# Layout Progress Photos Part 4



## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The post immediately below this is part 3, I neglected to add the number. Here are some additional pictures from last week.

The first one shows the trackwork of the around the room portion of the layout. The Big Boy is on level zero, the next two are nominally +6" and +12". The track is not yet installed on the viaduct. We spent much of the day laying out the city area. The building fronts were to help in selection, this picture was taken before we started.








This picture shows the beginnings of the freight yard at elevation zero on the center peninsula as well as a bit of the -6" reverse loop and staging at the right edge.








This is the signal bridge over the four throat tracks leading to the passenger yard at +12". The passenger yard is not installed.








Lastly, a lonely UP passenger car on a bridge.


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

looks good .... i ike the viaduct style bridge ... very nice


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Wow-zer!!! Looks great. I wish I could shrink myself down to take a ride on that wonderful trackage...:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

What a beautiful looking layout. :thumbsup:


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Thank you all for the kind comments. 
I purchased a good quality video camera that is about 1"x1"x3". I plan to use this as a substitute for being able to shrink myself and ride around the layout. I will likely have to put it on a car and push it in front of the engine.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

Tom -- This is incredible and beyond anything I could ever dream up -- though the creative juices sure do flow looking at this. I think you mentioned in another post that a "Pro" was helping with this? Do you mind sharing who that is or the service name that is helping? Also, I'd love to see a track plan for this. I'm having trouble putting it all together in my mind from these photos.


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## Nuttin But Flyer (Dec 19, 2011)

All the wood used looks to be furniture quality birch plywood at least 3'4" thick. And I'm assuming each joint is glued and screwed for max strength. What is the substructure made from including the legs.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

That looks great, that looks to be a fun layout to run on!


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

Thanks for all the comments, I will answer what I can. My wife and I made a joint decision to have a layout professionally built. Obviously I was the initiator of that approach. There are a number of layout builders and each has a different style And experience base. So three major things drive the selection. First the layout theme and style, second the experience relative to the scale modeled. Few have done large high rail layouts in S. Third is the available budget. SMARTT is the builder we chose. 

If you go to the post I did on 2-19-2016 there is plan of the visible track attached as a pdf. There are also pictures of the initial structure assembly. The track plan is basically 3 independent loops. Loop 1 connects to the freight yard and is a twice around. The other 2 are one around. Loop three connects to the passenger yard. Each loop has passing tracks so trains can run on the loop in 2 directions. The apparent complexity comes from the interchange tracks connecting between the 3 loops and from multiple reverse loops. There are also some staging tracks below the freight yard. There are 8 power districts served by 2 ZW-L's. Loop 2 is a single power district to make it easy to run original AF engines from the Cab 2. The entire layout is modeled in the Lionel LCS on iPads for control. Cab 2's or iCab operate the engines. 

The reason for the special high grade of plywood is for the CNC process to be effective at the precision required there cannot be any voids in the wood. I do not believe the tongue and groove joints are glued. 

This has been a long process driven by waits for vendor parts and hand building all the turnouts. I am more that ready to have it finished and delivered. That date looks like the last week of August. If there are more questions please ask.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I looked up SMARTT, for something that size, it can't be cheap!  It'll be interesting to see how it unfolds, I'll bet it'll be impressive!


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

It is definitely not cheap. But not as high as it could be. For example I chose basic signals that just follow the train position (Z-Stuff). Some layouts they build have full prototypical signals that control the trains, much more money!


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

That's some layout. I'm in awe!


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## RonthePirate (Sep 9, 2015)

Me too, Cycleops. I'm astounded by the sheer number of bridges in that one area.

Also, it's curious that the pads for that signal bridge are mounted below the track level.
Never saw that before.

Flyernut said what I feel:


> Wow-zer!!! Looks great. I wish I could shrink myself down to take a ride on that wonderful trackage...


Now I'm gonna watch for the video tour!


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The signal bridge is an O scale product, so one of the small items to make it look in scale for S is to lower the base. The other item I learned about the Z Stuff signals is the ones designated as S scale have a correctly sized mast but the heads are the same ones used on the O scale signals.


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## GK Trains (Aug 10, 2013)

I really like the bridges. How large is this layout?


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## AmFlyer (Mar 16, 2012)

The layout is approximately 15x21. The minimum radius is 30" plus easements. Mainline turnouts are #5, 6 & 8. Some of the siding and yard turnouts are #4. The bridge in the lower foreground is for a road, the others are rail. We looked at double tracking one of the bridges to reduce the count but doing so would have required a significantly greater grade than our maximum on one of the lines.


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