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
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.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Alton Junction
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!