Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[S&S RR]

hey John

that trestle looks really great !!

Looks like i will have to plan a trip to visit your layout once it's completed ....

love the rock work ....

keep rocking !!

cheers

vikas

Vikas


Great to hear from you - we missed you at the EXPO.  Thanks for the kind words and stopping by the thread.  I hope you will plan a visit to see my layout in the coming years.  I will keep rocking! I actually bought another bag of plaster this week for some modifications - this makes bag number 35 - 35 x 100 = 3500 pounds of plaster.  I think I will need to start expanding on the other side of the basement so the house doesn't start tipping.

[ACL1504]

What more mountains?

Tom

[S&S RR]

What more mountains?

Tom

No - the new plaster is for some structures and a mountain valley that needs to be filled in before the trees are planted.

[S&S RR]

I'm continuing to make progress on the trestle - 2 more bents and all of the tall ones will be in.  I also started to work on the wood retaining walls.

[vikas chander]

think this might end up as one of the signature scenes on your layout ....

vikas

[ollevon]

 WOW John,  That is really over the top and is truly amazing.   I love it. It makes my trestle look  Rinkie-Dink . Keep up the good work.


Sam

[S&S RR]

think this might end up as one of the signature scenes on your layout ....

vikas

Thanks vikas


I hope it will be one of many

[S&S RR]

WOW John,  That is really over the top and is truly amazing.   I love it. It makes my trestle look  Rinkie-Dink . Keep up the good work.


Sam

Sam


That is one nice looking scene.  Nothing wrong with that trestle!  Thanks for the kind words and for stopping by the thread.

[S&S RR]

The crew ran out of strip wood on the Trestle project this morning so I spent the day cutting and staining strip wood. This is batch number two.  It is just amazing how much wood this project has gobbled up.

[deemery]

I'd be interested in hearing how you cut (that much) stripwood!


dave

[S&S RR]

I'd be interested in hearing how you cut (that much) stripwood!


dave

Dave




I invested in a digital mini table saw and a jig for holding the small pieces of wood - and keeping my fingers out of the saw!  I will take a picture and post it later today.  The saw has paid for itself on this project alone. 

[ollevon]

John , is that the mini saw I see from Micro Mark?   I often wonder how well it works.  If that's the one, it seems to work well.
  Sam

[S&S RR]

John , is that the mini saw I see from Micro Mark?   I often wonder how well it works.  If that's the one, it seems to work well.
  Sam

Sam and Dave


Yes - here are a few pictures of my setup.  I have also included closeups of the labels.  I have had this setup for 6 months now and I'm happy with it. I plug my shop Vac into the back of the saw and it really keeps the dust down in the room. The grip surface on the holding fixture really helps - I would give this device a highly recommend.  I use it on my full size table saw too. The digital readout is nice to get close but I still do test cuts and fine tone the setup with my digital micrometer before I start cutting. I'm not sure the digital readout is worth the extra money - but  it does speed up the setup process.


So far I have used 3 blocks of 1.25x5x24 inch bass wood for all of the pieces for the trestle.  I paid $8.36 a piece for the blocks so I have $25 dollars in wood in this seven foot long trestle.  If you look back in this thread you can find a picture of the first batch of strip wood. Which was much larger than the second batch picture on this page of the thread. If you want you can count the pieces and figure out how much the strip wood would cost pre-cut.  It took me about 3 hours to cut and stain the second batch of wood - so you can plug in what your time is worth and see if you can make a business case for the saw.  I bought the saw for all the scratch building projects I have coming up - but I think it's fare to say that I paid for the saw on this first project. I enjoy cutting the wood myself so I'm happy.


Here are a few pictures of the setup - I may have posted these before but here they are again.  Let me know if you have any questions.



















FYI - I bought the Grip Fixture and the basswood from Rockler.

[S&S RR]

Here are a couple of progress pictures from today.  I'm building the retaining walls and foundations to make the final push to the landform on the right side of the trestle.

[bparrish]

John...

Would you hurry up and finish that trestle.............  I'm ready to see some serious iron go over it.

see ya
Bob