Large Scale Central

New elevated “hybrid” layout

Hey guys, I had some technical difficulties earlier attaching the photos.As I had to figure out how to get the pictures to embed first… So I have started the build log with the embedded photos later in this post thread.

Here’s the progress I have made thus far on my new layout. I had some different thoughts and mixed feelings on how I wanted to execute between all wood, elevate, partial elevated etc. I have had numerous different layouts and as much as I love the on the ground layouts and their “prototypical” perspectives, the Arizona sun and occasional wash out just gets the best of the track, every time. I had an old shelf system that I cut down and added the legs to to essentially create a benchwork. Each end has a return loop with a planned yard/turntable coming off of the center of the layout, down the road.

As it sits today, each loop has been leveled and the steel fastened at each end. I have to make a trip to buy some more lumber then I will continue with the decking portion.

-Matt

Is there a link or something I am missing. Would like to see it but there is nothing to see?

Hey Devon, technical difficulties got the best of me. I have attached the photos on the original post.

Where are your pictures hosted on the Internet?

If you use the Freight Shed on site (space allocated with membership) then open each pic and right click on the open pic, said he redundantly, it can be a copy and paste or copy image address to insert in the pic editor.

Looks like a fun arrangement and no wonder I can’t find any track!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Thanks John,

Lots of work left to complete. All of the siding, ballast, decking, final leg leveling and track testing is all still in the books. But at least it is fun work with a great outcome on the way.

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And I finally found a solid hosting site that I can get a direct embed link. Here’s two of my helpers getting after it today.

Matt

Love the boots!

Great crew!

Haha, they really “help” out a ton. I think that my boy loves it more than I do, so it’s a win-win with the wife.

The loops were a little tricky to get figured out but once I had the correct angle on the saw it was a cakewalk.

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The larger of the two loops required a little creativity to get it from the garage back to the layout area. The track is a 12 foot diameter. The gate opening is about 12’ 4".

As stated earlier, the benchwork was made from an old dimensional lumber shelf system I had in my garage when I moved in. With the 4x4 legs and deck blocks, it made a nice platform, even with the changing level of the terrain.

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The track is formed into a double dog bone. I wanted to do this to have the ability to run multiple trains at the same time. I have plans for a wye in the future which will lead into a yard with an engine facility and turntable. I want to get a solid feel for how everything runs before the installation of that piece begins .

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The loop decking is an added support mechanism in the case of a derailment and track stabilizer. There will also be a 30 inch lift out section for access on each loop. It has already been cut and tabbed in. I will go back later on and cut the track accordingly. I will be putting a heavy coat of poly on the wood here shortly. Overall, the track should be pretty close to level across the board. Once I ballast the benchwork piece, there will be a few spots to address due to some inconsistencies in the lumber.

One great thing about the house when we purchased it was this nice little shed. No brainer that it had to be for model trains, of course. One of the same shelf sections was used for a staging yard. this helped determine the height for the rest of the layout at it’s lowest point. I installed the dog door exit point a few months back and everything else taken off from there. The shelves have been a nice addition for storage. I need to install another 5 or so to get everything out and about.

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Thanks for looking.

Matt

Wow Matt looks very awesome.

Dennis

Nice start to a well built layout, Matt. You have some fine help there.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the feedback.

It’s a good thing you added the wings. I have seen my 10’D track shift over an inch to the outsides of curves during the summer… I’m wondering if your steel backbone will match the rail’s expansion.

Thanks for posting your progress.

Matt, your pictures are 3,000 by 4,000 pixels and about 16 megabytes each, and load pretty darn slow, you should resize (or make a resized copy) to the “standard” resolution for the site… before linking… making it look smaller by moving the margins does not stop the 16 megabyte download for each picture.

Greg

That’s some serious roadbed. Nice looking layout and i love the black half mask on the dog

Thanks Devon, she’s our million dollar dog nowadays… hard to believe she had hip surgery just over two weeks ago… out and about almost like nothing ever happened.

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Greg I resized this picture, did it seem to help?

Matt

hugely Matt, I have a pretty fast connection (400 megabit/second) and the 3k x 4k pictures still take a noticeable time to load. When you go to the thread ALL the pictures on the page reload, so hard to isolate just one, but it will make a huge difference.

I know I mentioned this, but if you rescale the picture here (in your post), the forum still has to download it at max resolution, and then resize it before you can see it. Many people think they have fixed things if they look right, but it is not necessarily so.

Congrats to your doggie on being up and around!

Greg

Perfect, I am glad it worked out. The rest of the photos were just swapped out which definitely made the page load much quicker.

I used to use photo bucket and it always worked great… until all of the changes were applied and they lost every one of my stored photos. I found Imgbb seems to work well and I use a resize app to change the size of the photo.

Whatever gets the job done… Thanks again!

-Matt

Hey guys, I had a few hours to get some work done on the layout today.

I built the support for the corner, added the mounting brackets, added legs (one being made from scrap kibbles)… and ran a train all of the way around for the very first time.

here’s the mockup prior to adding the legs

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Here you can see the corner pieces in place and mounted. I will do the wood decking through here as well.
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the return on the large loop was completed as well today. You should be able to see where the lift out piece is, I will cut the track accordingly once all is said and done.
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And last but not least, here’s the link for the first official trip around.
https://youtu.be/mTZFXAwEo84

It is slow order for most of the steel until I am able to install the decking. i Had to “assist” the loco through curves so it wouldn’t fall off…

I just knew you would derail here…and you did.