{"id":950,"date":"2026-07-13T02:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T16:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/?p=950"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:49:13","slug":"mid-july-update-on-the-rock-island-sandown-n-scale-layout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/13\/mid-july-update-on-the-rock-island-sandown-n-scale-layout\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid July Update on the Rock Island Sandown N Scale Layout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have made reasonable progress over the last 7 days while surviving the last round of Chemo prior to the operation to remove the tumour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First I installed \u00a0the 50mm foam insulation on top of the plywood base. Not as easy as it sounds as the foam sheets are only available in a 4′ x 2′ (1200mm x 600mm) size, which meant gluing 4 full size sheets plus cutting 4 strips of foam to equal the slightly larger 8′ x 4′ frame. I used Selleys “Liquid Nails Fast Grab” which did a pretty good job. I also found that long screws were able to hold the narrow strips of foam at the front to the main sheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I then used masking tape to seal the gaps. I was concerned about how level the layout was but on checking with my digital spirit level I found that there was only about a \u00bd% difference all round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although now a little heaver the layout can still be raised to allow access to the wiring while standing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I then printed the entire track plan using AnyRail ver. 7 on a 1:1 basis. This resulted in 30 A3 (11.69 \u00d7 16.54 inches) sheets of paper which I laid out on top of the foam. As expected the actual layout is a little larger than the drawn track plan which will give me some flexibility when it comes to positioning the actual track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AnyRail ver. 7 also provides a “List of Materials” which includes all of the individual Kato Unitrack pieces required. I have ordered these from Plaza Japan and expect delivery during the next 7 days. As an indication for new Railroad modelers the cost of purchasing all of the Kato Unitrack and turnouts for the layout was just over AUD$1,000. Keep in mind that the cost of Kato turnouts includes the point motors, making Kato half the price of an equivalent Peco turnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My decision to use Kato track, rather than Peco, was: (a) ease of track laying; (b) Kato track is bullet proof; (c) no need to source Mid-west cork roadbed (which is very expensive to ship from the USA) and (d) flexibility in the different curve radii used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A major advantage of laying out the 1:1 track plan is the ability to plan where the scenery will be developed. The current plan is to raise the track on the outer loop at the back of the layout and the North Yard trackage (shown with brown lines in the following track plan) around 2″ (50mm) higher than the track in the main body of the layout (shown with cyan lines). I am using the 1:1 track plan to create templates for cutting the 50mm foam to fit. However I cannot complete this process until the Woodland Scenics 2″ risers arrive from Lombard Hobbies at the end of the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The branch trackage to the Denver Flour Mills and Eaton Metal Products is also 2″ higher than the Northwest Terminal Railroad trackage. Achieving this will be challenging, as will the positioning of track and scenery in the Duban Station area. I may abandon the Station and Team track spur in favour of the easier laying of scenery. We shall see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have began to sketch out the scenery on the latest edition of the track plan (as at 13th July 2026). The green lines are roads and the cyan strip indicates the path of the South Platte River which flowed to the east of the Public Service of Colorado Cherokee Power Plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have made reasonable progress over the last 7 days while surviving the last round of Chemo prior to the operation to remove the tumour. First I installed \u00a0the 50mm foam insulation on top of the plywood base. Not as easy as it sounds as the foam sheets are only available in a 4′ x […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-n-scale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":963,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/denversrailroads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}