The St. Louis & Denver Railroad - The Build

[GPdemayo]

Cool, I'll be following along too.   

Thanks Bob, I'll try get through the old stuff quickly and onto the new stuff before it gets to boring. 

[GPdemayo]

I'll be watching to.

Jerry

Welcome Jerry, thanks for following along.

I'll be following also.

You too Andy, more coming in a few.....

[GPdemayo]

We left off with the base units built and the material for the horizontal bracing cut and ready to assemble for Phase 1 of the layout.

I temporarily attached the 1x4's on top and bottom of the units then squared and plumbed and screwed them together.

I over designed the benchwork on purpose and I felt the need to test it at this point. So I climbed up onto the base and bounced up and down a few times. Since I didn't land on the floor, I blew a sigh of relief and remembered the immortal words of Grandpa Jones "by cracky, I think it worked".


Exhibit #1 - assembled base (10)

The benchwork at this point is square, plumb and level, but the surface it sits upon might be another story. The layout will be on ceramic tile now and a cushioned sports floor over a concrete slab in it's new home. I thought I needed to consider a way to level the layout bases to sit on an uneven surface.

I found a company on the internet, International Equipment Components - Signal Hill, CA, that had leg levelers at a reasonable price. I drilled a hole in each leg, pounded in the tee nut and screwed in the adjustable glide. These levelers work well and are easily adjusted with a 1/2" wrench.

The pictures below show the parts and the finished installation.


Exhibit #2 - leg leveler & tee (41)


Exhibit #3 - installed leg leveler (40)


Exhibit #4 - installed leg levelers (36)

The next installment will review the building of the layout top assembly.

continued.....

[GPdemayo]

The layout is to built on a top structure that is detachable from the base unit. It is made up of 1x4's, 1/2" CDX plywood and 1/2" homosote. The cross brace pieces will be screwed without gluing so that I can move a brace at a later time if necessary.

I cut the 7 cross brace pieces and the 2 side pieces. I then squared them up and screwed them all together.


Exhibit #1 - top assembled on the floor (19)


Exhibit #2 - assembled top on base unit (22)

With the top made and sitting on top of the base, it was ready for the plywood. I ripped the plywood for the layout top and the bottom shelf. I then sanded the edges, filled the knot holes and edges of the shelf piece and it was ready for painting.

I will hold up on the homosote until I get phase 2 built and do them both at the same time.


Exhibit #3 - plywood cut & added to top and shelf (35)

Stay tuned, construction on phase 2 will begin soon.

[jrmueller]

Quite a project Greg!  Did you have to get a building permit? Laugh. Jim

[GPdemayo]

Quite a project Greg!  Did you have to get a building permit? Laugh. Jim

Jim:

Snuck it under the building dept. radar.....don't want no stinkin' permit. 

[GPdemayo]

Hello again! This episode I will be building the benchwork for Phase 2 of the layout.

I have been giving the layout some thought, probably overtaxing the gray stuff again, and have decided to put off the building of Phase 3 till sometime this summer, so Phase 2 will mark the end of the benchwork build for a few months. I am really anxious to get to Phase 3 because I have a FSM Jacobs Coal kit (thanks to Howard Elkowitz in Stamford, CT) and a Paige Sawmill kit I bought years ago that I am anxious to put together.

After I get Phase 2 completed and the grades laid out, cut, elevated and attached in place, I want to concentrate on trying to develop an efficient way to get the tie plates onto the wood ties and installed with track onto the roadbed. If this is successful, I will add these details to the hand laid track. If not, I will make do with using joint bars on the track and switches to add detail.

The building of the base units is the same in Phase 2 as it was for Phase 1, but the depth is a bit longer - 5'  this phase compared to 2'-4" in Phase 1. You will note in the picture below that Phase 1 is over to the left side and the base and it's shelf have been painted since our last chat. Also, the 2x4's have been ripped into 2x2's, thanks to Tom and his handy table saw and the 1x4's are ready to be cut to length and attached to the legs.


Exhibit #1 - unassembled material (43)

Again, I squared, plumbed and screwed the base units together. I then added the leg levelers to the base units, cut the horizontal bracing and was ready to get base put together.


Exhibit #2 - assembled base units (48)

The top and bottom horizontal bracing was tacked in place, squared and plumbed and was ready to screw everything together. The first picture shows the one side ready to have the bracing attached and the second shows the other side with the bracing attached.


Exhibit #3 - base units without horizontal bracing (50)

The mascot on the cushion in the top left side of the picture is Treas, the cairn terrier. She is one half of the "Hooligan Sisters", the other being her "womb mate", Aidan.


Exhibit #4 - base units with horizontal bracing (51)

continued.....

[GPdemayo]

The base assembly for Phase 2 is painted, the 1x4's are cut to size and ready for the top assembly to be put together. In the picture below, the sheet of paper on top of the cut lumber is the drawing for the top assembly.


Exhibit #1 - unassembled material (52)

The pieces were squared up, temporarily tacked together, then attached with the drywall screws. Again, the pieces were not glued together to allow for shifting of the bracing if necessary at a later date.


Exhibit #2 - assembled top on base unit (54)

I then ripped the plywood to fit and sat it on the top. Note, I had already cut and fitted the 1/2" homasote to Phase 1. The enlarged plan for the layout is hanging on the wall behind the layout.


Exhibit #3 - top with plywood added (59)

The homasote was then cut and fitted to the top and I was now ready to begin layout of the track centerlines.


Exhibit #4 - top with homasote added (62)

I will deal with the layout of the track and concrete centerlines in the next installment.

See y'all later.

[tjseeley]

I'm really interested in following this build also....especially since I haven't built an entire layout yet.....but I did miss one of the pictures, I think.  Where's the one of you bouncing up and down on the base??

[GPdemayo]

I'm really interested in following this build also....especially since I haven't built an entire layout yet.....but I did miss one of the pictures, I think.  Where's the one of you bouncing up and down on the base??

Thanks for following along, hope you enjoy the trip.

You didn't miss the picture, I didn't dare take a one of me bouncing up & down, just in case I ended up on the floor on top of a pile of kindling! 

[ak-milw]

I just hope my wife don't see the painted legs or I will be in for it.

[GPdemayo]

I just hope my wife don't see the painted legs or I will be in for it.

Andy:

Since we spend so much time in the sun room, I thought it would be best to paint the benchwork so that harmonious relationships are maintained!

Seems to be working so far, Pegi got me a gift card from the LHS and one from Caboose Hobbies in Denver for Christmas. 

[GPdemayo]

Now that the benchwork is built, the next step in the process is to lay out the track and concrete road centerlines. It will also be necessary to establish where the grade changes along the roadbed and in others areas so the plywood/homasote can be cut and raised.
This is the really exciting, show stopping part of the whole build, but if y'all fall asleep in the middle of it, I will understand!

I established the points where the track and concrete road centerlines transition from a straight to a curve in relation to the edge of the benchwork in the autoCAD drawing, then transferred them to the homosote top.

Below is a fuzzy screen shot of Phase 2 on the computer. Sorry, but I took several shots and this the best I could get. Anyhow, these measurements were then transferred to the homasote and all the straight centerlines were drawn.

The double white lines are the positions of the 1x4 bracing underneath the homasote and plywood. I superimposed this layer over the layout drawing so that I could see if they fell in the way of a switch machine and needed moving.


Exhibit #1 - picture of Phase 2 drawing in autoCAD (127)

The dimensions to the edge of the benchwork can be seen in the photo below next to the circles. The circles are the point where the straight track transitions into a curve and these points were laid out on the homasote. The line from left to right going thru the "8" in 18"r is the phase line between phase 1 and 2.
The numbers along the track centerline at this phase line are the elevations that the top of the homasote must be at that point. The tick lines along the centerline are spaced at 4" on center and represents a 1/16" rise in the roadbed for a grade of 2%.


Exhibit #2 - phase 1&2 phaseline (130)

To correctly transfer the curves onto the homasote, I printed the curves full size. If they were too large for a single sheet, I printed them in sections, then taped them together and had the full curve to transfer to the homasote. I placed each curve template between the circles at the end of a straight centerline, then used the point of a compass to make little holes along the curved line on the paper into the homasote. After removing the drawing, I then connected the dots and had my curved track centerline.

The photos below show a curve on a single sheet of paper and the following shows a multi page curve.


Exhibit #3 - single sheet curve(128)


Exhibit #4 - multi sheet curve (134)

To Be Continued.....

[GPdemayo]

Once the track and concrete highway centerlines were laid out, it was time to add the lines (red lines in the photos) where the homasote/plywood sandwich will be cut to form the grades and any raised areas of the layout.

The limits of the mainline track roadbed (on the left side in the first picture) was marked out at 10' from each side of the centerline in pencil. Then the line for sawing was added next to it with a red marker. The same was done for the branchline track (curving track from right to left in the first picture) and the 16' concrete road (on the right side in the first picture).


Exhibit #1 - overall long shot of phase 1 (65)

The red lines nearest the bottom of this picture is the beginning of the grade that rises from the chemical plant (0") to the branchline yard (3"). The red lines up at the top of the picture are the limits of the mainline elevation of 3".



Exhibit #2 - left side of phase 1 (69)

The next photo shows the continuation of the grade up to the branchline wye and yard, the mainline and the area in the center for the brewery with it's siding.


Exhibit #3 - center of phase 1 (68)

This last photo shows the merging of the chemical plant spur and brewery siding into the branchline wye at the end of phase 1. The red line at the bottom indicates the cut for the rising grade of the concrete road for it's crossing of the branchline wye in phase 2.


Exhibit #4 - right side of phase 1 (67)

Stay tuned! In the next installment, I will be sawing and elevating away.

[cuse]

I really admire your precision? attention to detail? discipline?

Whatever the word is, it's impressive to see how your layout evolved so precisely and steadily from plan to reality. My plans have always been scribbles that get me started and by the time I'm done, it's a whole new thing...Good thing you're the homebuilder and I'm not 

Hope to see you soon (I'm talking to the layout)...John