Layout Progress Update - 11/17/2010

With the bench work complete I began the process of attaching the scenery base.

The base is a single piece of extruded foam which I purchased at Home Depot for around $20.00. The hollow-core door is 36" x 80" which is smaller than the foam so it was necessary to trim the foam.

There are different ways to cut the foam to size and I used a serrated kitchen knife. Now, it is foam, so it is important to cut it someplace where you won't mind the mess it will create and can clean up easy.

With the foam cut to size I then attached it to the hollow-core door using Loctite PL300 Foam board Adhesive. It is important that you use an adhesive that is safe for foam as some types of adhesive can eat away at the foam.

I let the adhesive dry for about 24 hours and added an assortment of heavy books to the top of the bench work to add weight and help ensure the adhesion took evenly.

The next step will to begin track work and scenery.

Layout Design

In designing my layout I wanted to have a few things, namely a yard area and some industries in order to do some switching. There is no shortage of layout plans available from any number of sources so getting ideas is not a problem.

The track that I am using is Kato Unitrack which, while easy to use, is not inexpensive so I wasn't going to just buy track pieces and then just haphazardly put a plan together. In comes XTrackCAD.

XTrackCAD (http://www.xtrkcad.org/Wikka/HomePage) is a free raiload layout planning program available for Windows and Linux. It comes preloaded with popular track types, structures, rolling stock, basically all the tools you need to plan a layout. Its a bit tricky to get going but there are many tutorials to be found on the web that can show you the ins and outs of the program.

By using XTrackCAD I was able to plan out various types of layouts and see how they would look on the layout space that I have available, 36" x 80". Perhaps my favorite feature is the "Parts List" which shows you all the pieces you need based on the layout that you need. If so inclined, you can even add prices so you can calculate just how much money you'll need to convince the finance department you will need.

In any event, via XTrackCAD I was able to come up with:

This plan enables me to have a yard and a few industries for switching. I'll also be adding a town scene, river, etc...

Getting Started

I'd been interested in model railroads for some time and became more so after attending a few shows with my father-in-law and watching him work on his HO Great Northern layout. Sure enough, I was hooked.

With space a premium I knew I wouldn't have room for an HO scale layout so N Scale was perfect. What's more, I had seen several plans for N Scale layouts on hollow core doors (HCD). So with an HCD and a basic set of Kato Unitrack I was on my way.

There is nothing revolutionary about my HCD benchwork which is exactly the point. To get started all I needed was:

• a hollow core door available from any home improvement store. I picked up a 36" x 80" unfinished door from Lowes but any such store, and any such door, will do;
• a set of replacement banquet table legs. These can be had for under $20 and are standard replacement legs used on any such type of folding table;
• four 1" x 4" boards cut to 36", used to attach the table legs to the hollow core door

Really that is it. That is all I needed to get my basic benchwork up and ready for future use as the platform on which to build my N Scale model raiload