Wiring and soldering wires is a fairly straightforward process. Once you have done it a couple of times, it becomes fairly easy, although repetitive, process. I recommend practicing on some scrap track before tackling the layout itself if you haven’t done this before.

It is time to start laying track. Through my research and having laid the track on the module, I learned that this is one of the most important steps in building anything in model railroading. Take your time. Bad or uneven track will quickly ruin the fun in running trains.

One thing to note, I saved all ties that I removed from any track. I plan to use this to fill any gaps after the track is laid.

Cork. The old standby for creating a roadbed to lay the track on. I used it because it worked best with laying the roadbed directly on the foam. Now that the track center lines have been laid out on the foam, it is time to lay the cork roadbed. This process, for the most part, is fairly easy. The hardest part is splicing the cork to fit where the turnouts will be.

Continue reading Laying The Cork →

So, here I have this new room that I am going to build a model railroad in. I don’t have a plan drawn yet, as I am in the process of doing research. I also have a bunch of equipment of various vintage sitting in a box that will eventually need to be tested to see if they are worthy of being on the future railroad. So what to do in the meantime until I can start building the full size model railroad? Build a test module of course! Continue reading The Birth Of My Test Module →