Tabletop questions


C

Chemdawg

Member
It's not really a table top. Someone posted about the HOG (Heart of Georgia) layout, and it really fit what I was looking for size wize. I'm freelancing my whole shindig, so it's not a prototype by any means. There are times where I just love watching my trains go, and there are other times where I like doing switching. So I have pretty much the best of both worlds.

Anyways, the Heart of Georgia is like an 8' X 9' square duck under setup. 12" wide top all the way around. I changed it and made mine 18" and it's 12' X 9' so I could put more track and more yard and some sidings.

The top is made of 1/2 inch plywood with 1/2 inch pink foam on top. The problem I am having now is that I want to make a lake with a bridge or viaduct over the top. I am going to custom make the bridge myself, but I just thought of something tonight when I was looking at it. How do I make it like a drop down so the bridge goes over the top without using like 2" thick foam? Do I have to build up the track till I'm at like a 2 degree elevation till it gets to the bridge then go back down? Or do I have to purchase the real thick foam and leave a gap where the water/lake/creek or whatever I make will be?

Hope this isn't too confusing.
 
If you won't be building up your terrain in the area of the water feature, you'll have to cut through the foam and plywood and depress that portion of the tabletop so the surface of the water can be far enough below your bridge. This requires good support for the layout on either side of the cut-out section, of course. This has been done on many layouts, so it's a pretty common solution.

Remember that the water itself does not have to be very deep. You can paint the lakebed or riverbed in such a way that it will look deep even though it is only a fraction of an inch deep.

- Jeff
 
I think the great advantage to L girder is that you can build scenery below track grade pretty easily, not to mention how easily wiring can go through pre drilled holes in the girders. If it's plywood as a top, It's drill and blast although it goes pretty quickly.
 
I think I may be mega lost on this one. The area this is going in is a mountainous area of the layout. 18" wide and about 8' long. Can anyone draw something that might help me figure this out? I'm using L-girder construction with plywood top and foam on top of that.
 
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