rrinker All I can say is, I should have gotten an impact driver a long time ago.
Yup!! Same here! With my conversion to Torx screws, the driver seems to be nearly infallible. I can't believe how long the tiny battery lasts!
I would repeat the old mantra that good tools are worth the price except for the fact that my Bosch impact driver was less than $70.00. What's not to love?!?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
rrinker All I can say is, I should have gotten an impact driver a long time ago. Easy to use one-handed, the screws don't wobble and fall off half the time. Screws just zip in, and countersink nicely.
All I can say is, I should have gotten an impact driver a long time ago. Easy to use one-handed, the screws don't wobble and fall off half the time. Screws just zip in, and countersink nicely.
Alton Junction
So I finally did a little more work. More verticals installed along the yard side. I had 9 sections cut and ready to go. Using the new impact driver - took less than a half hour. Granted, I did go along and mark the studs the other day, and I also set screws in all the holes in the verticals, so all I had to do was hold it up in line witht he stud mark and put a level across from the previous one.
Five more and the yard alcove will have all the verticals. Next is to get the blocks all up, thent he new sections of backdrop and paint them.
I will probably use legs under the yard area. But for the upper level - to keep the weight down, I figured I will just run plywood where the track goes, and fill in the rest with foam - much lighter. It's going to mostly be just scenery above the yard, having a switching area right where a yardmaster will be switching the yard on the lower level would not be good, so the second deck over the yard will just be track through the scenery.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Looks like you are getting there. I have no where near the amount of space you do, but I still haven't gotten a single piece of track layed.
I share the concerns about your joist support system. There are just too many things that can go wrong. And I too was in construction. I'd hate to see you get a lot invested...
Now then, if something did happen, you could brace the lower deck at a diagononal back to the wall. (I'm not sure why you haven't done this already.) You could then support the upper section with either cables to the ceiling or all-thread to the lower deck.
Hopefully, none of this will be an issue.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
Bumping for SpaceMouse. I laid in a supply of material over the weekend but didn;t get anythign done. Been working upstairs to organize things with shelves and so forth so I can get my workbench up and running, another step to getting some of the stored in teh garage stuff back in place. I also have a neat idea for a test track running along the rear of the workbench, so more than 6' long. Raised about 6" above the work surface so there will be room for things underneath it. At one end will be all the various devices - Lokprogrammer, PR3, DC power pack, etc. for testing things.
Yes, most of the upper deck will be hills, hiding much of the backdrop, and the lower level around this area will have building flats and other things. Over on the other side there will be some more open country - I may use a preprinted farmland scene along some of it.
The long branch line around the outside, that will be a lot of open land, with some forested areas. That will only be a single deck, slightly higher off the ground than the bottom deck, and the backdrop will be a tiny bit taller - see when you cut a 48" wide piece of Masonite at the 16" mark, you get 2 that are 16" and one that's slightly wider. So right now I have 3 pieces which are too wide to fit. Seems counter-intuitive, you'd think you'd be losing the 16" plus saw kerf for each slice, leaving the last piece short, but they aren't exactly 48" wide, the actual dimension comes out somewhat over.
rrinker I'm not going to go all fancy with clouds or anything, just plain blue.
I agree. Your decks and backdrops are each short enough that the mountain scenery and trees will probably not leave a lot of sky left over to worry about. If it was a single deck then maybe yes, but in your situation I think plain blue will look great.
- Douglas
rrinker Next step, finish the verticals down the yard side. Then I need to get some more Masonite for those backdrops, and some roadbed plywood - I really hope they have the same stuff I already used. My top quality 13 ply birch plywood I am saving for the horizontal supports.
Hi Randy,
Your progress is excellent even if you don't think so yourself!
I'm a little envious of your backdrops because my layout will not have any. I may make up some moveable screens for photography but that will be way down the road. Someone suggested I use a centre view block but I prefer the idea of having a wider scene.
If you are interested, one of my old club members developed a really quick and easy method for doing decent looking clouds. He made several stencils out of heavy card stock with the outlines for various clouds. All he did was hold them in place and spray the area below the stencil with white paint in various concentrations, always with a flat bottom. He was able to get an array of different clouds by combining the stencils in various positions. Here is an example:
It will look slightly different under the lights I plan to install under the upper decks - the room lights will not be used normally. I took the paint sample card down to the lighting section of Lowes where they have different color temperature LEDs so I could see which one looked best under the lights I plan to use - I'm not going to go all fancy with clouds or anything, just plain blue. I have to go look at the sticker on the can for the name of it, it was a standard color off the cards at Lowes. I also realize I've been being way too picky when painting - the bottom 3/4" you will never see because it will be behind the plywood subroadbed. And the back wall, the short one - you may bever see the upp deck backdrop - because of reach issues I am plannign to keep the track there pretty close to the front - about where thay 2x4 sticks out, and from there and all along the yard, the upper deck will be mostly just the main and scenery so I don;t have someone trying to switch an industry on the upper deck getting in the way of someone working the yard on the lower deck. But, it's there, I know I did it, even if it can't be seen.
Next step, finish the verticals down the yard side. Then I need to get some more Masonite for those backdrops, and some roadbed plywood - I really hope they have the same stuff I already used. My top quality 13 ply birch plywood I am saving for the horizontal supports.
Backdrops look most excellent. Nice shade of blue too.
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.
So here's what I've been up to the past few weeks.
First, spackle all the screw holes in the backdrop, and the gaps where two panels meet:
Then I sanded it all and applied the first coat of high-hide primer:
And a second coat of primer:
And tonight I put on the blue:
Next it is on down the yard side. I can at least put the main in there - still waiting on Peco and their Code 70 track for the actual yard tracks.
Looks impressive, Randy!
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
Great progress Randy!
Next step before I get much further is to sand, tape and mud, and sand again the backdrop. Easier to get at it without the horizontal pieces in place. Painting - I might start that before more subroadbed, or not. I can easily get at it to paint, at least along the shorter wall where the benchwork is narrow.
Randy: I really appreciate all the good pictures you are posting along with your layout build.
These make it easy to understand what you are doing.
Great work.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Company decided to make today a paid holiday, so I was able to get some work done on the layout
I started installing the horizontal pieces, cut from 3/4" birch plywood
You can see how I screw it to both the main vertical and the extra piece. Also glued.
The corner is a special case. I cut one side and attached it to the other to form a solid corner
And continued over to the 2x4 frame I built earlier
Then I put the cut piece of subroadbed back to see how it would fit
The extra bit of the horizontals will be cut off before I attach fascia.
I also added some more of the brace blocks to the existing verticals
And some over on the other side as well
So I could add a couple more pieces of backdrop
And on the other side
Overall view of this section of the layout so far:
Back at it tomorrow. Supposed to rain all weekend, and I need more plywood for subroadbed.
Biggest loco I have is a 4-8-4, and it doesn;t look silly on the 28" at the club, so it will be fine on 30" here. The helix is wider radius - I don't want the helix to be the sharpest nor the steepest track on the layout, that's asking for trouble.
No 80-85' passenger cars on the Reading, and no 89' flats or articulated auto racks in the 50's, either.
I'd use #5 turnouts in the yard, but the first Code 70 that Peco says they are releasing are #6. But after 2 years of waiting, who knows if they will ever show up. I really do not want to build a yard using Code 70 flex (readily available) but have EVERY turnout require careful shimming and soldering to transition to Code 83 turnouts. My progress is slow wnough so as it is, if I have to painstakingly make every joint like that in the yard, it'll never get built. I'd sooner just use all Code 83 and hope it loooks good enough just using different ballast and thinner roadbed.
The Fast Tracks SweepSticks are pretty neat. I just dry fit them to check my space, but I've since assembled some of the sections together. And Peco flex is a very nice compromise between Atlas and ME - when bending it by hand I thought it flexxed back, but after using some SweepSticks to form a curve in a piece - it barely moved back. yet it curved smoothly and neatly without having to jockey the ties around like ME.
rrinker It's not the radius so much as it is not being sloppy with the track and roadbed, no kinks, no sudden curves, no sudden grade changes, etc.
I 100% agree.
I run 24 inch radius on my hidden and branch line trackage, and never have problems. I use Atlas sectional track for 24 inch radius because it is easier to assure a consistent radius and avoid kinking.
I run SD-7s, Trainmasters, PA-1s, and full length passenger cars. Also. My Bachmann 2-8-8-4 will go around an 18 inch radius curve, but it sure looks silly doing it.
I use 36 inch as a minimum for the little mainline visible trackage I have.
My last layout was 22" radius and Atlas #4 turnouts and nothing derailed.... Granted I didn't run my Northerns on it. But I was modeling a branch they never would have gone down in the first place (counting down until someone shows a Ramble shot where they did venture that way.......). Only 6 axle first gen units are Trainmasters, everything else is 4 axle only. Reading didn't have any SDs, or RSC/RSDs.
It's not the radius so much as it is not being sloppy with the track and roadbed, no kinks, no sudden curves, no sudden grade changes, etc.
rrinker I'm not a radius snob.
I'm not a radius snob.
Rich
The main is 30". This is the yard lead for the little switchers. And it's 50's era - it will be rare that even a 50' box car would be on that track. Mostly 40 footers.
I'm not a radius snob. I want a railroad, not a bunch of really neat looking cuves that run into one another. The big club modular layout has 28" radius curves and there is not a thing that won't run on them. Even brass articulateds and 10 drive locos. Viewed from the inside, it's not even noticeable. The branch around the outside will be similar. Actually, I have that one drawn down to 24" so it doesn;t stick too faroout away from the all, but since I now have the 28" radius SweepSticks, I might go bigger.
rrinker The left side piece I am not worried about, but I cut the right side piece a little narrow, and there might not be room to get it all on. There are two main tracks at 30" radius with 3" spacing (probably doesn't need to widen out that much since I don;t plan on running 80-85' cars, which past experiences has told me need at least 3" center space on 30" radius curves), plus a third track at 28" radis spaced much futher - a continuation of the yard lead which also serves as the city branch.
The left side piece I am not worried about, but I cut the right side piece a little narrow, and there might not be room to get it all on. There are two main tracks at 30" radius with 3" spacing (probably doesn't need to widen out that much since I don;t plan on running 80-85' cars, which past experiences has told me need at least 3" center space on 30" radius curves), plus a third track at 28" radis spaced much futher - a continuation of the yard lead which also serves as the city branch.
Aaaaand......
Yup, inside track way too close to the edge. Easy fix though, I can just cut out a bit more from the isude of where I cut it from the big sheet, so it will even have the same curvature and mate up to the cut part. The track doesn;t overhanf the inside lip, but it's so close that anything leaving the rails would hit the floor, so a small protective piece with scenery will give it someplace for a car to roll.
Other side is fine, plenty of room for the inner track - plus the open space there will get filled in with a lift out piece containing the roundhouse and turntable anyway.
Just got my order of fresh laser cut baltic birch from our friends in Canuckia, so now I can test to see if I made those subroadbed pieces the right size before I put on the supports and permanently put it in place.
Translation: I ordered a whole bunch of SweepSticks from Fast Tracks along with some of their SpaceGage tools so I can lay out my curves without trying to string lines or swing a stick from my camera tripod.
The one on the right, where the yellow tool is sitting (it's a very nice stud finder), I can lean pretty heavily on that and it doesn't give. I actually have to cut that off, it's too long for where the track is coming out.
The two 2x4's on the left, there will be a leg where they meet up, but right now they are just hanging in space, glued and screwed to the uprights. I'm not going to lean my full weight on that, but it doesn't move much when I put weight on it, and that sticks out about 4 feet from each wall.
Nice work Randy. I can better see what your trying to do with the double decks.
I like the narrow height of the brackets jutting out from the wall, which seems essential for a double decked plan. The trade off is you need a lot of wall supports for the brackets. Gotta do what it takes. Nice job.
Randy,
It's neat to see a few pieces of the subroadbed resting in place. Sure looks like progress to me!
BTW, you have done an excellent job of coving the corners!
Nice Randy, great to see your progress!
Mike.
My You Tube
Looking good, Randy.