TT scale trains and models

RodTT wrote:As to tie spacing - figures seem to vary. According to the Railway Tie Association (they had to exist, didn't they?), http://www.rta.org/faqs, the spacing is 19.5in. According to Wikipedia it's 18. So for TT something like 0.15 to 0.175 inches should look about right. But I suppose you have to take into account the tie thickness too, a thicker tie would presumably look better with a bigger gap.

The tie spacing depends on the type of the track, railroad, and era.
Here is Pennsy's track spacing as an example:
http://prr.railfan.net/standards/standards.cgi?plan=61030-B

Maybe not worth getting too fussy about then. The Pennsy's spacing for yards and commercial sidings was near on 2 ft 6in, and I daresay other railroads had similar. So for my purposes the spacing of the ties as supplied should do fine.

A couple of months on and I've managed to get the track laid, wired and sprayed.



You can see the wooden pushrods I use to change the points. They also operate microswitches which change the polarity of the frogs.

And...I added a run-round after all. Given that it also serves as storage while switching, I haven't really lost anything by ditching a siding.

Looking good Rod.

Here are a couple of photos showing the fiddle yard. It's 20in. long, or half as much as the layout itself. I've designed it as a sector plate, so the length of wood the track is resting on swivels at the back end to swap between two tracks if need be. (The track in the photo isn't fixed down yet.)





The gap at bottom left is to accommodate the post for a lighting gantry, as yet to be built.

Also on view are the legs for the fiddle yard and layout, they are simply in the form of an upside down table and the baseboards just rest on them. This way I can easily get underneath the layout if I need to.

Nice layout Rod with plenty of switching oportunities.

Jacques

Here's the story so far. A few ideas for roads painted in, and rough outlines for industries.



I've been mainly focusing on scratchbuilding the factory at right, which will probably be an engineer's or glassworks (the item to the left of the building is supposed to be a silo for sand). It's made out of plastic brick sheet and cardboard, and needs window frames, other detailing and...oh yes, a roof. I'm not going to bother with the back, as it won't be seen, especially when the backscene's side panel is in place.



The proposed building at the other end may end up as a corrugated structure, possibly a printer's. Then there will be a team track and scrap merchant, and some flats along the backscene.

Plagiarising my previous layout, I intend one of the two main buildings to feature a smoking chimney which spectators at shows can work by pressing a button.

The cast resin hut in the middle is left over from my 3mm scale days.

RodTT,

That progress is amazingly good! Keep up the good work!

Made a start on another scratchbuilt industry, using card and corrugated paper...



I got the idea from this photo:



The door and window are spare Walthers HO items.

Where can I find corrugated paper? Thank you,.