SP RR

[sdrees]

I am starting a new HO gage layout in my garage.  SP RR in this case is short for the Suphrin Pathetik.  When I was in high school my father and I were in the process of building an HO layout in our basement.  My father worked for the Southern Pacific in San Francisco.  We belonged to the local model railroad club and made several excursions to see John Allen's layout in Monterey.  Of course everyone knows the name of his layout was the Gorre and Daphedid.  I then  suggested to my father that we name our RR the Suphrin and Pathetik and he liked it.

So after some 50 years and retirement and other hobby diversions, I am starting on a new layout in the garage.  But first I had to clean out some space in it which included and experimental airplane kit which I never finished.  I finally sold it last year. 

I changed the lighting in the garage.  I removed the old fluorescent fixtures which didn't produce enough light and had installed new LED fixtures.  Home Depot had a new 48" LED shop light in their store last week.  It has 3100 lumens and the color is 4000 kelvin.  I bought 11 of these fixtures. The layout will cover 230 sf.  The new fixtures will provide about 148 lumens per sf.  I read an article which said that you should have about 100 lumens per sf of work area and it also said to allow for a loss of lumens on the work surface.  So I have allowed about a 33 percent loss.  The new lighting is fantastic.  The fixtures are hung by chains from the ceiling.  The garage ceiling slopes from 11 ft. 

[sdrees]

So I bet that you never thought you would see an airplane on the forum.

So this has been in the planning for several years now and I have been working on a track plan during this time.  I wanted a railroad with some logging operations and a mainline railroad to service it.  After looking at a lot of track plans in the Model Railroader I put together the attached plan. I used the 3rd plan it CAD system to draw the layout.  I tried one of the other software products on the market and it was very cumbersome to use.  It allows for many different trial versions of a layout until you finally get what you want. Another thing I did was asked for comments from fellow model railroaders as to what their thoughts were and also what they thought from an operations standpoint.  I also used the software to design the bench work.  Now it is time to visit Home Depot or Lowes for the lumber. 

[ak-milw]

Nice area to work with. I will be watching!

[jbvb]

It looks like your access to the helix in the lower left corner will be from below?

[ACL1504]

Steve,

Appears you have all the details worked out. I'll be following along with the others.

Tom

[EricQuebec]

I will follow too.
Eric Québec city

[GPdemayo]

Looks like you're going to have a bit of fun Steve.....I'll be watching your progress.


It's a shame you didn't get the plane finished so you could fly it.....if that's the model I think it is, it is a fast and fun plane to fly. Many of those kit planes are great performers and economical, but I can't imagine, with my pathetic mechanical skills, I'd want to risk my life in something I built.


Don't forget to post plenty of pictures.....we all love pictures! 

[Zephyrus52246]

I'd never build my own plane.  I'd have parts left over and wonder what they were for.     Two years ago at EAA Oshkosh, they built a plane in a week, but had 'pros' do it.  Looking forward to your progress on the layout.

Jeff

[S&S RR]

Steve


A brand new space to fill with a layout - this is going to be fun to watch. I like your plan.

[sdrees]

Thanks everyone for your interest.  I will try to include lots of progress pictures.

James, about 3/4 of the helix will have access from below.  It will go into a tunnel before the spur will cross over the top of it.

Greg, the airplane kit is a Glasair I with a retractable landing gear, and will cruise at about 190 miles per hour with a 180 horsepower engine and it is very fuel efficient.  I just lost interest in the project and I am returning to model railroading in my retirement.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looks very interesting, Steve.

I'll be checking in on your progress.

Cheers, Mark.

[tom.boyd.125]

Steve,
I will watch your layout build. 

[sdrees]

Thanks Mark and Tom for your interest.  I am having a Fujistu mini split heat pump unit installed in the garage on Thursday this week.  Got to keep the place cool in the desert in the summer.

[Janbouli]

Great , another layout thread , I will be following, looking forward to all the photo's 

[Erieman]

Steven,

Glad to see your post on the SP railroad. This means you are really getting serious. The lighting looks great.  Keep posting your progress.

Frank / Erieman