PlateLayer by Svein-Martin Holt

Time has come to test the placement of the High Line Bridge. The first layer of paint and a testinstall of some track, to see how it will be when finished.

The front side of the High Line Bridge is Micro Engineering 80-171 N-scale plate girder elements. The base is kapafix 3 mm foam/paper board. The foundation/beams are 3d printed and the columns are Evergreen styren H-beams, 1.5x1.5 mm.

Just finished the switchpanel for Zity Edge Layout using JMRI software. With a computer, NCE PowerCab, JMRI and NCE USB interface, the turnouts can be operated from the touch screen. Don't need to build a physical switchpanel.

All tracks, turnouts, motors and electric wiring are installed and working on Low level. All decoders and turnout motors are installed on top of the plywood, because all equipment will be covered by the high level. Access to the equipment will be possible via removable panels.

All the tracks are working well, no derailment in the turnouts. Its time to continue with high level and the installment of turnoutmotors and wiring.

Check out the first testrun on the Zity Edge Layout. The Low Level track is ready for action.

On Zity Edge Layou, finally all the tracks are installed, except for a few feet of tracks on the elevated track, and the drawings are updated to asbuilt version.

The layout are also divided into Power Districts, so its possible to run both DCC and conventional DC on the layout at the same time, like DCC on High Level Outside and DC on High Level Inside and Low Level, if that is wanted.

The different systems are selected with switches on the Power Routing Panel. 

Check out the layout and the power districts on the final rev 5 asbuilt drawings.

Near all tracks are installed on the Zity Edge Layout.

No electrical connections have been done yet. On all hidden areas I have used Märklin turnouts with Märklin and Peco flextrack. On a few curves, I have used some Märklin sectional track. On all visible areas I have used Atlas turnouts and Atlas flextrack. I have not used any corkbase under the tracks on this layout, all tracks are glued to the base. A few tracks are attached using spikes.

The current work is to create the elevated doubletrack. The base is cut in 3 mm KapaFix, a paperbased board with 3 mm foam. The development of the columns and beams are in progress. 

Hopefully the images can show some of the progress.

A lot of the track will be hidden behind and under high citybuildings. The image below shows all visible tracks, and the buildings are indicated with some pink rectangles. All this buildings will be high city buildings. On the front part, in front of the rised double track, all buildings will be low. The low track will mainly go in a road between buildings. All buildings are under development and will be changed.

After some more tweeking with the tracks I have changed the return loops, so its much easier to set the different trains in correct direction and run up and down between the leves without interruption. The mainidea with the layout will still be to have 3 independent loops to run traffic on, but with the new reverse loops and the transition track between the levels, some more interesting traffic can be run. I can still use the same benchwork I just finished. And I can still continue to develop the layout.

Now the plywood base sheet and the high level plywood base in cut and glued together, ready to start installing the track on low level.

The layout drawing is printed directly from the 3rdPlanIt in scale 1:1 on several A4-pages and glued together with tape, to be used as a guide.

The level distance between low- and high level is planned to be 80 mm. After installing the track on lower level, I can fix the high level plywood and continue the tracklaying on high level. Most of the visible part on high level will be on bridge pieces, just like the NYC High Line, and also as the inspiration for this layout, the City Edge Layout.

Now its holiday time in Norway and tomorrow we will go for camping in some weeks. No building then until I am back home.

The low level tracks printed out on A4-paper and glued together to be used as a guide for tracklaying.

The high level plywood is cut and ready to be installed. In the background you can see the 4 hidden tracks of the station. The 5th track will be in front of the background building. All the missing track will be on a bridge level.

On the low level I have planned an Y. Part of this will be on street level, with low buildings on each side of the road.

The new layout room, a small closet in my new apartement, is now ready and I have installed the benchwork for the layout.

The layout size has also been changed to fit the new space. It would be possible to remove the whole layout and take in out on tour some time. Now the tracklaying can start after some more wood have been installed.

The modified layoutplan with the plywood base drawn. I needed to change the width and length of the layout a few centimeters to fit inside the plywood sheet.

The layout room showing the L-girder beams and the freezer at right. The 0-height of the layout is fixed because the cabinet door for all waterpipes can not be blocked. The same for the cabinet for the electrical circuits, set the height of the upper beams.

Here the 9 mm plywood sheet is cut to correct shape. Below I will glue small beams to stabilize the sheet. It makes a good base for the layout.

The Layout plan placed on the plywood plate.

The 3D-view of the layout from 3rd PlanIt placed on the plywood.

The development of the Zity Edge Layout track plan is going on. A new track to connect the two levels, giving the possibility to run between the two loops. Instead of using a helix, the transition track is placed at the back part of the layout.

A new Layout is Born. At least some plans for a new layout: Zity Edge Layout.

Check out the project page for the layout: Zity Edge Layout

The first version of the City Edge Layout.

Check out the last images from the layout: Jacobs Creek Railroad last ride and photoshoot.

From the last ride and photoshoot.

After 10 years of planning and building of The Jacobs Creek Railroad, it's time to Close one Chapter and open a New Chapter.

The Whole Jacoks Creek Railroad has lost all their Right of Way contracts With the owner of the land, and the only solution is to demolish and destroy the Whole Railroad.

What a shame.

The owner of the land, myself, has started the process of moving with my wife, to a downtown apartement. The space will be limited, so there will be not enough land to create a layout of the same size in the new apartement. But I will have a small closet available, and I have saved all my ZMOD-modules, so there will be some space for modelrailroad modeling in our new home.

There has been a process to come to this final point, the demolition of the layout. It was build in 3 parts, but with all the tracks glued with ballast, there was not possible to save the layout.

The Whole layout loaded in the car, ready for the last ride.

The final destination; The Container.

It took me 7 hours to destroy the layout, tear down all the interior walls in the room and put it in the back of my car to drive to the final destination.

After living 34 years in the same house, there has been a lot of work and time used, to remove and clean everything.

But LIfe goes on, and some other Projects will grow in the dust from Jacobs Creek Railroad.

Enjoy the last photos from the Railroad, from the previous blog post on Jacobs Creek Railroad.

Link to the photoimages of the last photoshoot on the Empire.

From the last ride and photoshoot.

Its time for the last ride and photoshoot on the Empire.

After 10 years of planning and building of The Jacobs Creek Railroad, it's time to Close one Chapter and open a New Chapter.

The Whole Jacoks Creek Railroad has lost all their Right of Way contracts With the owner of the land, and the only solution is to demolish and destroy the Whole Railroad.

What a shame.

But LIfe goes on, and some other Projects will grow in the dust from Jacoks Creek Railroad.

Enjoy the last photos from the Railroad, before the final blog post on Jacobs Creek Railroad, where the demolition and the full story about why the Empire got a Destiny like this.

Link to the images of the last photoshoot on the Empire.