Plywood

[Cody J]

I have put the yard inside the oval. I am using 22 inch radius on the oval and 18 in the yard and industrial spurs.

The spur with the building is a lumber yard. Atlas Lumber Yard & Office.
The spur farthest to the top is the Walthers Dayton Machince Company which I will be using as a furniture factory.
The last spur is a coal mine.

I will have some sort of hill between the lumber yard and the rail yard and between the coal mine and the rail yard. I might even have a lake or something in the big open space, consediering my layout is set in the middle-of-nowhere, west virginia.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on the layout?

Cody

[Guilford Guy]

Ditch the last 2 yard tracks, and build a mountain(scenic divide) between the lumber yard and railroad yards. This makes the mainline seem longer and makes the layout seem like less of an oval.

[Cody J]

Then I won't have as much car storage. I can move the lumber yard to the area between the mainline and the spur then I'll have rooom to build a mountain.

[Cody J]

I think I can build a long, narrow hill about 4.5 inches high between the rail yard and lumber yard track. And a couple hills around the lake.

[Guilford Guy]

I'm saying that because your yard tracks are so short you'll only be able to fit one or 2 cars on the furthest ones...

[Cody J]

I was planning on using at least the farthest track or maybe the last two tracks for my locos.

[jward]

my advise is to go back to the 5x9 you were originally planning on. you can then add an extra foot to your yard tracks. you can also add 9" straights in the middle of your turnback curves on the end and buy yourself some more room in the middle for that mountain..... it is very hard to do much in 4X8 especially if you are using the 18" radius ez track switches.

[Cody J]

I would like to do that but it seems horribly expensive for a 9x5. 60 bucks to special order plywood, or to splice some together would be challenging for me and finding 9x5 styrfoam would be hard. I found some 4x8 styrofoam at Lowe's that is really great it is like hard styrofoam and won't break easily. I think i will be better off with a 4x8 although i would like 9x5 but sometimes you have to make secrifices.

[NarrowMinded]

I would like to suggest that you create your own 5x9 piece of plywood "sort of.  Just buy plywood half the thickness you want,  off set it and add strips as suggested earlier in this thread. But I would use spray contact adhesive and glue them together and then short screws in a grid pattern to hold it together.   

Build your dream don't compromise you will be happier with your layout in the end.

NM

[Guilford Guy]

What type of benchwork are you using? I built a frame of 1x4s for a 4x8, but to gain a little extra space, I used L brackets and 1x6s to extend the benchwork. After adding foam on top it will be pretty much invisible.

[Cody J]

It's going to be set on top of a 9x5 table, i have absolutely no carpentey skills.

[NarrowMinded]

Something I just thought of after reading through the post again, if you are planing on moving this layout off of the table without ribbing/stiffeners you will likely damage it from the flexing of the plywood.

NM

[Joe Satnik]

Dear TR,

On the previous page you asked:

"I am also not understanding what you mean by hole material?"

My apologies.  My use of that term wasn't meant to confuse. 

In retrospect I would have been better off leaving that statement out.

I was offering you some patterns to cut a 4'x8' sheet (see "subject" line) into pieces that would splice into a rectangular ring measuring 5' by about 9'.   The results would have a rectangular hole in the middle.   

I was trying to be "clever" by saying the enlarged outer measurements are the results of the material that "was moved from where the hole now is". 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

   

[pipefitter]

... I was offering you some patterns to cut a 4'x8' sheet (see "subject" line) into pieces that would splice into a rectangular ring measuring 5' by about 9'.   The results would have a rectangular hole in the middle...

Can you describe those patterns Joe? Unless they're proprietary, of course.

Thanks,

Robert

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Robert,

Here is an 18" wide pattern.  Gives a 5' x 8-1/2' rectangular ring. 

Note that these are just from pencil drawings on 1/4" division graph paper.

I have very little wood cutting and splicing experience, e.g. how do I cut an inside corner in the middle of the sheet? 

I'm not sure of the best way to splice, perhaps with biscuit joining system?  Dunno. 

Use at your own risk.  Be safe.  Dimensions are in inches.  Drawing not to scale.   

48 l------l--------l------------------------------------l
     l        l          l                                                   l
     l        l          l                                                   l
30 l        l           l                        /l----------l           l
24 l        l           l-/--------------/-l              l            l
18 l        l--------l/                       l              l            l
     l                                            l              l            l
     l                                            l              l            l
0   l--------------------------------l----------l--------l
   0       18        36 42              54 60          78         96   

Dispite my poor keyboard character drawing, all cuts are parallel to the edges of the sheet using a vertical blade.   

Exception, the last two cuts: 36,18 to 42,24 and 54,24 to 60,30 are 45 degrees with a vertical blade. 

The resulting triangles could be spliced into the 2 remaining square inside corners.

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik 

P.S.  A different width pattern tomorrow.