Golden Valley Ry - Modules - Golden Valley I

Golden Valley I

This is my first version of Golden Valley. Here I gave hand laying track a whack. A real challenge when doing for 2R, a bit tougher trying to add a third 'rail'...

The Trackplan

The thought here is to have the possibility to put it together in a flexible way. the B-sections (and C) can turn either left or right.

Missing in the picture is another A-section
The radius is 1000mm and 940mm for the continous tracks. Turnouts are #5.

The first draft

I got some feedback from a modular mailing list. And revised it a bit:

2nd draft

Various combinations:

Plywood frames

Drawing of 37 degree curve

The first attempt with a light weight curved module.
I'm using 8mm and 4mm plywood, strengthened by a 20mm*50mm board running in the middle.

A 37 degree curve. 48cm wide

Stiffening the construction

Four out of the five sections have the (basic) frames done

Between the sections, I have 3 tracks 6cm apart

Cork roadbed

A first 'guiding' piece of cork was used to draw the lines so that i'd know where to put the glue

Cork under pressure

And a few hours later:

3 segments corked

3 segments are now fully 'corked'. With these I have the short version of Golden Valley (loco service + freight house) ready...

The gaps between the plywood tops and the sides has been 'filled' with 20mm styrofoam and hot glue.

The foundation for a road can be seen in the foreground. Here I used Woodland scenics roadbed (left over from a previous project...) The tops of it has gotten a thin coat of putty. (Which I plan on painting it with PS Grimy black.)

Here's a close up of the curvable turnouts I'm planing on using (#5 twistties by Fast Tracks )