# Michigan Central UNLIMITED "Part Deux"



## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Well here we go, gotta tear up all the old track and "start fresh" from scratch the no-plan plan style of layout design is in effect!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

The photo "above" was taken of the "old" track set up. At one time I had 5 loops (1 elevated) with a figure "8" in the middle. Around 450-500 linear feet of track maybe a wee bit more. I know the case (300 feet) of flex I THOUGHT would "last a lifetime" went QUICK and I had to get more track at the local show. Below is another photo of it , different angle.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Trauma from track deconstruction has been noticeable but not paralyzing, the work goes faster than anticipated. Inventory in 2-3 days.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Meanwhile a few shots from the past, for the archives. LOL!

Some "before" shots and construction photos of benchwork.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

And of course, the rolling stock.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Gotta haves!


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Hay Chip, how big is that room? 

Magic


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Magic said:


> Hay Chip, how big is that room?
> 
> Magic


LOL! Are you familiar with the MOTORHEAD song "OVERKILL"?

It's a 30x30 foot square and I've just about filled half of the available space with table, 3 foot shelf 90' long with 48"+ wide ends to turn the track back and a 4x 24 foot "connecting" table in the middle. From above it kinda looks like one of those vehicles from the first TRON movie!


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

Chip, are you sure you have enough rolling stock and loco's??? I'll light a candle for you when you get ready to ballast.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

jlc41 said:


> Chip, are you sure you have enough rolling stock and loco's??? I'll light a candle for you when you get ready to ballast.


NEVER "enuff"! LOL! My layout is "train/track centric"! I'm much more interested in WHAT is rolling than WHERE it's rolling! I found out that I still have a bit of imagination left and if I have four trains of different types roll past they bring their own "scenery" with them so ACTUAL scenery is not a big priority. I'll throw some trees and suchlike down for the visitors at Christmas but not too much yet, a LOT of track to lay first!

It's a while off but I'll take ALL the help I can get on the ballast! I'm not chomping at the bit to have ballast quite yet, all in good time, neither the layout nor I am going anywhere soon. I'm on the "ten year plan"! LOL! I knew I was starting a project I may never finish, it's ok, I'm having a blast with it! I'd rather go as slow as possible and TRY to do it to MY vision of what is "right" than rush and have to redo too much, most must redo portions no matter HOW slow they go or how much they plan and I'm sure I'll be among them.:dunno:


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

The NMRA "Golden Spike" will be a "goal" for the future and the other NMRA little milestones are pretty cool and goad you into areas you may not be comfortable with but the skills can develop after the lessons are learned, my own personal "dream" of a "100 car train" WILL happen as soon as I can get 100 to stay together! LOL! Right now a lack of metal wheels and coupler "issues" is keeping me at about 50.


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

Chip, am all for going slow. I know that I did a few things I could have done better. So on my expansion am going slower and researching more and checking more posts and how videos. Rushing is not the way to go.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

jlc41 said:


> Chip, am all for going slow. I know that I did a few things I could have done better. So on my expansion am going slower and researching more and checking more posts and how videos. Rushing is not the way to go.


Steady on, we got TOTAL CARNAGE here on the old M.C.U.#2!
One more wee session and ALL the track that is coming up will be up!

WOW! This camera is MUCH better!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

DONE! All track taken up and it boils down to:
103 pieces of code 100 Atlas flex, 19 cut but still over two feet, the bits from that.
Sectional:
24", 28.
22",16.
18", 39.
15", 7.
#6 left, 11.
#6 right, 13.
#4 right, 2.
"Y's", 9.
9" sectional straight, 26.
Those are the old bones and I've got "on deck":
30 pieces of full flex.
#6 left, 1.
#4 left, 1.
#4 right, 2.
"Y's", 1.
18" sectional, 20.
2 of every angle crossing Atlas makes.
3 curved rerailers/w terminals, 5 straight rerailers.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

The bones of the layout.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Backsliding, gotta do a little wood working and fill in the corners on the bench work and smooth off those edge lines. This means I might as well tackle the Garage "fall organization" to clear a space for the van to be parked inside this winter. I always "stretch" the plan to include various "down times" and strategic "pauses". I only rushed the first year to meet a self imposed deadline to have trains running by the end of one year after Mom passed. I "cut some corners"(LOL!) but I made it with a week to spare.


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## Magic (Jan 28, 2014)

Chip your bench work looks very much like mine only much bigger.
Should make a heck of a layout.

Have you tried SCRAM or such for track planing or are you going with the "No Plan™" plan. 

Magic


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Magic said:


> Chip your bench work looks very much like mine only much bigger.
> Should make a heck of a layout.
> 
> Have you tried SCRAM or such for track planing or are you going with the "No Plan™" plan.
> ...


I am firmly in the above mentioned non plan action mode. 

YA, thanks, it's "yooooge" LOL! I looked at MANY layouts before I built this "thing". I had a 4x8 LONG ago but it was just a piece of wood that I put my track on, not a "layout" per-se, I was just "playing with trains". This is more of the same but a little more permanent, and BIGGER, nobody is going to take THIS wood from me to build a dog house out of! I've been looking some more and a "semi-permanent" track set up is about to take shape. BAD timing this month, BROKE as can be till the end of the month and I need glue NOW! The previous track was all nailed and FLAT this time it is going to be very different, GRADES are in the mix!

I'm chompin at the bit and not a thing I can do for maybe a week, Oh well, patience.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Going with a "no plan, plan" does present some difficulties, like where to start, figuring THAT took a week! It's a big puzzle and it took "alf a mo" to figure out the size and shape of the pieces before I could put it together!

It's a "cobble job" of any and every kind of scrap I could scrounge, good thing I'm a "pack-rat" and throw nothing away or I'd be stuck having to buy material I cannot afford.

Drywall bits, pressboard, window trim, left over MDF from table construction, the former "beams" from the ceiling when we were remodeling the kitchen, chunks of "wet board", also left over from the kitchen job, old countertop, whatever had the required firmness and thickness to hold up a fully loaded HO freight train!

Once it's built I'll cover it with paint and ground cover and nobody will be the wiser on what a MESS it is under there!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Got the first two lines "sussed out" and may actually start laying track this week! The "outside" line will be 24" and right next to it a 22" radius line tracing the entire layout, should use up about 120 feet of track on each line, a wee bit less on the 22" but near enough. The "interior" lines have yet to take shape in my fevered brain but they will "appear" as the first two lines are built.

It's almost as exciting as the "first" build and I'm STOKED to see these "hills" I'm gonna make with trains running on em!


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

Hey Chip recycling is a good smart thing to do. I am also a "no plan" plan guy it's just the way my ideas come to me and of course seeing what the other guy's are doing helps a lot.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

jlc41 said:


> Hey Chip recycling is a good smart thing to do. I am also a "no plan" plan guy it's just the way my ideas come to me and of course seeing what the other guy's are doing helps a lot.


Thank you, it is "growing" on it's own as I get rolling.

I did not plan at all to have it here but this bridge decided it was needed to reconcile the "cobble sandwich" I used for a base.

It's ok, I guess "the stream" will enter the layout here, features and landmarks will just "happen" as they do on a "real" line!


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## jlc41 (Feb 16, 2016)

Works for me, the different elements make for an interesting layout. It's amazing how that works.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

jlc41 said:


> Works for me, the different elements make for an interesting layout. It's amazing how that works.


I'm quite pleasantly though unexpectedly FIRED UP as this actually begins to take shape! It's not as exciting as the first go but DANG this is FUN! Letting myself add more this time in the way of terrain and perhaps even actual "scenery"!

I had hundreds of feet of track down but it was all flat and actually got (I hate to admit) boring.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Bit the bullet and at long last have actually used glue on the layout, letting it dry and tomorrow I'll start laying track! Pics in the afternoon after the first yard is down.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Of course nothing goes as planned even when Unplanned. Took a bit longer than I thought to "set" the first curve, from which all else will flow, it needed extra care in placement. I'm finding out I don't like glue, it takes too long! Last set up was all nailed in and construction booked right along.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Yard work progresses.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

It will work out to 10 lines for the "staging/storage" yard area where locos and rollers will "chill" when not running. A "real" yard with a run-around track will appear but I'm just not sure where yet. Got my first two curves nailed down, laid 24" traced a line along it, tore it up and laid the flex about a half inch outside that line "#1" so my second line is just a fuzzle wider than 22". The third line is 18" sectional and fits quite nicely in there.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

A yard that size with the number of turnouts you
have I would suggest that you use the diode matrix
turnout control system, provided that you are using
twin coil turnout motors. Your panel would have one
button in each track. Say you want to go to track 4.
You push the button in track 4 and all points are
then set for a clear route to your main.

Don


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

DonR said:


> A yard that size with the number of turnouts you
> have I would suggest that you use the diode matrix
> turnout control system, provided that you are using
> twin coil turnout motors. Your panel would have one
> ...


Thanks for the tip, I'm sure it's lovely and I'll be checking it out. For now though, I'll be using the "hand of god" manual control system! I put no dollars into automatic switching as of yet and may not for some time, it's "hands on" all the way! I'm cheap AND poor. Been playing "John Henry" all day, steel drivin my outside loop straightaway along the "front" of the layout, all 23 feet!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Got the "guts" of the "turn around" section sussed out. When using FLEX I try like heck not to join on a curve! Very difficult to keep the end from "kicking" out trying to straighten itself out. Resulting in this.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

I'll be taking that up and sacrificing some of the sectional stash. Other than that it was a good steel drivin day!


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Chip

If you have more curves to lay, try offsetting the
joiners so that one rail joins about 2 inches farther
out from the other. This helps avoid kinks as you
had in your pic. Others like to solder the two
sections before forming the curve.

Save the ties with their tiny 
'plates'. You can slip them on before joining the sections,
they will maintain gauge. 

Don


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Thanks Don, I've got em laying in bunches around here, nothing gets tossed out until it stinks. I'll try that, I've only laid a few hundred feet of flex in my MRR "career" and it was mostly all straight. I know there is still much to know! I don't mind posting my mistakes, it may help somebody avoid em.


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## Lemonhawk (Sep 24, 2013)

You'll be amazed at how often a kink shows up, just where you least expect it. I started using CV ties and sluing the rail to the ties, made it easier to offset joints. I still had one curved section that I had an experimental isolated joint and sure enough it had kinked! Replaced the entire section and moved the isolated joint to a straight section.


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Lemonhawk said:


> You'll be amazed at how often a kink shows up, just where you least expect it. I started using CV ties and sluing the rail to the ties, made it easier to offset joints. I still had one curved section that I had an experimental isolated joint and sure enough it had kinked! Replaced the entire section and moved the isolated joint to a straight section.


I'm getting there, a mix of flex and sectional and a bit of "finagling" keep the old ties and try not to join flex "on the curve"!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

Progress on the old M.C.U., got the front part of the double main down and my first hills are tracked!


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

The future home of "Kittywampus Junction"! Four lines "blocking" the storage yard in the background! Built in excitement as I "jank" a string of whatnot through the scrum to the "work" yard where they can be "organized". LOL! "I won't be going yard speed!"


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## Chip (Feb 11, 2016)

MUCH easier to put photos of the layout on the "other" forum. Continued progress will be shown there. SEE YA! at "M.c.u.-2".


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## Mr.Buchholz (Dec 30, 2011)

Been following this layout, but wondering how it's progressing. Haven't seen any pics since last winter. Updates?

-J.


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