Friday, February 15, 2013
The tracks are laid and so are our plans...
Last weekend we started laying down foam for the terrain. It's been an interesting exercise in engineering and materials science. We have actually gotten farther along than this but I want to wait until this weekend is over before posting the next video. It's pretty startling what you can accomplish with a hot wire scroll table! Next challenge...the mountain. It's going to be interesting!
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While Mark is doing the photographing and video, I have not been idle. He has a steadier hand than I do, so he's been cutting the foam and will do the detailed work. I am measuring, rethinking, redesigning, and keeping the cats off the layout.
ReplyDeleteDuring the last week, I have graphed out the mountains. There will be four major sections, each 4 feet ion length and from 18 to 32 inches in width. Afterwards, we'll add four additional smaller sections, including a major, but narrow mountain area. We're waiting until the preliminary sections are in place before even considering how that will be done.
Last night and this morning, I measured out the wood. While I'll be getting a new 4x8 plywood (1/2 inch) for the mountain tops, the under-support will be constructed of wood left over from building the original table.
These mountain areas are strictly crude underlays. Two sections will have tracks going under them, the rest are elevated support regions. On top of these supports will be foam, fiberfill, spray-on insulation, and other items to create the actual terrain. That work is still months away.
In addition, I have been rethinking the Kato Unitram layout. At this time we have one short isolated loop section and one auto-reversing longer section. As Unitrams can not be DCC, we have a limitation as to how to build them. Currently I am considering joining the two sections together and block-running both trams on the same track, using two transformers in DC. The remainder of the layout will be DCC