Afternoon all,

I made a trip up to Home Despot in Lenior City for supplies (12 more sheets of 1/2" foamular, 4 gallons of paint, a case of Liquid Nails Project, etc etc). And then I had a couple hours of real work.  Eventually I was able to work on the middle level steel brackets that will mount around the center platform.  I finished drilling holes, grinding smooth edges, and then I brushed a coat of Ospho on them.  Ospho turns iron oxide (rust) into iron phosphate which is an inert hard substance that can be painted.  Next step is to spray paint them flat black and then mount them.

Adventure Kitty enjoys climbing all over the layout. To her it's like a giant cat tree.

Mornin' all.

I have ripped about 400 of my Blu Rays and DVDs that take up about 9TB of space.  Last summer I bought an Asustor AS5404T NAS box with four WD Red Pro 8TB drives I configured in a RAID5 configuration which provides around 22TB of network storage. Would have to lose 2 drives to lose data.

Still drilling holes in my angle iron brackets.  Each one has 3 mount holes, 2 holes for track power bus lines and layout lighting LED strip power bus lines.  And 1 hole to hold the 5/8 plywood to the bracket.

Hope you all have a great day!

Doug

Mornin' all,

I have been very busy with real work.

I am starting to work on the steel brackets I use to support the middle level around the center platform.  I have been waiting for an order of drill bits. My previous drill bit(s) gave out on the first of the 23 brackets so I was stuck waiting. 

I am looking for another 1 or 2 Atlas Classic RSD-4/5 in Utah Railway livery. Utah Railway is the secondary railroad on my Ogden & Cache Valley layout. I have 2 of them currently (301, 302) but Atlas made a 300 and an unnumbered model. I have an auto Ebay search for Utah Railway and about a month ago it popped up with a print/art of Utah Railway RSDs running a coal load.  So I bought it and got it framed.  Picked up the framed print yesterday.  It works well with my prior Union Pacific print in the model workshop.

Unfortunately there is a lot of reflection on the glass because of the very bright shop lights I have in the model workshop.

Good morning,

34 here currently. Forecast high of 60 today.

Real work has been very busy this week.

Haven't done much work on the new layout this week. I am waiting for some 2"x2"x6ft steel angle iron to fabricate into middle level benchwork support brackets.

Yesterday I did install a basic NCE DASR decoder in an Atlas Classic Alco RSD-4/5 (Utah Railway).  I now have 2 (301, 302) of the Atlas Classic RSD-4/5 Utah Railway locomotives and I am looking for 1 or 2 more (300, unnumbered).

Hope you guys have a great day!

Doug

Good kitty, keeping my jackets warm.

Mornin' all,

It's an ugly gray wet day here.  Busy with real work.

I bought a new mixer. It looks good in the kitchen. 

Ok, it's a cheap drill press from Harbor Freight.  I have about 200 holes to drill through steel components  as I start working on the middle level benchwork supports.

Doug

I installed the 1/4" Luan plywood to the upper level screen walls. I will use a hand sander to give them a very light sanding to knock off any sawing residue, caulk the seams/screw holes, and then paint them the room wall color.

The center platform 'room' is effectively 20ft x 17ft.

The next step will be to start on the middle level benchwork. I will fabricate 2x2 angle iron into 24" support beams for use around the center platform stud walls and I will make small 5" shelf track supports and use 16" Closetmaid like shelf brackets to support the benchwork around the outside walls.






Looking up into the center platform



The inside of the screen walls will have 1/8" masonite installed and then have the backdrop applied to the masonite.





Eventually I will build a backdrop across the top of the upper return loop (and helix) which will screen the view from the center platform.

I finished building/installing the screen wall components that support the outer edge of the upper level 1x3 benchwork.  The next step is to install the 1/4" Luan plywood to the outside of the screen walls to create the "room within a room" for the center platform.

Good Morning All,

6 degrees here this morning.  57 in the basement this morning.  I may have to talk to some HVAC guys about getting heat/air in the basement. More concerned about humidity long term, but 57 is a bit cool for working. 

Yesterday I received (finally) 6 sound decoders I had ordered in late December.  The local UPS location was a black hole for over a week.  Tracking status would indicate parcels had arrived in Athens TN and then NOTHING for over a week.

Hope you all have a great day!

Doug

Mornin' all,

It's a delightful 8 degrees here this morning. With a nice breeze as well. Otis my Corgi loves the cold for some reason.

I have off work for MLK holiday so I plan to spend some time in the basement. I have run out of 1x3s and I need more 2x2s to finish the upper level screen/support walls so I am headed down to the local building supply place.

Have a great day y'all!

Doug

Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on January 18, 2025, 10:30:11 AMI rip all my benchwork (1x4s with 1x2s for L girder) from 3/4 in plywood on the table saw as most dimensional lumber is to "curvy".  I do use dimensional 2x4 and 1x2 lumber carefully picked from the pile.   You're moving much more quickly than I would be.  Good work.

Jeff

I have over 450 linear feet of benchwork to build. I did a quick calculation of the cost/time to create 1x4 and 1x3 lumber for the benchwork using sanded plywood and it was prohibitively expensive in $ and time.

I did spend some time yesterday ripping my sketchy 1x3s so they are actually a consistent 2.5" wide. I did about 10 of them and it didn't take long at all.



Working on the upper level benchwork and screen walls that support the outside edge this weekend.

Here you can see the blocking I had to add where the screen walls run parallel to the floor trusses but don't align with the truss.  2x4 over 2 of the trusses and 2x4 between the trusses as a mount point.





From inside the center platform

Good morning,

Another gray wet dreary day here.  Perfect for working in the basement. 

Going to be working on the upper level benchwork/screen walls today.

Doug

Mornin' all,

It's a wet gray cloudy day as the cold front moves through. Early next week is going to be fairly cold with lows in the low teens and single digits.

This morning I drove up to the Home Depot in Lenior City to buy 'select' 1x3 boards to start building the screen walls that support the outside of the upper level benchwork.  These 1x3s are so much nicer than the 1x3s I get from the local building supply place.  But they cost more than 3X so they are cost prohibitive to use for general 1x3 benchwork.

I also bought three sheets of 3/16" hardboard which I use for fascias and 1/8 hardboard that I use for backdrops and coved corners.  And 6 sheets of 1/2 foamular rigid foam board that I am going to try as a substitute for 1/2" Homasote panels.

I also bought a couple gallons of Behr 'Radiant Sky' blue paint that I will use as the base coat for backdrops.

Hope y'all have a great day!

Doug

PS: It's nice that 4x8 sheets fit in the back of the Expedition

I started work on the upper level 1x3 open grid benchwork. Keep in mind that the outside edge will be supported from the ceiling.

I need to find/buy some better quality 1x3s to build the screen walls down from the ceiling. The 1x3s I have for building the open grid are pretty sketchy. They range in width from 2.5" (expected) to 2 7/8" (yeesh).  I may have to start ripping them down to 2.5" on the table saw.

A reminder of the upper level design.  The mainline track comes across the aisle from the middle level nolix and makes a circle around the center platform before entering the upper return loop (and staging tracks).

I cut/installed the 3/4" plywood helix base pieces today. When I am ready to start building the helix I will put 16 riser blocks on the helix base. These riser blocks will establish the 4" rise for each revolution of the helix. There will be 4 1/2 revolutions to the top of the helix. I build the helix roadbed with overlapping 7/16 sanded plywood (so 7/8" thick).

I cleaned up and did some organization of the layout room this week.