Click here for installation pictures.
Click here for before and after shots of the entire layout.
Click here for a look at the track laying technique.
Click here for pictures of the first run!
I am in the process of building an overhead layout in my new home.
I worked on the track plan for over three months before I finally contacted Eaglewings Iron Craft to build the road bed for me. It has 120' of mainline plus another 80' in four sidings. There are two reversing loops in the plan, which is designed with MTS in mind.
Because of the complexity of the design, I had to build a mockup of the layout on my living room floor and trace the turnouts so that Eaglewings could transfer the plan to metal.
It took Eaglewings about six weeks to build the road bed and bridges and have it powder coated. It all arrived via UPS on October 30, 2002 in 20 boxes, weighing a total of 646 lbs.
With a number of other things going on, it took me three days to unpack all 70 pieces (not counting the included nuts and bolts). The original plan was partitioned into thirty sections based on whether the track was straight or curved. Eaglewings cut some of the larger or more complex sections into smaller pieces for more efficient manufacture and shipping, resulting in 37 sections that had to be assembled and mounted onto 33 brackets.
Some of the cartons arrived quite banged up. Fortunately, there was only minor damage; nothing that couldn't be bent back into place.
A couple of boxes where like this, but there was no internal damage to the parts.
One of the ears on the deck girder bridge got bent, but it bent back easily. The damage to the suspension bridge is a bit of a mystery since the wire does seem to want to go back into place. The damage isn't visible when the bridge is in place.
Installation of the roadbed took six days, working three or four hours a day. Not only did all of the pieces fit together as designed, they also fit nicely into the rooms in my house, leaving a comfortable one or two inches between the walls and the road bed all around. I still have to install the track and add some more brackets for greater stability, but it's really taking shape, now. Here are some shots from track level.
This is the central section of the plan, on top of the kitchen closet. We're looking north. The kitchen is to the right and the living room is to the left..
This is from the living room looking along the tracks through the dining room into the sun room.
This is on the kitchen side of the kitchen closet, looking along the tracks into the office/sunroom area.
These are the half-buildings along the tracks between the kitchen and office. These building were originally some unidentified industry that backed against the tracks. This industry now as a name: Eaglewings Iron Craft.