Building Your Layout

Your layout is your world - you create it, you enjoy it.  There is no right way or wrong way to build a layout.  There are books galore (see books) with sample track plans and scenery plans.  A few of the major manufacturers of track offer free downloadable software for designing your layout, too.  Or, grab some graph paper, a pencil and a very large eraser and start planning.  CTT offers templates for track sections for N, HO, O and 0-27 so you can look at several layout configurations before you buy anything.

Selecting a track

There are many brands and styles of track available for model railroaders.  PARMA HOBBY carries just about every brand on the market.

Track can come "alone" or on its own roadbed. It comes in short straights, long straights, pre-set standard curves or "flex" track.  There are standard left and right turnouts, both manual and remote. There are custom turnouts and custom crossings.  There are bumpers, under-table switch machines, rerailers and switch boxes, terminal sections and uncoupling track.

Which is best for you?  Track with attached roadbed or without?  Steel alloy or nickel silver?  Code 83 or Code 100, Bachman E-Z track, or LifeLike Power-Loc?  Atlas O Premium Nickel Silver or Lionel FasTrack or MTH RealTrax?  How about that GarGraves track or the K-Line SuperSnap Track?

Just so you know, all HO and N scale products will run on all brands of HO and N track available.  All O and 0-27 products will run on all brands of O and 0-27 style track.  In addition, most brands of track do have adapters to the other brands.  So, you can start in one brand and grow with another.

Whether you choose one brand over another, they are all good.  It is merely a matter of preference.  It may be yours or the person who got you started in the hobby.

Creating your scenery

Scenery creates your model railroading world - from city to country, from industrial to residential, from harbor side to farmland, from summertime to wintertime.  With model railroading, you can create entire cities, including the houses, the sidewalks, the parking lots, the stores - modern or yesteryear -- to accompany your train track layout.  There are many scenery systems or products that are available to help in creating your vision for your layout.

PARMA HOBBY offers scenery building classes every winter and fall (see calendar of events and classes for more information).  The classes cover the basics of using the Woodland Scenics Scenery System, which is one of the most widely known systems available today.

Ground up pieces of foam are dyed to represent grass, weeds, soil, shrubbery, and tree foliage and come in a variety of colors - from the early Spring green to the bright colors of Autumn.  The material can be applied with "Hobi-Tac", "Scenic Cement" or white glue and it can also be applied directly to wet paint.

Rocks and rock faces can be made with Hydrocal, a trademark product of U. S. Gypsum (USG Corp.), Hydrocal plaster's biggest advantage is its strength.  Paper towels dipped in a soupy mix of Hydrocal and applied to a structure of balled paper or interwoven cardboard strips make a remarkably strong scenery shell.  Hydrocal also takes detail very well when cast in rubber rock molds.  Mold-a-Scene plaster is a softer molding plaster that modelers usually prefer as the top coat on plaster scenery that can be carved and formed for a softer-looking terrain.

Ballast along the tracks, or other roadways can be created with Ballast or Tallus which is also applied with the Scenic Cement or similar product.

Creating the proper grades for the track is important to keeping the trains from derailing.  Grades are expressed as a percentage, and indicate how steeply tracks climb.  A 2 % grade means a rise of two units for every 100 units of travel -- or simply a rise of 2 inches for every 100 inches.  Keep in mind that anything greater than 5 percent is too much for model trains of any scale.

Also important to keeping your train from derailing is making sure the rail joints are smooth from the first laid track to the last.  Avoid S-curves; trains weren't meant to serpentine.

One of the best and least prone-to-mistake method to use to create the proper grades is the Woodland Scenics SubTerrain System.  This system consists of lightweight foam components, such as risers, incline sets, profile boards and foam sheets.  These components allow modelers to easily create terrain with hills, mountains, valleys and low-lying areas on any layout.  Modelers no longer need to use heavy plywood or make complicated calculations.  SubTerrain System layouts are built without power tools and never create a dusty mess.

 Here are a few suggestions:

Use at least a 2" riser to elevate your track.  For a more dramatic landscape, use 4" risers.

Incline sets are a series of foam pieces that elevate your track: 2% elevates track from 0 to 4 1/2" in 16', 3% elevates track from 0 to 4" in 12', and 4% raises the track from 0 to 4" in 8'.  Incline Starters include several identical foam pieces that elevate your track: 2% Starters raise the elevation from 0 to 1/2", 3% raise the elevation from 0 to 3/4" and 4% Starters raise the elevation from 0 to 1".  You can use Incline Starters alone or with Incline Sets to start your track on an incline.

Profile boards are used around the perimeter of your layout to define the contours. Their special interlocking design allows them to be placed end to end, or stacked and locked together.