mbinsewiDave's new thread, for his new beginning! http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/281323.aspx For those that asked.
Thanks for doing that Mike. It totally slipped my mind.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave's new thread, for his new beginning!
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/281323.aspx
For those that asked.
Mike.
My You Tube
hon30critter carl425 Maybe time to start a new thread? Carl, Rich, Kevin and Mike, Are you saying that after 1,059 posts, 71,659 views and 36 pages that my thread is getting a bit long in the tooth?!? I was hoping to get at least 100,000 views!!! I agree!! Time to start a new thread! I'll do it tonight. Dave
carl425 Maybe time to start a new thread?
Carl, Rich, Kevin and Mike,
Are you saying that after 1,059 posts, 71,659 views and 36 pages that my thread is getting a bit long in the tooth?!? I was hoping to get at least 100,000 views!!!
I agree!! Time to start a new thread! I'll do it tonight.
Make a link to it from the end of this subject thread so we can easily get to it,...without a lot searching around?
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
carl425Maybe time to start a new thread?
I guess that makes four of us.
The club is dead, long live the layout!
Rich
Alton Junction
Yes, I copmpletely agree.
Let the club layout thread disappear and have a new thread with nothing but good news and happy progress.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I think that would be a great idea, forget the club thing, start new.
Maybe time to start a new thread?
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
hon30critter I am going to put it on a rotisserie so that I can rotate it to put it on its side or upside down, or whatever angle is convenient to allow me to work from a chair.
That's going to be interesting Dave. I hope you share your design with us.
I've seen one on an "O" gauge forum, with the table support being all wood, and even when it was flipped sideways, there were still braces in the way that would keep someone from accessing it from a chair.
And that layout was 8' long.
Might want to figure some way to make the pivot point height adjustable - so that you could have the layout upright at a height that makes working on track, at least track around the edge, reachable from a seated positoon without having to hunch over it - if that is compatible with your back issues. Seated more or less upright as opposed to bent over. Sort of realized this as I sit at my desk and my chair is just the right height that my arms rest on the surface and I just have to look down to see things right in front of me, not bend my back. That woudl make it a bit low to go more than 5' wide, especially as the rotisserie scheme is going to need some sort of cross bracing along the bottom to hold the end pieces in alighment. If the level height of the table is at say 36", that's going to be too high for comfortable seated work, but the table could be 50" wide, and still clear structure going across at floor level. But it might work, you just would have less reach in. If my arms were resting on something a few inches higher than my desk surface, I still wouldn't have to bend my back to work on something within a foot or so of the edge.
Also I would think the corners will have to be angled off, not square - so spinning the table allows it to clear the diagonal braces that will be needed at the end. Think stretched octagon shape. Those sharp corners are usually difficult to so something with on a rectangular tabletop anyway.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
hon30critterThe layout is 5'4" x 12' freestanding. I will have easy access all the way around. I am going to put it on a rotisserie so that I can rotate it to put it on its side or upside down, or whatever angle is convenient to allow me to work from a chair.
I know that you posted some drawings of this setup.
I hope you can post pictures of this as you build. It will be interesting.
I guess some long-timers on this forum can tell us if it has ever been done before, but I don't remember ever seeing it.
You could be a pioneer on this!
York1 John
mbinsewiIt looks like Daves doing the tabletop version. The track plan data base has other shelf type and around the room type configurations of the Beer Line, also. It looks like the original was a 4' x 12'. It first appeared in the Jan. 2009 issue.
Hi Mike,
Yes, I am doing a straight tabletop version of the Beer Line concept. I'm not going to bother building it in modules so it can be rearranged as was the original. Mine will be a bit wider.
railandsailI was going to write up something about what I experienced in my younger days with back problems, and how I over came them, but I was unsure as to whether to post it on the train forum (since lots of older modelers have such problems), or send them in a private email?
Hi again Brian,
My back problems have already been discussed at length in the forums, so I don't see anything wrong with you telling us about what you went through.
railandsailWhat sort of overall size is that drawing?.
Hi Brian,
The layout is 5'4" x 12' freestanding. I will have easy access all the way around. I am going to put it on a rotisserie so that I can rotate it to put it on its side or upside down, or whatever angle is convenient to allow me to work from a chair. The only standing I see being required would be for things like ballasting or applying loose scenery materials.
A lot of people have offered me alternate suggestions, like building a shelf layout or bringing all the wiring to the fascia, but those will still require some work under the layout. Doing an around the room shelf style layout isn't practical. I have a 2 1/2 car garage. I don't want to start dividing it up to make a layout room.
It looks like Daves doing the tabletop version. The track plan data base has other shelf type and around the room type configurations of the Beer Line, also.
It looks like the original was a 4' x 12'. It first appeared in the Jan. 2009 issue.
What sort of overall size is that drawing?....doesn't appear to be wall shelfs...around the room's perimeter??I would think that might be best for someone with a bad back??I was going to write up something about what I experienced in my younger days with back problems, and how I over came them, but I was unsure as to whether to post it on the train forum (since lots of older modelers have such problems), or send them in a private email?
I have been working on my version of the Beer Line and I have made a few changes. I got rid of the switchbacks and added in a locomotive service area. The track plan still looks a bit busy to me, perhaps because it is double tracked all the way around. I want to be able to run trains continuously as well as be able to do some switching at the same time, that is if I can ever get to be that coordinated.
I have included some possible structures, most of which I already have. I plan on putting more structures into the blank spaces. As you can tell, the scenery will be almost all urban. I left out the layer with all the roads in it, but there are lots. The main street will run more or less straight down the center of the layout. If you click on the drawing you can blow it up. You should be able to magnify it again after that.
Like I said, this is still a work in progress. Hopefully I can come up with a plan soon, but given that the benchwork size and shape is already decided, I don't have to have a final plan before starting to build.
Your input would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
As a late to the dance side note on back injuries.. I have arthritis in my lower back around the L4-5 discs and when I build my ISLs I am force to use my office chair or maybe my wheelchair.
For those of us that suffers horrible back pain there is usually a workable solution even if its building a around the walls layout which beats no layout.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Dave, it does not sound like there is any bad-blood between you and most of the club. That is good.
When I left Scale Rails of Southwest Florida in the mid-1990s, it was so bad that it took two decades for tempers to settle.
It is good you were returned the items you wanted.
I drove up to the club on Monday morning to exchange a couple of items that had been returned to me in error for a couple of scratchbuilt structures that I did want back. My friend at the club told me that they would keep me on the membership list since my dues are paid up until September. I'm fine with that.
railandsailI haven't followed your blog for some time now, and only today discovered you had left the club, and were experiencing lots of back problems. I'm very sorry to hear this news, and I hope things get better in the near future.
Thanks for your thoughts Brian. I'm not holding my breath waiting for my back to get better. I am resigned to living with it.
railandsailLook forward to keeping abreast of how you are proceeding. I'm in a little bit of a slump myself at the moment.
I have been in a modelling slump for a couple of years. I planned to do all sorts of great things like building a bunch of signals for the club as well as a scratchbuilt model of the Huntsville, Ontario station. For whatever reason I seem to have a really hard time sitting down at the workbench and doing something. I need to kick my own butt!
hon30critterI asked my friend Dave to return some structures to me if he didn't think the club was likely to use them, and he agreed to sort through the stuff that I had donated to the club.
Dave, I don't know anything about the social conformities for getting back a donated item that will not be used.
However, I have very strong feelings about preserving well built model structures.
I think I have about 8 structures that will find a home on the final STRATTON AND GILLETTE that I did not build, but someone did, and they need to be preserved.
I have three structures that were actually featured in layout tours in Model Railroader. The layouts, and their builders, are now gone, but I was able to get a building from each of these.
I have a tremendous respect for the effort it took to build these, and it breaks my heart at the annual Scale Rails Of Southwest Florida train show to see how some of these donated structures are just set out on tables for {people that don't know how to respect someone else's effort} to paw through, destroy, and then offer $5.00 for.
I hope you get your models back.
I haven't followed your blog for some time now, and only today discovered you had left the club, and were experiencing lots of back problems. I'm very sorry to hear this news, and I hope things get better in the near future.
(perhaps if this forum site would get their act together we could go back to getting updates when new postings are being made)
Look forward to keeping abreast of how you are proceeding. I'm in a little bit of a slump myself at the moment.
Cheers, Brian
Well, if someone left our club and asked for unused donated stuff, I would certainly not be offended. You will need them for your new layout at home...
Simon
I asked my friend Dave to return some structures to me if he didn't think the club was likely to use them, and he agreed to sort through the stuff that I had donated to the club. He offered to bring the items to Bradford instead of me having to make a trip to the club. There were also a few items that I still had that needed to be delivered to the club. He came down on Thursday afternoon.
I got back most of the desired structures I wanted, plus a bunch of detail items like signal boxes and interior details that Dave didn't think the club would ever use. A couple of the items that I wanted were missing. He also gave me a container holding all of the doors and windows for the Walthers roundhouse that I gave to the club, plus a very nice yard tower which wasn't mine. I need to get the roundhouse doors and the yard tower back to the club so I'm going to meet Dave at the club on Monday morning, and maybe I will be able to find the two items that I still want back.
I apologised for going back on my offer to let the club keep all the stuff that I had donated, but if they are not going to use the items I can't see any reason for them to not return them to me. Most of the structures that I wanted back are scratchbuilt or extensively kitbashed, and I put a lot of work into them. They have kept several large scratchbuilt structures and I am happy to see them put to use.
Glad to hear Dave. Who knows, he may even bring along a friend. I'm sure he isn't the only good chap from the club. I say power forward in your layout plans!
Mike
With regard to the old club, I got an email a couple of days ago from the club's chief electrical expert asking how to wire the LEDs for the control panels. I appreciated him asking the question instead of simply figuring out how to do it himself which would have only taken a couple of minutes. He is a really decent gentleman.
We exchanged a couple of emails back and forth and I mentioned that I am considering building my own layout if I can figure out how to do it given my back problems. He very graciously offered to help if needed.
Apparently not all the bridges are burned. I'm glad.
Further to the Dr. Duino 'free' classes. I have learned a lot from them but they barely touch on the programming and assembly details. As I suspected, the 'free' classes were followed up with an offer for a 'complete' course, which of course is not free. Being the sucker that I am, I decided to buy the course. Time will tell whether it is a rip off or whether it has some value. I'm hoping that, based on the quality of the free lessons, the detailed courses will bear fruit. We shall see.
Here is the link to the Dr. Duino free classes. Apparently you don't have to buy the kit in order to get access to the course:
https://www.programmingelectronics.com/arduino-crash-course/?orid=124&opid=6&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%F0%9F%92%BB+Arduino+Crash+Course+%F0%9F%92%BB&utm_campaign=PEA+Offer+introduction