Purkeys Toy Trains Kentucky Layout

Over 2 years ago, a customer stopped in and was having trouble coming up with good ideas for his layout in progress. We suggested that if he brought in the room dimensions, and window and door placement, etc, we would come up with some ideas. Using RRTrax, we designed what we call a 4 arm wrap-around E design.
	Weeks later, he returned and announced that he had torn his old layout apart, and wanted more details on what size he should build the tables in my design. So I worked on the new plan some more, gave him all of the table dimensions and heights. At the time, he was moving in 5 years, so it had to come apart to go to the new location. The room measures 22 x 26.
	This photo looks to the left side of the room and shows the beginning of the first of 3 levels of track. The lowest 072 loop is only 18" off of the floor, The outer loop is 072, and in this area will be supported by a wooden trestle. The inner loop is 060. On top will be a town. The area to the left is for a display of a crane working on a overturned coal car. All track is Lionel Fastrack with K-Line track used over the trestle areas
	Next is an area that will also be a town with a little more commercial and industrial areas. The 072 in this area will be supported by another wooden trestle, and the 060 by a concrete viaduct.
	The next photo overlooks the town toward a river valley spanned by a lot of bridges.
	Here is a shot of a transition area that includes a stone viaduct, girder bridge, some concrete piers and another stone viaduct in the distance. This area will of course have some water, and perhaps a road.
	Here is a close up of the main bridge area. In the rear are some older Lionel bridges, the middle track is supported by a concrete bridge (hand made of wood). and in the foreground is the beginning of a Lionel undergirder/K-Line truss bridge combination. In the lower forground area is the diorama for the Lionel track Gang accessory.
	Next is a photo showing more of an overview.
	Posted October 25, 2005 10:53 AM This layout is also a modular design and is going to be moved to another home after it's "completed" The red lines indicate the joints. This is the first time we have designed a layout that is to be moved, and it certainly is a challenge.
	First of all the rough edges of the foam will be somewhat smoothed off with a hot wire tool. We were looking for a rough vertical cliff so we used the foam vertically instead of stacking it flat. We are not going to use plaster cloth, we're GOING TO EXPERIMENT! We are going to use joint compound... now I know there are some skeptics out there that are going to say "But it's going to crack", but it'll work.
There is a lightweight joint compound (for drywall) and we are going to mix a batch of the stuff, watered down instead of Plaster of Paris. Next for the binder, hardware stores sell a product called "Box O Rags" and we will dip these into the watery joint compound mix, and place it onto the foam substrate. It will require 2 layers. Then with the miracle of paint and some scenic materials, it will appear as real as nature intended. The 4 wooden supports will be replaced by a removeable wooden trestle because, it all needs to come apart for the move to another state. This section is the first area we began to foam, so will most likely be the first to be "Plastered" You may ask... "What is the advantage of a "Box 'o Rags" soaked in thinned out joint compound be over simple Plaster cloth? We are old enough to remember making mountains out of a flour and water paste and newspaper strips covering chicken wire stapled to wooden supports. You then used Rit dye, and sprinkled some of the green sawdust about, and you were done. The concept of plaster cloth is something newer. It is simple, and is great for small layouts, but can be a very costly method to cover a large layout. So the joint compound/rags technique is being used for economic reasons. The table area is 320 square feet. Considering the vertical surfaces and inclines, it's at least 600 sq.ft. to cover, and it needs to be 2 layers thick, so 1200 sq.ft.. Plaster cloth is .85 for a sq.ft., for a cost of $1020 for the plaster cloth. On the other hand, it will take 10 lbs. of the joint compound and about 4 boxes of rags for a cost of about $80. Big, big difference. Just a quick update for those who were following this project. The layout has been completely disassembled, and is curently residing in a barn. The client has moved to Kentucky, and is currently building a building to house this layout, the new building is 35 x 55, so naturally he has ideas to expand the uncompleted layout. Meanwhile, parts of the layout are at the shop and parts of it will be reassembled at our off-site facility to be detailed, and then transported to Kentucky to be reassembled in the new building. We're starting to think there is going to be a book in here somewhere. This is easily the largest and most challenging layout project we have ever been involved with. More photos will be posted as things progress. The use of Fastrack choice was made by the client. He wanted a playful layout for running trains with his 3 grandchildren and was not interested in such details as ballast. We had not used it that much, and were not respecting the product, because Lionel took so long to get all of the pieces to market. Needless to say, we were apprehensive about working with an unproven product. It was, however, a complete joy to work with. Our style of layout building is not to over-engineer the design, so it will have some flexibility during construction. We did make changes and adjustments as we built and the Fastrack was completely unforgiving about it. The connecting pins worked perfectly through many disconnects and adjustments. Also, when it came time to dissasemble the parts of the layout to move it into storage, it was very easy to remove track at the joints between the tables, thus allowing the tables to slip apart easily. We suspect that it will only be a matter of putting the missing pieces between the tables and bolting them together as the tracks slips into position. We are now, of course, converts to the Fastrack system, and there seems to be a trend among customers towards track that has the ballasted plastic base. The only negatives we've observed are of course the track is very loud, and must be insulated from the table tops, but really, what track doesn't? The client has already moved, and his new building is under roof, He just came back to visit me and we discussed his paint colors, floor treatment, lighting, shelving and also the large scale layout that will run around the outside walls. We're involved with the entire process so the it's not just a layout, it's an entire experience. So we'll be taking a few vacations in Kentucky, most likely starting for a week next summer.

March 15th, 2008
The layout modules have finally arrived in the new location in Kentucky. The new room is 35 x 55'