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Indoor F scale layout finally started


jaug
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So I've finally told myself it was time to start my indoor layout in the newer section of the basement of our 109 year old remodeled farm house. The newer section has a ceiling height of just a bit over 6 ft 2 inches which is just enough for my 6 ft 2 inch frame.  I decided on module type bench work of 3 ft x 8 ft sections, made to be taken down easily because the wife is looking at houses AGAIN.  When the home was renovated back in 2010 there was no consideration for using the basement for much other than storage, (isn't it just the way the model RR guy get the less than ideal basement). There are several obstacles in the way, I have to move the water heater including the water and gas lines and make some minor modifications and exceptions for the large HVAC ducting but it looks like it will work. I collected a bunch of 2 x 4s off projects which made the wall supports, front legs and ripped down pieces for the inner frame stringers.  I used surplus 3 1/2" butt hinges to secure the legs to the front of the modules and the rear of the modules just slide into wooden brackets so to remove the modules just pull the hinge pins and lift up. there are no screws or nails holding the back supports to the masonry walls as I did not want to drill holes below grade, those supports are held in place by 2 screws into the floor joists at top and the bottoms held in place by 2 x 4 stringers which will also provide storage under the layout.  The modules will not be screwed together rather held in place by notches in the rear supports and the butt hinges.  The module outside frames are 2 x 3 with ripped 2 x 4 inner stringers, the sub roadbed will be 3/4" plywood with homosoate as roadbed for the ballast.  The roadbed will only be under where the track will be, the scenery and buildings will be constructed on 2" thick foam insulation board on lift out sub assemblies, I used this method on my Christmas layout and it works great.  Track will be code 250 Sunset Valley rail with Accucraft NG tie strips, I wanted to hand lay the track with wood ties and hand spiked rail but I'm 68 now and time is ticking, I'm estimating it should be about 250 ft of track.  The section of basement I'm using is 11 ft 8 inches x 32 ft 7 inches.  I haven't finalized the track plan as yet but it will be using a minimum of 10 dia. curves and #6 Accucraft turnouts.  I have to accommodate a large HVAC duct running almost the entire length of the left side of the 32 ft wall so the benchwork on that side will be place to the right of the duct with a backdrop extending down to hide the duct but there will be a hidden run of track on a 12" wide shelf running on the other side of the duct against the outside of the 32 ft wall.  Basically a single track main line design with passings sidings and switching where ever possible.  As of today I've finished an "L" section of bench work and installed ceiling lighting.

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  • 1 year later...
 
 

Tom, F scale is 1:20.3 or 15 mm = 1 foot, it is not combined under the generic G scale category it is a scale by itself. The F stands for Fine and while the 3 foot narrow gauge models do run on the standard 45 mm track used by G scale models F scale 3 foot narrow gauge models or Fn3 are accurately scaled to the gauge of track (15 mm =1 ft) where as G scale models with the exception of 1:32 scale models are not accurately scaled per that gauge of track. F scale standard gauge models use 71.3 mm gauge track. Both Bachmann and Accucraft are two manufacturers of F scale models and most of the large scale 1:20.3 models sold by Bachmann are in fact F scale although Bachmann does not refer to them as such for whatever reason.  You can find out more about F scale if you look up Cumberland Models Engineering on the net or Tom Millers F scale layout on YouTube 

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  • 4 years later...

F scale is where the Rivet Counters go, if you have never heard of a Rivet Counter, it's a modeler that does his modeling to scale and copies his models to the real thing. I'm somewhere between a Rivet Counter and the model airplane "Standoff Scale", my models look pretty good from 10' away. 

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It's great to have an indoor setup when the weather gets bad or you just want to quickly run some trains. I bet people have no idea what it takes to keep an outdoor setup running year after year.

I swapped my indoor setup from G scale to O scale 2 rail years ago. It was mainly because I couldn't get the G scale models I wanted. After some time passed, I built another G scale version under the O scale, on the ground. I did that because I missed the G scale running year round inside. (I'm in NY!)

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