Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Lessons learned

If you are like me and change your concept or idea often, never glue the track to the roadbed. I will always spike it from now on. Used liquid nails to apply the track to the corak roadbed, next to impossible to remove with out damaging track. I am glad I spiked all of the switches as they are easily removed for reuse.

Foam core scenery support is great until you tear it out, what a mess. Cardboard strips and plaster cloth only from now on.

Less is better, less area to scenic especially. I had only partially sceniced the peninsula and it was a real time consumer and material consumer. This next design will have the shelves as narrow as possible to fit the track work flats against the back drop and smaller structures if any between the bench edge.

Using linoleum for the back drop is great if it is not to high. I had used 2-1/2 foot high sections of linoleum for my back drop. It was hard to install and keep flat against the back board. As time went by its weight started to pull away from the back board. I would only use it up to 1 ft high if I ever use it again.

Layout is 50% dismantled as of today.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Go the the links section of my website for a cheap source of plaster wrap.

Anonymous said...

Check out my layout blog, http://trainfanatic.blogspot.com, where this is the first time I'm gluing down track & roadbed on to pink foam, but I'm using a latex adhesive caulk, so I can easily pry up the track. The pink foam is the only stuff glued down using Liquied nails, but can be easily removed, the wood sanded, and new stuff laid pretty easily, if I ever decided to change what I was doing (scale, locale, track plan, etc).