Lucky find


David_B

David_B

Active Member
I found this forum by accident and just joined. I've been messing with model railroads since I got my first "under the tree" Lionel set as a youngster. Which still comes out to entertain the grandkids at Christmas. Later on I built a 4x8 HO layout when my kids were younger While being locked in during the enforced stay at home time, I downloaded a copy of SCARM and started seeing what kind of railroad I could put into some space in the basement next to my work at home office. After lots of planning I came up with a design that I liked and that allowed me to reach all parts of it easily. I live on Cape Cod and decided I'd create my version of the Cape Cod Railroad, that I am calling the 'Mid Cape & Island RR', While I am taking lots of liberties with the design, I will be modeling some of the sites of the Cape, I've already scratch built the Scargo Tower and Kurt Vonnegut's old SAAB dealership building. One of the interesting things about the real Cape Cod Railroad is that they use second hand equipment from anywhere they can get it so I figure I can pretty much use whatever I've got stored in boxes.
 

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David_B said:
I found this forum by accident and just joined. I've been messing with model railroads since I got my first "under the tree" Lionel set as a youngster. Which still comes out to entertain the grandkids at Christmas. Later on I built a 4x8 HO layout when my kids were younger While being locked in during the enforced stay at home time, I downloaded a copy of SCARM and started seeing what kind of railroad I could put into some space in the basement next to my work at home office. After lots of planning I came up with a design that I liked and that allowed me to reach all parts of it easily. I live on Cape Cod and decided I'd create my version of the Cape Cod Railroad, that I am calling the 'Mid Cape & Island RR', While I am taking lots of liberties with the design, I will be modeling some of the sites of the Cape, I've already scratch built the Scargo Tower and Kurt Vonnegut's old SAAB dealership building. One of the interesting things about the real Cape Cod Railroad is that they use second hand equipment from anywhere they can get it so I figure I can pretty much use whatever I've got stored in boxes.
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Welcome aboard
 
Welcome to the forum Dave, looks an interesting build you have going on there, look forward to seeing this, by the way, we love foto's, so a few as you build would be a bonus.
 
Thanks to all that responded. While Cape Cod is noted for being an industrial area, there are and were some noted industries. Glass making at the Sandwich Glassworks was one, making salt from sea water was one and has recently been restarted and of course fishing, At one point there was a train barge from Hyannis to Nantucket. I'll be representing some of those in my layout. So I'll be blending old and new to capture what I think are interesting aspects of where I live. I used SCARM to design this which allows printing full scale. On letter size that is a lot of sheets to tape together!. I managed to pick up a discarded wide format plotter (was being scrapped because it didn't work with Windows anymore) for practically nothing and I got to work perfectly fine on Linux. It takes 24 inch wide roll paper so I was able to print out the entire layout in Architectural size D layout which amounted to about 20 sheets of about 24x32. After laying it out to see how everything fit on the benchwork, I've spent the last couple of evenings cutting out the track layout and tack gluing it to the surface layout. Now that is done I'll trace out the roadbed onto the top of the layout using some preformed curve radius pieces to make sure the curves are smooth and of the radius marked.
Since the printout is marked with all the turnout part numbers I can mark those at each location as well. For those of you who noticed I had a couple revers loops, one trick I use to keep thinks straight and identify where auto reversers need to be wired (I'm using DCC) I start on a main line and trace the outline with red for the outside rail where ever an outside rail becomes an inside rail I switch colors and mark the spot for isolation and an auto reverser. It would be great if the layout design software could do that automatically. Here are a couple of pictures printing and using the full size printout for the layout.
 

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Rico said:
Welcome Dave!
Cool layout, I can see a lift or swing bridge being a real focal point!
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Yeah that is what I was thinking since the lift bridge of the Cape Cod Canal is landmark. Since I have a 3D printer printing out girder type bridge pieces isn't a problem - designing the bridge to generate the files well that's the challenge. Here is what the railroad bridge looks like. It was built in 1933 and is still in use. It is 27 feet wide, towers are 255 feet tall, vertical lift from water is 135 feet, and span is 544 feet. Needless to say I'll be doing some selective compression!
 

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Dave: Welcome to the forum. Printing/Plotting 1:1 is boon for getting your benchwork/trackwork to line up with what you *think* you have designed. I have been doing the same ( abet XtrakCad ) and found that one corner ( lucky for me that is where I started a 'test' ) just did not fit right. Back to the drawing board ...um... screen.

Stuff local ( some not so local ) to me is also what I want. Sure, can not always do 1:1 and have to scrunch it down sometimes, although the end result at least looks somewhat like the original. I would love to have a 500Ft x 16Ft house - wouldn't we all?

I went the 8.5 x 11 paper route and decided that I would look for an old pen plotter that can do 'D' size. No luck yet as the shipping is a killer ... well so far.

Just remember to post pix as most of the folks here love that.

Later
 
Welcome to the forums Dave and as has been said, it looks as though you are well and truly up and running with things 👍

If you haven't already, it might be a good idea to start a "Build Thread" in the Layout and Construction Forum, you'll most likely get more attention there :)
 
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