Chicago and NW Indiana on a door

[gringo]

Having been out of the country for the past few months, I FINALLY had an opportunity to start construction on my new layout- a representation of 2 of my favorite railroads; the Belt Railway of Chicago and Chicago South Shore & South Bend. The bottom half of the layout is a representation of Michigan City- the long diagonal track is a dummy track (for now), with a model of the CSS&SB interurban. That model will be difficult to make, but since the train is actually made in Japan, I thought I might find a similar model from a Japanese store, and I think I might have. All I need to do is add some pantographs. The rivet counters might not like it, but I don't think it'll make much difference. (BTW, one thing I really like about modelling these two is that I can run BNSF, UP, CSX, NS, C&NW, CN and just about anyone else I want, prototypically.

The upper portion is somewhere on the south side of Chicago- the large grey polygon is either the Dan Ryan expressway, or the Chicago Skyway- either way, it's going to be a 6 lane highway overpass fairly tall- maybe over a foot tall or so... The two-track yard is a small intermodal yard.

Anyway, I started layoing roadbed and track last week, but then I left for Chicago, so it'll be slow going. But I'll keep posting here as progress, well, um, progresses. The curves are superelevated- I cut up a cereal box into small strips and glued down two layers, then glued the roadbed over it. We'll see how well it works.

The layout will eventually be DCC, but right now I'm just going to wire it conventionally, but only as one block. As soon as I get the new Atlas MP15 in BRC colors, I'll put in for a DCC system.

Anyway, time to sign off.

 

[umtrr-author]

Looks like it will be fun to build and operate.

As far as the South Bend "stand in"... always remember Rule #1.*

*It's your railroad.

 

[Herc Driver]

Using a door??? Great!

Some quick hints that I found...stop me if you're an old hand at using a door for a layout. I wished I had put a sound dampening material down first...with trains running around the layout, the sound somewhat echoes throughout the door. If for some reason you need to cut the door to a different length, a yardstick fits inside the gap of the door faces perfectly. Doubled and glued in position, it adds rigidity back to the door (and at most hardware stored they're free!). If you plan on hiding most/all of your wires and drill through the door, use a small drill bit and consider scoring the desired holes first as I found the door can easily splinter when the bit comes through the other side.

 

[brakie]

Sweet! Looks good!:thumb:

 

[brakie]

Some quick hints that I found...stop me if you're an old hand at using a door for a layout. I wished I had put a sound dampening material down first...

I found that cork road bed will does a great job of quieting down the sound.

 

[gringo]

Actually, the thing was planned to be put on a door, but then I just made a frame out of 1x2's and glued a 2" peice of pink styrofoam on top.

I can tell you this much: I was many things in previous lives, but a carpenter, never! But I got the thing to stand- actually fairly pleased with the outcome, albeit simple. Just the usual stuff- measure 4 times, cut once, still 2" off...

Anyway, over the foam, I'm using Woodland Senics foam roadbed. Seems to be fairly good. When I get back to Miami I'll post some pictures.