I spent a couple hours on the layout today and got two more sections put up. I'm definitely taking a day off from construction tomorrow. If work isn't too busy, I intend to finish filing out this first peninsula this coming week. Beyond that, I'm going to do some mock ups with second level benchwork. Before I can go much further with the benchwork, I need to decide if I'm all in on an upper deck or not. I also need to figure out how I'm going to weave in the knee braces to work with the first deck, and the ascending trackage. I'll go ahead and address that no, I don't plan on jumping ahead and building that second deck now. I have to make adjustments to the bench work to account for the incline trackage if I'm going to have it. I also have a revised upper level plan that I should have ready to present in a few days if I'm still going in that direction.
I hope everyone else is staying safe in this bad weather. I started out my morning with a nice slip and slide on the ice. Nothing broken, but I'm very sore and now dealing with another rib injury. Ugh. Construction is on hold until I heal up from this. In the mean time, I'll have some revised track plans to share later this week.
That's unfortunate. I suffered a strained back last Thursday when out playing with the pooch. I detest being limited to sitting on the couch. Hopefully you heal quickly!
My schedule has stayed full since the weather started clearing up, so I haven't made anymore progress on the layout build. I have spent my down time the past month redrawing the upper level. The attempt at tacking a classification yard onto the Memphis/St. Louis Staging wasn't practical. I forgot to remove it before starting the thread. I do feel that Memphis and or St. Louis needed more action than just a simple staging yard, so I decided it would be worth shrinking the Western Division to add to the Eastern Division (I'm incorrectly including Memphis in the Eastern Division here). What I've come up with is a better split of the usable space. Tulsa had to be shrunk and totally redesigned. Enid was shrunk, but is more or less the same as before. Additionally, there is the area next to Tulsa. I've had it marked as a spot for the Port of Catoosa, but lately I've been wondering if I need to try to include the coal mine at Mertz in some form or fashion. With the redesign of Tulsa, I added in a scaled down version of that area. I'm still not decided on which I would want. I can save that area for dead last in the build. After scaling back the western division, I now had more room for another classification yard. I started with the weird, overly ambitious idea of running operations for both St. Louis and Memphis through one yard. I scrapped that idea pretty quick. I made the decision to designate this new yard as Tennessee Yard for Memphis. There's still shotgun staging at the very end to hold St. Louis traffic, and now Birmingham traffic. It'll be a bit odd, but St. Louis bound trains will have to pass through Memphis to get to St. Louis. As always, feedback is greatly welcomed.
After a month's worth of delays, I'm finally back at it this weekend. I had a little time after work on Friday which I used to hang up a few decorations in the building. For birthday/Christmas this year I received a few railroad prints, which I had professionally matted and framed. I think they look great up on the wall. I also hung up the Blasted Mirror I ordered last year. I had this stuff setting around waiting to be displayed. I was worried about damage occurring if I didn't get it all up on the wall soon. That's all for Friday. I'll continue with today's work in the next post.
Today, I put together 3 more sections of benchwork. I would have gotten more done, but I spent a decent amount of time today putting together a mock up of the second level of benchwork. It's been on my mind for a while that I needed to take a look at how a second level would work on this layout. I used my collection of quick clamps to put up a section of bench work without actually putting screws through it. I clamped on a couple knee braces on for reference as well. I put together a quick scene with a grain elevator, a few sticks of EZ track and a few cars. I was a bit worried about clearance with taller buildings, like grain elevators. Overall, I'm ok with the spacing. There's plenty of room to operate, enough that I can stick my head under and reach all the way to the back to work and fix derailments. The benchwork is mostly out of sight of the first level. I know it'll be somewhat visible in photos, but I'm not really going for any scenery of the year prizes anyway. Another way to look at it is the extra operating I can get will outweigh the bit of interference it poses. Layouts are the art of compromise I have found.
With all of the extras out of the way, let us look at some actual progress. I keep working my way down this middle peninsula. The Rosedale side is to the point where it starts to fan out further from the wall, so that will take extra time to get the benchwork built just right. The La Cygne side is built all the way down to the end now. I dropped the last section down 3" so I can build the Mar De Cygne river scene. I will have a similar 3" drop on the other side for the Turkey Creek Scene. All of the trackage from the south Rosedale lead over to La Cygne will be built on spine (or was it spline?) sub roadbed so that scenery can be built down to the creek/river bed. I am hoping tomorrow I can get the last 2 sections put up on the Rosedale side, and then next week start putting together the spine structure. I would like to point out that I have to go back on something I said earlier. I will end up having a few vertical legs on the layout. I tried going with only knee bracing on the peninsula, but the wall just wasn't sturdy enough with out a leg every 8'. I did look through my track plan, and the legs should be placed in a way that does not interfere with operators.
That is quite the undertaking that you have going on. Looks like you should have quite a layout. We are using the spline subroadbed on a friends layout and are using 1'' strips of 1/4" of the Luan plywood and Titebond yellow glue. Using a ton of clamps to make sure it bonds well and trying to be very careful about getting all the strips lined up to prevent a lot of sanding and have a good surface to bond the roadbed to. Tony LaLumia
Another successful day of cutting and assembling lumber. It took quite a while to put the odd shaped piece together properly, but I was able to work it out. I now have all the open grid bench work on the first peninsula. I still have a couple knee braces to go back and add, but I'm almost ready to build the spline from one side around to the other. I'll need to get the deck fastened on and start sketching out my track plan to make sure I get the spline aligned properly. I am happy to report that with the bench work completed to the end with a few vertical leg braces, the partial wall is now very sturdy, and I have no further worries with it.
I would not recommend spline roadbed. Several considerations; 1) the pieces of hardboard used to create a spline must absolutely be the same width, 2) you will need LOTS of clamps, 3) it takes many hands to get the glue on the hardboard, get the pieces lined up and then clamped together. Then you need to be careful that any glue squeezed out does not drip where you do not want it. I have been helping on a layout up north of me where the owner insists on using spline and despite his advanced carpentry skills, table saw and huge array of clamps, we have managed to produce many sections of roadbed that needed to be power planed to get level. He also had splines that were not consistent width which created issues when we tried to mount tortoises for some mainline switches.
Example #15786 of me not fully understanding what I'm saying. I have zero intention of doing anything like spline roadbed. My intention is to use the same 3/4" plywood that I'm using for the flat deck and structure, and cut it just wide enough for roadbed and tracks to be applied on top. From there I can fill the open space with chicken wire and plaster cloth and other scenery effects.
Ethan, What is the vertical distance between the sub roadbed decks? It is good to place the tallest buildings between decks to verify clearance and lighting issues. It appears that the upper level is higher than it needs to be? S o an operator of normal height does not need a step stool to reach in. You might want to consider using a cantilever brace with gusset plates for the upper level if the island peninsula will have a identical benchwork on the opposite side. Angle braces will be annoying, not to mention installing backdrop around them.
Excellent questions. Once again, I forget to include crucial details I have planned on 24" from the surface of the bottom deck to the surface of the top deck. That translates to 21" from the bottom deck to the bottom of the upper benchwork. The bottom deck is about 33" off the floor. That puts the top deck 57" off the floor. On a previous layout I tried an 18" deck to deck spacing and it was too low. I have a few ideas on how to brace the upper deck. The knee braces in the picture are the least ideal of all the options. I figured I would mock up with those, and if I was okay with them, I would be okay with the better options. I also plan on painting any visible bracing the same sky blue as the back drop to help it blend in.
If you're not sensing a pattern here, I continue to end up with 1 weekend a month to work on the layout. So, here's this month's update. Friday, I recruited my dad to help for a couple hours to rip down some more plywood. Nothing too exciting there. Saturday, I started with cutting out the odd shapes for the deck of the layout. It took a little time, but wasn't too hard of a task. Next up is a big item that I've been anxious to get stared on, and that's the big curve around the end of the peninsula. I forgot to take a picture of the setup, but I used a set of sweep sticks to sketch an outline onto a sheet of plywood. I went ahead and marked the center lines for the tracks while I had the sweep sticks set up. My first attempt at making a curved cut on plywood wasn't the greatest thing ever, but it will work. I should be able to hide the poor cut with scenery later on. I was able to use a combination of quick clamps and spare boards to set the curved piece up and get it positioned. It took a little time to get the alignment and spacing set for the bridge over Turkey Creek on the south side of Rosedale. Luckily, I had already bought a few bridge kits from Walthers. I quickly put one of the kits together so I could have something to correctly set the gap with.
With the deck in its correct place, I began making supports for it, which took quite a bit of time. In fact, that project carried over into today and is a still a couple cross braces away from being done. As I got around to the final brace for this section of deck, it occurred to me I needed to make sure everything stayed level from one side to the other. So, I got out a long board and my long level and checked things out. I was somehow almost dead on first try. The first curved piece I cut out wasn't enough to get all the way around, so I had to cut out another shorter piece to finish the curve. In addition to that, I also made an angled piece to come off the deck on the other side of the river. I lost track of time, but it probably took 30-45 minutes to get those 2 pieces aligned and spaced properly. After measuring and remarking 4 times, I finally was able to cut down the extra curved section to the correct length. With what little time I had left, I put together the support for the nub coming off the La Cygne side of the river. As I was winding down for the day, a rare (for the Ft. Scott Sub) stack train made an appearance, so it's in the back ground of our final picture showcasing where things stand as of today. So, if trends continue, It'll probably be next month after corn planting before I have another progress report.
One of my favorite feelings in the world is when I go back to check something for level, etc., and finding I got it spot on. What is the plan for flooring, etc.?
The plan for now is to stick with the polished concrete of the slab. With the main deck of the layout built at setting height, I wanted something smooth to roll around on in an office chair while I operate. Maybe in the future I could go add carpet squares, but that is a ways down the road.
I was presently surprised to end up with another full weekend to work on the layout. This update is not nearly as big as last week's, but progress was still made. I spent a decent amount of time finishing up bracing on the big curved section, but I think it is finally finished. After that, I went back to building and installing rectangle sections over in the Ft. Scott corner. I put up 4 more sections this weekend and built a 5th, but ran out of time to get it installed. I also ran out of knee braces, so I will need to get more lumber for those and get them made. I am getting close to hitting another turning point. I have the aforementioned section of bench work to put up, and then one more after that. Once those two are up, I have made it to the other end of the west wall and cannot continue until I build and install the next partial wall. I will have to get more 2" x 4"s on hand and get that put together.
I have a small update to put out tonight. We got an early jump on corn planting this year, our earliest start ever in fact. So, that is already out of my way luckily. In addition to that, we finally have plenty of rainy weather in the forecast for the first time in a couple years. This all should add up to plenty of work days over the next couple months. A couple weeks ago as I was setting up knee bracing for the last couple of sections I installed and noticed that all of the sudden the braces were too long, indicating my benchwork was sloping downward. I was a bit puzzled by that being that I have put my 4' level on every piece of benchwork that was installed. I thought about possible causes and solutions while I sat on the tractor the past couple of weeks. Fast forward to yesterday, and I remembered that we have a laser transit collecting dust at the farm. Maybe I ought to use it. I got it setup and ran the measuring stick around the room. The first 100-ish foot of benchwork I put up was all within +/- an eighth of an inch. Then I measured the last 3 sections I put up. I have no idea what went wrong, but I ran off almost a full inch in 24' of run. So today, I quick clamped on some legs and unscrewed all 3 sections from the wall. Instead of relying on my bubble level, I used the laser transit to bring each section up to the correct height and reattach it to the wall. After everything was height corrected, I was ready to add my knee braces. After going through that ordeal, I feel real dumb for not using the transit throughout this whole project. Oh well, I will be able to use to going forward. Speaking of going forward, I have 2" x 4"s on hand to build the next wall. I am not sure how exactly my schedule will shake out, but sometime in the next few days I should have an update on the next wall. I do want to add an addendum on the first wall I put up since it has been an experiment in progress. After checking things over a few times and thinking about it for a while, I decided to remove the upper bracing that connects to the ceiling. I was surprised to find that the wall is still pretty stable without them. What got me thinking about this is back in January when it was -10 degrees for a week, the floor and the ceiling shrank away from each other, causing the bottom plate to pop off the floor in one spot. It made sense to me that as the ground warmed up, the floor might expand some and create vertical tension in the wall. Sure enough, when I took all of the screws out the boards were wedged in there. When I installed them, they had about an 1/8" gap to allow for expansion, but they were so tightly packed in now I almost had to resort to cutting them out. So, I guess it is a good thing I pulled those now before it got any warmer.
The second wall is assembled and installed. I had a few minutes on Thursday to cut studs. That head start made this mornings task easier. I was able to put together 32' of stud wall by myself in a couple hours. With my lower back/hip/knee etc. issues, I am not compatible with the full traditional method of building a stud wall. I work on attaching the studs to the bottom plate with everything up on saw horses where it is easy to work on. I can then install the half assembled sections on the 2" x 4" that is glued to the floor. That job is not too bad since I can roll around on a creeper and attach all the sections in one go. With all of our sections somewhat attached to the floor, I can get up and install the top plate. And that is it. We have a complete wall. After my above mentioned experiment with vertical supports, I know I do not need to spend time on those this time. I used some leftover lumber to make two temporary braces. These will help keep the wall steady while benchwork and permanent legs are added. I had a brain fart last time I was at Lowe's and bought the wrong concrete anchors. I should get the correct anchors in the mail early this week. There is rain in the forecast midweek, so hopefully I will get the anchors installed before the end of the week. Beyond that I am ready to continue building benchwork.
