and thus away from my Z scale Mini-Me Wassen for most of July, but here's the latest progress. 

The first semi-permanent steps have been made down into the hidden yard and a temporary test section - which will be the third level traveling over the upper Meienreuss bridge and then past The Command Post - can be seen at the end of this vid.

Even though this train is a little slow out of the yard as I fiddle with controller and phone-camera without enough fingers and eyes, this 2:20 video somewhat surprisingly shows how much running time there is on a layout only 180cm long.

Testing 1,2,3...

Success!

Post this, the double track has been more properly attached and now extends right up to the top level. And the train still makes it.

Freestanding

I'm not sure whether Kevin McCloud of 'Grand Designs' would approve, but one of the things I've put in place at the 'right hand side' hidden spiral (the Leggistein Kehrtunnel with an extra loop included), is a form of cantilevered 'benchwork' supporting the track. This allows better access to the lower level yard than if I'd supported it on stilts in the traditional manner.

The first of these started out as a foamboard offcut that happened to have a nice curve in the underside, which has been replicated in the other arms.

As can be seen, the tracklaying department is slowly moving uphill after having taken some vacation last week.

And in other news, I seem to be able to get my train up this hill finally! Woohoo!

Bugger

So... I've soldered up some flex and pinned down a single level helix on the right side. This would gain me another 5cm of height between the middle and top levels of track if a train could climb it, which is seeming a bit unlikely given the tight radius. I tried to minimise the clearance needed between levels (for a loco with its pantograph up to pass under the upper level of track’s foamboard base) by using flex rather than sectional rack with its plastic ‘ballast’ base.

Judges , the envelope please…

Well, that pretty much proves that its not possible in this iteration.

I might be able to increase the ‘run’ of track - either by increasing radius or widening the circle into an oval without impeding the Meienreuss gorge - but I’m not sure how many cm of extra run that will give me.

I might also be able to reduce the vertical climb that I have built into my setup: 

• By some miscalculation, I have 5mm of air above the panto that can be dispensed with immediately
• I might be able to thin the track baseboard on the small segment that is directly over the lower track by replacing the foamboard with plasticard reinforced from above
• The raised panto height is a bit high on the locos, and (I intended to fix this anyway) 

So if I can reduce the height by 12-15mm, and increase the run by 10cm, that might make enough of a difference to the grade such that can be surmounted

Together

I've faced a dilemma on the layout for the past week as to whether the two ends of the layout should be joined together (which would enable the track to advance over the middle sections) or to keep them apart (so I can move it in a car if needed) 

After much umming and ahhhing about how to proceed, I decided to 'not-decide', kicking that can down the road by pinning the layout halves together and proceeding with the track laying. If I need to, I can unplug at any time, and if not, I can just glue and reinforce the joins.

Pins and braces

So with that sorted its time to get moving again. Track has now been laid down the Reuss river from Wattinger to the tunnel guarding the lower staging area. Next will be the middle level where the big bridge will be, and as you can see, I’m still revisiting the decision to exclude the hidden spiral at the near end which would give another 4cm or so of vertical clearance between the middle and upper levels of track.

Baby I love your curve reinforcers

Mmmm. Flowing curves in flex track always look good, and these are some of the finest I’ve ever pinned down. Here stuck down with Pattex, my most excellent Hollandaise wood glue from The Netherlands, while being pinned in place with various implements. 

Something I despise with a passion on a layout is when twin tracks aren’t laid parallel in curves.

Sometimes this happens because people who aren’t as fussy as I don’t think to do it; and if they are, because of accidentally kinked joins between flex sections or accidentally cutting a section the wrong length. Fixes for the latter: whoops, try again with another piece; and for the former - solder sections together before bending, or plan and cut track as appropriate to move joints out of the tightest areas.

In addition to the aesthetics, much time has been spent over the last days continuing to build out the ‘baseboards’ with longitudinal bracing underneath (faked up in green here as this pic was taken just before it went on) and more support in the ‘grid’ up top.

Nethersides

The layout is in two halves at the moment so they could fit into a car if needed (and they’re easier to flip around during this construction phase), but they will have to come together in the near future.

Flexing

The intention for Wassen was to use flextrack as much as possible for the visible bits, and sectional track for the (primarily hidden) tight curves used to get track between levels.

In any scale I’ll pick Peco Streamline flextrack, as I love its length, the way it bends, the forgiveness of the plastic sleepers, and 'Streamline' just seems to be the best name ever for flex. Kudos to the Peco Marketing department (who is probably also the founder and lavatory cleaner). I managed to pick up a box of Z for a good price although I also have some short 220mm lengths of Micro Trains flex. For sectional pieces I’m using Rokuhan, and so far I’ve been impressed with them. To add more confusion into the mix, I have 8 untested Micro Trains switches from a previous life. 

No worries, they’re all 6.5mm wide right? Alas they’re not all the same height. Any minor differences in rail profiles/heights can be sorted out pretty quickly with the judicious application of a file to the offending rail head, but to further complicate things, the sectional track and points have moulded ballast roadbeds of varying heights depending on the manufacturer. Not wanting to place 3mm shims under the flex track unless I have to, even though 3mm foamboard probably exists somewhere, I’ve decided to tackle my first piece of flex by simply raising the foam board base by 3mm where the flex will be. This gives me the same consistent dark surface that will be easy to pin my track to and cover with ballast/scenery.

Level pegging

The flextrack is temporarily pinned in place below and the various bends have been seasoned to taste after viewing it from various angles. Knowing where the track will finally go allows the black foamboard to be narrowed where the Wattinger curve bridge will go. I’m trying to do any foamboard hacking before the track is fixed down to minimise chances of buckling the track or upsetting soldered rail joints or feeders.

Moving Pictures

Proof in video, although it sounds like there's a cat going through a wringer somewhere in the background.

While the tail track to the right is just temporary, this will be the view flowing through Wattinger curve, into a tunnel in the foreground, out again and across the upper Wattinger bridge on the curve at left, and then into a tunnel before proceeding around the upper spiral (hidden). The train will re-emerge where the tracks end here on the mid-level and proceed to the big bridge.

Rollercoaster

It had been my intention to build this layout on a flat base - a hollowcore door, or a thick closed cell insulation foam slab. Not being very good at planning layouts to the N-th degree before starting, I prefer to build and plan iteratively as I go. Having a flat, stiff baseboard helps me ‘see’ the size of the project and position things on it so they work for me visually.

This is not the way things have worked out here...

Firstly, my foamboard 'gradient trial' has developed a life of its own, to grow like a proverbial spaghetti monster extending its black noodly appendages across all three levels of Wassen. 

Coney Island Cyclone

It turns out that not only is the 5mm foamboard easy to cut and glue together, everything is coming together so fast that building in it has become addictive. While constantly referring to the big-picture objective in my mind, I’m able to plan one or two steps ahead, prototype it to see if it fits, and tweak things as I go which has helped me ‘see’ how things will work and what needs to be moved to make the scenes look right.

A second contribution to this way of thinking came from the Head Druff, who let slip a throwaway line while reviewing early progress on a site visit a few days back - "why not build a few angle girders from foamboard and start there”. That sounded far too professional to me, but did spark a thought given that a Knaufboard foam slab the size of a door costs $130 at Bunnings.

So I’m experimenting with using strips of 5mm foamboard to tie all my makeshift grades and temporary support legs together, and bolstering them with braces and some ‘girdering’ components on the bottom. Much of the work has been done with quite thin 2.5cm strips of 5mm foamboard. Additional stiffness in some areas will be provided by a sheet of the stuff under the hidden ‘yard’ at the back of the lowest level of the layout. 

Compared to the traditional approach of building up from a flat, rigid baseboard, effectively this is similar to the way automotive design evolved from having a stiff ladder frame with a body stuck on top, to using only a monocoque body that in itself provides all the strength needed.  

It seems to be working, hopefully when the glue has set it will prove strong enough, and as mentioned before, its a really fast way to build a layout. If things are still a little flexy, I’ll follow the Druff’s suggestion and throw some stiffer girders underneath or encase the outside in wood.