My winter project - Oakley Street Chicago

[cuse]

Great stuff Bob! Thanks for the detail about the details - I learn from all your threads.


John

[bparrish]

I got after this today and have the first of the two tracks done.  I'm waiting for a million more NBW castings to come from Precision Scale.

If any of you are EVER interested in building such an elevated railroad I would encourage you to use premade flex track and not hand lay as I am for this judged project.  Further, if your structure is longer than one length of flex track, presolder all pieces in a straight line first and then pull it around.  With Atlas a few ties might need to be removed near the solder joint to make space and be sure to put the sliding rail on the same side of the multiple pieces.

The first two photos are of the done track with no stain and still firmly affixed to the foam board with the seventy milli-billion spikes.





Now for the stain.  Recall that I use aniline dyes for EVERYTHING.  Alcohol and black India looks too black for me.  This was brushed on before removal from the foam board as it has not a moving target.  Further, alcohol tends to soften wood working glue so it holds it for a time to gas out.

Once peeled off of the foam board there is nothing holding the spikes still in that narrow little tie so I super glued the spikes from the under side.  Another reason to stain first as the super glue clogs the wood pores from the stain.

Then I cut off the spikes with a Xuron cutter and then ground off any too tall after with a Dremel.





First placement on the unpainted scaffold.

[bparrish]

Here is an 1896 photo of the track work taken at Laramie Street (then 52nd) that shows how everything was bolted on the outside and alternately on the guards on the inside.

There is an amazing amount of stuff out there about this elevated line.

[rpdylan]

is the track attached to the long wood beams then those beams sit on the cross girders of the supports?

[bparrish]

Bob...

The ties were secured to the running length of the plate steel beams.  Curiously, I have never found a photo that clearly shows it and for all the years I rode that line I could never quite tell.

My guess is that some of the bolting went through to the longitudinal beams.  The fact that the outer ends of the ties were secured suggests that not every tie was bolted to the iron.

see ya
Bob

[rpdylan]

Bob, when you get the chance, I would love to see a photo from underneath to see how the track assembled sits on the supports
thanks

[nextceo]

You're off to a fast start Bob...I'll be following along.


Alan

[bparrish]

Bob...

Look back at the original photo on the previous page.  You can see that there are two running beams under each track.  They spaced them so the rail was directly over the beam.

I have those made up and should be up for a photo tomorrow..  I hope to get paint on the scaffolding also tomorrow.

Thanx
Bob

[MAP]

Great thread Bob!  You really do some beautiful work.  Thanks for all of the pictures and details on how you do things.

[Zephyrus52246]

Your model looks just like the prototype picture.  Great work.


Jeff

[GPdemayo]

Great work Bob.....I've been looking in. Love the track work! 

[ACL1504]

Bob,

Great job on the track work. The whole thing looks fantastic.

Tom

[donatode]

Bob, thank you for sharing your meticulous work. Brings back memories of my riding the "West End" line in the early sixties to go from my home in Gravesend Brooklyn to "Downtown" Brooklyn to go to my high school....The line was elevated most of the way, and I used to love looking into people's windows as we rolled along.


Guess I was a perv from way back....

[bparrish]

Donato...

I guess I'm a perv too but not quite the same in Chicago. Only a few lines were alley lines.  Lake Street was down the center of what later became a main street.  Lake was not a major street at the time.  There was a south side line that was often referred to as the Alley El and then parts of the north side line was the same.

I rode the north side line on the way to Wrigley Field but the Lake Street line was my dominant travel.  It is now the west leg of the Green line.

I rode that line to classes at De Paul U and then of course to the Loop from the west side where I grew up just east of Oak Park.  It was / is an area called Austin.  It was annexed in about 1899 in a crooked vote at three in the morning after all of the opposition had gone home after a brief adjournment. Typical Chicago ! ! !

So yes....  Riding some of those lines made you a perv but at the speeds they traveled..... How much did you see really? ? ?

see ya
Bob

[GPdemayo]

Hey Bob.....did you ever go to Petersen's Restaurant in Oak Park for their great ice cream? Best pistachio ice cream in the world.