Bare basement in 2006 shows central "lolly columns" which were enclosed in the wall in the next photo.
Embedded Files
Mostly finished layout area in 2020
DISCLAIMER
DISCLAIMER
After working on my model railroad for 14 years, I had accumulated hundreds of photos of the railroad in the different phases of its creation. This section of the website is a sort of chronological explanation of the project, with some details on the challenges faced and solutions used. I do not mean to suggest that this is the only way to build a layout. What follows is the way I did it , with a lot of encouragement from my very understanding wife and advice from my friends in New York and Virginia, for better or worse. I have tried to date stamp the photos for an approximation of when each was taken, not necessarily when the work on the area was done.
I started this layout, my third, at the age of 60 and did not honestly know if I would live to finish it. My father only lived to the age of 60. I hope he would have been proud to see how his patience, guidance and love have inspired me in this project and in everything else in my life. I think he would have enjoyed seeing it.
(Eventual Layout)
Building against concrete walls
Building against concrete walls
Layout construction was started in January, 2007 and began with preparation of the basement. This included sealing the concrete floors, planning for electrical connections, providing sufficient lighting and deciding on a ceiling treatment. Half the wall area of the basement was floor to ceiling poured concrete. The rest of the walls were poured concrete bases with stick wall construction on top, allowing for windows and a walk out door in the back. I had been planning the layout from the first time I saw the house, when we made our purchase offer in June, 2006. By the time we moved (September 2006 ), I had a pretty good idea what I wanted to build. I wanted to build against the walls, leaving sufficient aisle space for visitors, and leaving the back wall windows and walkout door unobstructed. I wanted no duck-unders, no wiring on the floor, and plenty of electrical service all around the layout. I wanted the layout against the concrete walls, but really did not want to compromise the integrity of the concrete by drilling into it.
My brother in law, James Williams, came up with a great suggestion: Attach plywood walls to the sill plates over the concrete. The 1/2 inch 4X 8 foot plywood sheets reach almost to the floor and were fitted with 2x4 benchwork supports before being screwed to the wood sill plates. I could have sealed the concrete walls first if needed for waterproofing reasons, but my local experts indicated that this was unnecessary in my area because of the sealants applied to the outside of the walls during construction. The house is now 15 years old and I haven't had any water in the basement yet. If sealing is ever needed, the bottom 9 inches of these walls are still bare concrete and could be sealed if necessary. I power nailed each plywood panel to the wall near the bottom, but this turned out not to be necessary as the downward force of the bench work keeps them tight against the walls. Extending the plywood beneath the necessary layout benchwork height turned out to be very handy for mounting my three electrical circuits and for installing storage shelves. The plywood walls also allowed easy attachment of the perimeter support rails for the suspended ceiling.
Overhead Layout Lighting
Overhead Layout Lighting
I wanted to have a separate AC power circuit for layout lighting, apart from the four bare bulb fixtures provided by the builder. To that end, I ran a separate circuit to accomodate ten 2 foot by 4 foot fluorescent light fixtures. I tried to space them over the planned people aisles to facilitate bulb changing. Each holds four 4-foot tubes. After ten years, I had replaced about 20 of these, so when I found LED tubes that could replace the fluorescent tubes, I swapped them all out. I replaced the 100 watt bulbs in the builders original bare bulb fixtures with 25 watt LED bulbs and this gives a moonlit effect to the layout when the main lights are switched off to simulate night running or to highlight the layout scenery lights in buildings and vehicles. I finished off the dropped ceiling with 2 X 4 foot ceiling panels, incorporating the 2x4 foot lighting fixtures nicely. Both lighting systems are on "three way " switches so I can control them from either side of the room.
Basement starting point 2006
Initial Lighting installation, prior to ceiling install. 2006
Plywood walls and benchwork, 2x4 layout lighting and "moon " lighting. Track work drawn on builder's paper taped to floor. 2006
Benchwork Construction
Benchwork Construction
Before building any benchwork, I taped builder's paper to the floor and laid out my track plan in pencil on the paper. This disclosed several areas where my plan would not have worked and allowed me to make track work plan changes. I used 1x4 common pine for the benchwork framing and 2X4 's for the legs. For benchwork against the walls, I cantilevered 2x4 legs back to the concrete walls to maximize legroom under the layout. For benchwork out in the peninsulas, I built a "floor frame" of 2x4 lumber, no wider than 2 feet and centered the peninsulas over that frame with normal vertical 2x4 legs down to that frame. This also maximized visitor legroom. These construction ideas have resulted in a very comfortable operating environment for our feet and legs. Also the 2x4 legs, which many consider "overkill", have been very helpful when I have to put one foot on the layout to reach into the ceiling to run wires, turn off water to the outdoor hoses in the winter or reach lighting fixtures to change tubes.
The basement had several central "lolly columns" to support the house. I planned a wall to hide them and provide a scenic break between areas of the layout. This wall also provides a route for running wires from my circuits back to my circuit breaker box on the outside wall of the basement. My circuits run from the breaker box, along the ceiling and down that center wall to all the areas of the layout.
Wall to hide lolly columns and provide scenic break. 2007
Newly painted backdrops temporarily protected by builders paper during benchwork construction. 2007
Ultimate helix location
Layout power
Layout power
I wanted to have three separate AC circuits for the layout. One just for track (DCC power and turnout control). One just for scenery (lighting and animations). And one just for "shop" functions, such as power tools, vacuum cleaners etc. The first two would be switchable as needed and the "shop" power would be on full time. Before any benchwork was begun, I ran the three circuits all around the basement and provided 4 gang boxes every ten feet around the walls. The plywood walls provide handy attachment for these three circuits as well as later shelves and other fixtures.
2007
Backdrop painting
Backdrop painting
Before I got too far with the benchwork, I tried to paint my backdrops on the room walls. This way, I could stand inside the benchwork frames to do the backdrops. I got a set of Bob Ross DVD's ( Remember DVD's ? ), ((Remember Bob Ross?)) I practiced on a few canvasses and went to work. This is a very fast way to do backdrops! Generally only about two hours per wall. They are detailed enough to set the scene, but not so detailed as to draw attention away from the layout. Not all of these efforts survived. I redid two sections later with commercial paper backgrounds and one with photo enlargements I took of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.
Top: Surviving original oil Painting in room 2 2007
Bottom: Photo mural replacement in room 1 2008
Basic peninsula benchwork 2007
later benchwork progress 2007
Central wall seen from room 2 2007
Reusing prior layout sections
Reusing prior layout sections
The first track work to be installed were two sections I had salvaged from my NY Layout: an engine terminal with roundhouse and a passenger staging yard. I kept these two sections because A: I had put a lot of effort into kit-bashing the turntable and roundhouse and B: The passenger staging area included a neat little village and trolley line.
Engine terminal section salvaged from previous layout 2007
Engine terminal with roundhouse and other structures in place 2007
Passenger staging yard from previous layout. 2007
Caparatta trestle bridge
Caparatta trestle bridge
A major part of the layout planning included providing a suitable home for the beautiful big wood trestle given to me by my friend Paul Caparatta of the West Island (NY) Model Railroad Club. The top photo is the trestle on the layout in NY. I wanted it prominently displayed on the new layout, so I built a special circuit of the railroad to feature this trestle. Called the "Mountain Line", this circuit runs from a logging camp to a lumber mill and also interconnects with the main line of the railroad. A photo of this magnificent trestle was featured on the Model Railroader magazine website in 2011.
Caparatta trestle bridge fitting 2008
Terra forming the Mountain line 2008
Finished Caparatta Trestle installation 2010
Terra forming
Terra forming
There were a lot of elevation changes in the layout design. I decided to use the method my father had taught me in the 1950's ; the "cookie cutter " method of roadbed and terrain formation. Using a sandwich of 4 X 8 sheets of 1/2 inch "homosote" and 1/2 inch plywood, you lay them flat on the basic benchwork frame, draw your track plan on them while flat, and then use a saber saw to cut out sections that will be elevated above the baseline track level." Homosote" is a kind of dense cardboard that provides a sound deadening quality when running trains and is very easy to spike track into. It also provides an easy surface for carving in ground variation features such as ditches and puddles and is easy to pin trees and little plastic people into. Vertical wood risers bring the higher track bed up to the desired levels and are clamped and then screwed in place when everything is at the proper grades. This involves a lot of trail and error with a lot of clamps to get the grade changes smooth, but it goes much quicker than some other track bed construction methods, such as spline forming.
In the 1950's we used wire screening and plaster to form our mountains and land formations. Nowadays we have 2 inch thick blue or pink foam insulation to fill in our landforms. It's easy to cut and shape and fills in spaces nicely. It's easy to glue up into hillsides and mountains and cut into for tunnel portals, takes water based paint nicely and is very easy to stick trees into when the time comes. You can also apply plaster to it to smooth out contours and fill in gaps.
Initial blue foam terra-forming 2008
Elevated Mountain Line trackage, blue foam and plaster work in background 2008
Plaster coated blue foam prior to painting 2008
First two rooms
First two rooms
The first portion of the layout that was finished to operational condition (no scenery or ground cover) was the right side of the layout. This provided three circuits for continuous independent running. The main line, in black, was completely double tracked, so two trains could run simultaneously on that circuit. The Valley line, in green, was almost completely contained in room 1. The Mountain lIne, in red, was almost completely contained in room 2. The first two rooms were separated by the wall containing the lolly columns. This took about 9 months. The photos in the next section show later progress.
Here are some photos of the semi-finished layout in room 1 (2012)
Here are some photos of the semi-finished layout in room 1 (2012)
Overviews
"Wally World " Circus
Brick Factory and oil well
New River Mine
Night time fire scene
West Engine Service Facility in Emmaville
Water Tank at Bethany
Here are some photos of the semi-finished layout in room 2. (2016)
Here are some photos of the semi-finished layout in room 2. (2016)
Overview of room 2
East Engine Service area at Rhysland
Mine & logging area
Frankburg Staging Yard
Freight station at Callaghan
Campbell Coal (Operating Coal Loading Facility)
Operating coaling tower at Frankburg
Westward Expansion
Westward Expansion
Westward expansion!
Westward expansion!
Once the first two layout rooms had experienced the seasonal temperature and humidity fluctuations of Virginia for a few years and the track and bench work seemed relatively stable , I focused attention on expanding the layout. I wanted to keep using the woodworking shop in room 3, so i installed a simple 8 inch wide shelf around that room starting at the same height as the first loop in room 1 . This room would only contain a double track mainline to connect the layout extension planned in room 4 to the rest of the layout. No scenery was planned for this room, however it turned out to be a great location for a snow scene and another layout area that was built later. The benchwork in room 3 consisted of small wood supports power nailed and gorrilla-glued to the concrete wall. In room 4, I wanted to have a two level section of layout with a staging area on the lower level for storage of my increasing collection of rolling stock. I used a scratch built 2 track viaduct I had built on my previous layout to connect the existing loop in room 1 to the new track in room 3. A waterfall was built under this bridge at a later date.
I used a scratch built 2 track viaduct I had built on my previous layout to connect the existing loop around Wally World in room 1 to the new track in room 3.
Black Falls Bridge over a waterfall
connects room 1 and 3. 2011, 2015
Two turnouts off the outside mainline in room 1 lead over the bridge to bring the track work into room 3. 2014
A bare narrow shelf carried the double track mainline around room 3 2011
That wall was later finished to create a snow scene. 2015
In room 4, I wanted to have a two level section of layout with a staging area on the lower level. Construction of the helix is described in a subsequent page of this site.
Paper room layout for room 4 2011
Start of Helix construction after basic lower level track work was installed. (Notice the breaker box on the back wall? I'll get to that later!) 2011
Upper track work level of room 4 2011
Finished and upper and lower levels and helix. 2015
The first step in room 4 was laying out a full size paper plan on the floor. The exterior wall had already been sheet rocked and I had already built a wall between rooms 3 and 4 to keep the shop dust in my wood shop ( room 3). (A really nice feature, I thought, was a pocket door I installed separating these two rooms.) When the plan was finalized, benchwork was quickly built for the lower level, track was installed, wired and tested. I originally only intended for the lower level to be a storage area for rolling stock. It would have a reversing section and 6 long staging tracks. After I had built the helix and the upper level, I decided to add two more industrial switching locations and some extra Locomotive storage tracks. I had to work under the top deck! This was a royal pain. Don't do what I did! Get all your track work done on the lower level before you build your upper level!
A major drawback to the layout construction in room 4 was the breaker box against the outside wall. I wanted to build against the wall, but I still had to allow access to this box to turn off circuits for maintenance and repairs to the house electric supply. I resolved this by curving the track work just far enough away from the wall there to allow the box door to open. I cut a quarter circle hole out of the benchwork to allow the box door to swing completely open. Then I painted a mountain scene on the wall and the closed breaker box. Next I built a forested hillside against the wall extending well past the box on either side. This hillside is shaped from 2 inch solid foam insulation, painted and covered with "puffball" trees. In front of the breaker box and hillside is a removable sawmill structure with a wooden handle hidden inside one removable small building. The wooden handle is visible in the third photo. When I need to access the breaker box, I remove the small building, pick up the handle and the entire sawmill and mountain hillside section lifts off and away from the box door.
Open breaker box 2012
Mountain scene painted over breaker box 2012
Removable sawmill and hillside in place 2012
Removable sawmill and hillside section removed 2012
Finished layout section in room 4 2020
This is the track work that had been completed by 2012. A major addition was then added to room 3, Sawville, which will be described later. The left of the page shows the lower level track work in room 4.
Here are some detail photos of scenes in room 4 (2020)
Here are some detail photos of scenes in room 4 (2020)
A wedding and a funeral at St. George's Church
Working on the Model A at Bernie's Garage
The station at Sophia
The grocery store has an upstairs apartment
Dad's Tavern is ready for a big night
Sal's Supply Store is open late.
Room 3
Around 2014, I moved my wood shop in room 3 up to the garage to allow more space for railroad expansion. This required some special planning because the hot water heater and heat pump equipment were in this room as well as a toilet and sink. This story is for another day.
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