Any tips for transferring drawings onto the baseboards to lay track onto. Switches are not too bad as I can use the Peco copies, and straights aren't too bad, but I am having a bit of trouble in getting the curves right. Am using a length of wood with holes drilled at appropriate distances, and a camera tripod, but with a baseboard height of 50" it's a bit tricky. Just wondered if anybody had an easier solution.
Try this:
What a great idea. Wish I'd seen it some time ago. It would have saved me a lot of headaches. Still I'll be able to use this next time. Thanks.
I cut some pices of foamboard with various radii.
I used some settrack curves of various radii from an old trainset.
Cheers, Simon
Lay out some boxboard (corrugated cardboard) on the floor, and use your piece of wood with holes in it to draw a number of curve templates. You can also add in the easements (spirals) while you're at it. The width should equal the width of the ballast formation. Cut these out, and lay them on the baseboard. Use a marking pen to trace the templates. Make the templates long enough so that you can overlap them with already drawn outlines, so as to maintain smoothly flowing track.
FWIW, I went to the trouble of making such curve templates out of 1/4" plywood. Strong enough to span the open-frame type of baseboard.
Re easements: at the point of curvature (POC), where the straight track meets the curve, offset the straight about 1/2" towards the outside of the curve. Mark off about 12" on each side of the POC, and use a bit of flexible wood to lead the straight into the curve.
HTH
If using open frame, why not just make the trackbed directly this way, rather than going through the intermediate step of making a template?
MBQ
Actually, I did, and then I realised that the curved roadbed made a good template for locating the line.
I have my computer print out my layout design onto a series of actual-size A4 sheets, which tile with a bit of overlap. I loosely pin these (according registration marks and any already-laid track), and then trace through them with a blunt pencil making an indentation in the Sundaela trackbed layer.
But if you're not doing computer-assisted layout design then suggestions of computer-assisted manufacturing will probably not be that useful :-).
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.