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I have put this in Tracks, Layouts & Scenery even though more info on the progress of my layout can be found in my MRF Blog
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What is the gestalt of laying down smooth compounding curves and straight lines? What makes good track work? What is the Zen of Track-laying?
One has to think long and hard before you lay track. You have to plan and scheme. Discussing options with others help immensely and forums such as our own furthers that process. We can learn rapidly from listening to a wide variety of ideas and opinions. If you met up with a buddy who shares the same hobby, he will have his method and either you copy him and he'll support you or you may risk his derision if you go and do something different. That is always the case of one-on-one interaction.
We have to lay track for our layout. We want to run trains and we realise that we need a permanent structure that we can devote our time and money. Our models look good on the shelf or when you pull them out of their boxes. Doesn't one feel slightly sad when the loco goes back into it's protective expanded foam and box? Wouldn't it be better to find an engine shed on the layout for the loco instead?
Layout it is then.
I have made layouts before. Mostly on rectangular pieces of plywood. The last was quite big and filled up my room above the car garage. It was still a toy-train layout though as it looked temporary. Something wasn't right. I felt that the layout needed a more permanent feel and I felt that it should become part of the building.
So instead of the layout taking up the middle ground of the room and me knocking my head under the eves, I decided a year or so back to build the layout under the eves and to free up the middle of the room for other activities. The principal activity though fro the past year was junk collecting. I managed to dismantle the last layout that took months to build in three hours. Not much of any scenery was kept as the idea was to do it right next time around.
Hang on... Didn't I do it right the previous time...?
This is where the subject of this piece is getting to. What makes a good track / What can one consider permanent / When are you happy with your track-laying / What is the Zen of Track-laying?
What is good track work? What is bad track work? Is it physical or metaphysical?
I think there are both physical or metaphysical elements to this conundrum. We are limited by our level of skill and it is highly likely that any first attempt will come out badly. Perhaps even second and third too... We are keen to get the trains running so we want to see action on day one. And, worst of all, when we mess up, we all too quickly patch it up, forget about the glitch and get on with it.
The trouble is that we know the problems are there and when coaches de-rail in certain black-spots we know why they are derailing. It's not the brand of track or the age of the loco, its our bad track work.
If we let this persist, what happens? We end up putting up with this niggling issue until it drives us nuts and we start the layout over again. These are the bug-bears that make us feel so bad with ourselves.
To get back to my new track. I have run trains on the benchwork for a few months now. I have tested the inclines with a selection of rolling stock and I have played with a few ideas that may add a bit of excitement to the layout. I got motivated recently to get the last of the benchwork done. I think that something on the forum was annoying me and I went out to the track to contemplate the universe like I do sometimes. I got a bee in my bonnet and finished off the wood work of the last section of bench work in two days.
Why stop there? I continued, I tidied up the junk, I cleared middle of the room out and continued onto the other surfaces that had been accumulating stuff over the months. Why not build some more of my raised track beds that will carry the mainline around the room? Viaduct sort of things. So I did.
I then realised that to do one section, I would have to permanently attach a large piece of plywood in front of my rear ramp. This would make laying the track afterwards a bit of a pain. So, I thought: Lets lay some permanent track work!
I have been buying Tillig track over the last year. I have boxes of 16.5mm track, mixed gauge and HOe track. I have some points and a few point motors of various makes. I also have all my old Peco code 100 track as well as some unopened boxes of the stuff. The decision was made to go 100% Tillig and to dump the Peco. I started to lay the very flexy Tillig flex-track at the back on my up-ramp.
I am gluing down the track in 4 or 5 spots along its length. Track pins or nails will transmit sound down into the baseboards (done that before) so I'm not using pins and going with glue on cork underlay. As this is permanent, It may as well go on right. I laid four pieces and stopped. They were not lining up, the joints were bad. I realised that I was rushing; that I was not doing it right and would most likely end up regretting what I had done and getting into this cycle that I mentioned before. I went to bed.
I thought long and hard.
The next day, I pulled up the Tillig track. It does come up easily with a sharp putty scraper pushed under the sleepers. I realised that there is no point in using the Tillig track in the hidden areas of the layout if the Peco track was laid down properly. I had to sight the straights and I had to get the curves flowing smoothly. Make sure the transitions were perfect and the lengths were exact. No rush this time. I used my meter rule and a few other metal rulers as straight edges. I ran my eye along the curves looking for slight imperfections. Getting into contorted positions on top of the benches under the eves to do so. It has to be perfect.
Plan the placement, Lay the track, check and check again. Pin with thumb pins and modellers pins, check again. Then, when perfect, apply the glue with a small brush. Weigh down the track with flat wooden blocks that apply pressure evenly to both rails and put a weight on that. Six hours later the quick acting PVA that has been applied in four spots is set and gone clear - in each spot it lightly covers about four sleepers and fills up about a third of the gap between the sleepers. It shrinks when dry and is hardly noticeable afterwards. Pull the pins, check the lines and curves. Now it must be perfect. If not, do it again. This is the big choice. Take it now, don't regret it later.
I have a good bogie coach that I then run over the section. I watch, listen, study. I smile and move on.
I am now averaging four to six pieces a day now. Laying them in different areas. Not disturbing those pieces that are drying. Each track piece is electrically isolated from it's neighbour. I am not relying on fish-plates for a good electrical connection, I have other methods for that, but more on that another time.
I am content. The track is going down well. It will be a good layout. And I am not planning on pulling it up - or moving house
![]()
What is the gestalt of laying down smooth compounding curves and straight lines? What makes good track work? What is the Zen of Track-laying?
One has to think long and hard before you lay track. You have to plan and scheme. Discussing options with others help immensely and forums such as our own furthers that process. We can learn rapidly from listening to a wide variety of ideas and opinions. If you met up with a buddy who shares the same hobby, he will have his method and either you copy him and he'll support you or you may risk his derision if you go and do something different. That is always the case of one-on-one interaction.
We have to lay track for our layout. We want to run trains and we realise that we need a permanent structure that we can devote our time and money. Our models look good on the shelf or when you pull them out of their boxes. Doesn't one feel slightly sad when the loco goes back into it's protective expanded foam and box? Wouldn't it be better to find an engine shed on the layout for the loco instead?
Layout it is then.
I have made layouts before. Mostly on rectangular pieces of plywood. The last was quite big and filled up my room above the car garage. It was still a toy-train layout though as it looked temporary. Something wasn't right. I felt that the layout needed a more permanent feel and I felt that it should become part of the building.
So instead of the layout taking up the middle ground of the room and me knocking my head under the eves, I decided a year or so back to build the layout under the eves and to free up the middle of the room for other activities. The principal activity though fro the past year was junk collecting. I managed to dismantle the last layout that took months to build in three hours. Not much of any scenery was kept as the idea was to do it right next time around.
Hang on... Didn't I do it right the previous time...?
This is where the subject of this piece is getting to. What makes a good track / What can one consider permanent / When are you happy with your track-laying / What is the Zen of Track-laying?
What is good track work? What is bad track work? Is it physical or metaphysical?
I think there are both physical or metaphysical elements to this conundrum. We are limited by our level of skill and it is highly likely that any first attempt will come out badly. Perhaps even second and third too... We are keen to get the trains running so we want to see action on day one. And, worst of all, when we mess up, we all too quickly patch it up, forget about the glitch and get on with it.
The trouble is that we know the problems are there and when coaches de-rail in certain black-spots we know why they are derailing. It's not the brand of track or the age of the loco, its our bad track work.
If we let this persist, what happens? We end up putting up with this niggling issue until it drives us nuts and we start the layout over again. These are the bug-bears that make us feel so bad with ourselves.
To get back to my new track. I have run trains on the benchwork for a few months now. I have tested the inclines with a selection of rolling stock and I have played with a few ideas that may add a bit of excitement to the layout. I got motivated recently to get the last of the benchwork done. I think that something on the forum was annoying me and I went out to the track to contemplate the universe like I do sometimes. I got a bee in my bonnet and finished off the wood work of the last section of bench work in two days.
Why stop there? I continued, I tidied up the junk, I cleared middle of the room out and continued onto the other surfaces that had been accumulating stuff over the months. Why not build some more of my raised track beds that will carry the mainline around the room? Viaduct sort of things. So I did.
I then realised that to do one section, I would have to permanently attach a large piece of plywood in front of my rear ramp. This would make laying the track afterwards a bit of a pain. So, I thought: Lets lay some permanent track work!
I have been buying Tillig track over the last year. I have boxes of 16.5mm track, mixed gauge and HOe track. I have some points and a few point motors of various makes. I also have all my old Peco code 100 track as well as some unopened boxes of the stuff. The decision was made to go 100% Tillig and to dump the Peco. I started to lay the very flexy Tillig flex-track at the back on my up-ramp.
I am gluing down the track in 4 or 5 spots along its length. Track pins or nails will transmit sound down into the baseboards (done that before) so I'm not using pins and going with glue on cork underlay. As this is permanent, It may as well go on right. I laid four pieces and stopped. They were not lining up, the joints were bad. I realised that I was rushing; that I was not doing it right and would most likely end up regretting what I had done and getting into this cycle that I mentioned before. I went to bed.
I thought long and hard.
The next day, I pulled up the Tillig track. It does come up easily with a sharp putty scraper pushed under the sleepers. I realised that there is no point in using the Tillig track in the hidden areas of the layout if the Peco track was laid down properly. I had to sight the straights and I had to get the curves flowing smoothly. Make sure the transitions were perfect and the lengths were exact. No rush this time. I used my meter rule and a few other metal rulers as straight edges. I ran my eye along the curves looking for slight imperfections. Getting into contorted positions on top of the benches under the eves to do so. It has to be perfect.
Plan the placement, Lay the track, check and check again. Pin with thumb pins and modellers pins, check again. Then, when perfect, apply the glue with a small brush. Weigh down the track with flat wooden blocks that apply pressure evenly to both rails and put a weight on that. Six hours later the quick acting PVA that has been applied in four spots is set and gone clear - in each spot it lightly covers about four sleepers and fills up about a third of the gap between the sleepers. It shrinks when dry and is hardly noticeable afterwards. Pull the pins, check the lines and curves. Now it must be perfect. If not, do it again. This is the big choice. Take it now, don't regret it later.
I have a good bogie coach that I then run over the section. I watch, listen, study. I smile and move on.
I am now averaging four to six pieces a day now. Laying them in different areas. Not disturbing those pieces that are drying. Each track piece is electrically isolated from it's neighbour. I am not relying on fish-plates for a good electrical connection, I have other methods for that, but more on that another time.
I am content. The track is going down well. It will be a good layout. And I am not planning on pulling it up - or moving house
