# New Layout - Been a while...



## Gromet (Oct 27, 2011)

Hey there all, New to the forum but not model railroading ingeneral. I have had a set of Lionel 027's at my parents house that my father started with me when I was 5 years old (i'm 36 now). They are moving next week and in the past few weeks a Ripped my layout apart and boxed everything back up (Yes I kept every single original box).

OK, so this got my interest sparked again, I have a 6 month old son and decided I wanted to setup a layout in my home for myself and my son as he gets older.

I decided to start with to 4x8 tabled laied out in an L shape. Finished the table last night.




























I do have a few questions...

Should I put anything on top of the plywood before maybe a green grass matt type of thing? Masonite, homasote?

I have a ZW and a TW transofrmers.

I plan to use my existing 027 track as a temporary fun layout while I aquire fastrack and legacy components. Once I have everything, I will get rid of the 027 track and switches. I have about 30 remote switches and a TON of 027 track.

Anyway, just getting back into all of this and figured I would introduce myself and say hi.

I'm sure there will be many questions to follow..

-Gromet


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## Massey (Apr 16, 2011)

First off Welcome. There should be a few guys here that can help you with your plight, but I am not the best to ask since I am mainly an HO guy. I am not sure how you would go about setting up road bed and the under rail structures. All the Lionel and other 3 rail "O" stuff I have seen has always been mounted on painted ply and the risers for inclines have always been the pier type under the rail joints. Some one that knows the 3 rail stuff should chime in here soon.

Massey


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

I like the Star Wars standup video games in the background!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Gromet,

No right or wrong answer. I would suggest adding something to add sound dampening ... homasote could work OK. It depends, of course, on whether you intend to have a "flatland" layout, or whether you plan to build up hills, ravines, etc.

A lot smaller-scale guys use "pink stuff" rigid insulation foam ... great for sound dampening, carving topography, etc. But it doesn't have fastener grabbing strength ... things need to be glued down. For a "flatland" O setup, that might not be your best option.

If you use the homasote, consider putting a layer of laminate flooring underlayment (sold in rolls at Home Depot and the like) ... it's a thin foam that would help significantly to isolate any vibrations between the trains/homasote and the underlying table structure.

Cheers,

TJ


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