Materials needed
Home store / lumber yard Two 1″×4″×8′ Two 1″×2″×8′ Two 2″×3″×8′ ³₄″ Birch plywood, 24″×72″ No. 4 ×¹₂″ or No. 4 ׳₈″ screws, at least 18 screws (to attach styrene pieces for temporary track implementation) Four 4″ strap hinges Twenty-four No. 8 ׳₄″ screws (to attach strap hinges to wood parts) Six ⁵₁₆″ hex bolts, 2¹₂″ long, twelve ⁵₁₆″ fender washers, six ⁵₁₆″ nuts or a wing nuts (to bolt the clamp bars to the slide bars) Eight ⁵₁₆″ 4″ bolts, sixteen ⁵₁₆″ washers and eight ⁵₁₆″ nuts or wing nuts (to attach the legs to the module) Four ⁵₁₆″ tee nuts and four ⁵₁₆″ bolts 3″ long with full thread (to adjust the height of the legs) Two hook and eye fasteners (to hold the permanent top pieces together while moving the module) My hook is 1¹₂″ long, I plan to buy a larger one. Paint or clear coat, as desired
Hobby shop .060″×.250″ Styrene 6″ Tracks, code and number as desired Wiring and connections as desired
Office supply store 8 to 10 Large binder clips
When tracks do not line up correctly or when something is not square between modules, the flexibility offered by this adjustable mod- ule still allows trains to operate.
bottom of each (Fig 13). Two ⁵₁₆″ hex bolts 4″ long are insert- ed through the holes in the wing and the leg clamp. Simply insert the legs and tighten the bolts to have the mod- ule on its legs. Hook and eye fastener: The mod- ule is very stable when installed in the layout between other modules. Howev- er, because it is flexible, I installed two hook and eye fasteners (one on each side of the module) at least 1¹₄″ away from the outside edge of the top (1¹₄″ will clear the binder clips) to hook the two permanent top sections together for transportation (Fig. 14). Permanent tracks and wiring: I at-
tached two 6″ code 100 tracks to each end of the module per the FCSME stan- dards. Those tracks were wired per the club’s specs. The wiring is on top of the module for several inches so that the moving pieces on its underside don’t snag the wiring. The wiring on top of the module was covered with a piece of styrene to avoid snags, as well. Top block (L): I added four small top blocks (2″×1¹₂″ from a 1″×2″, size not critical) to the four corners of the top of the module. These blocks protect the track and wiring if the module is turned upside down (Fig. 15). Attaching temporary flex track sections: Since there is only 12″ of track on the module for each of the two main- lines, the gap must be filled with flex track cut to size when the module is de- ployed. This could mean pieces of flex track anywhere from 24″ to 36″. You
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
could use new flex track for each deploy- ment, or try to reuse existing pieces. If the track is attached with hard to see conventional track nails or small screws, the track could be damaged if all of the track nails/screws are not re- moved when the module is taken down. To avoid track damage and to hopefully save club funds, I cut 16 pieces of .060″×.250″ very visible white styrene. Each piece is 1⁵₈″ long. I drilled two holes in each piece large enough for a No. 4 screw to fit through. The holes fit between the ties. I purchased No. 4×¹₂″ and No. 4׳₈″ screws to secure the
styrene strips, just covering the edges of the ties, not the fish plates. My inten- tion was to put a styrene strip on both sides of the track in two or three places, but we only used two strips to secure a 30″ piece of
flex track. Hundreds of
trains used the tracks for two full days with no issues (Figs 16 and 17). Paint: I used some paint that I had on hand. I had a small amount of semi- gloss black and a small amount of flat black. The first coat was semi-gloss and the second coat was flat black. Of course the finish, if any, is up to you. Good Luck, and be flexible!
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