Clearwater Valley Railway Co.

[elwoodblues]

This is great! Very educational and inspirational.  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for looking in Bob, glad you are finding it useful.

[Philip]

Woo Hoo! Looking Great!

[elwoodblues]

Woo Hoo! Looking Great!

Thanks Philip, much appreciated.

[elwoodblues]

Time for another update, this one should bring me me up to date on my progress on the staging yard (well almost).

I'm going to call this update .....

Bring on the boring Machine ....

Now the fun starts, seeing as I built this wall when I bought the house I know that the studs were placed on 16" centers but many, many years later I have no ideas where the studs are now that that the backdrop was in place.  For the record the backdrop is 0.060 styrene that I bought in a 4' x 8' sheet from a local plastics supplier that I cut into 16" strips.





After gathering up my courage and holding my breath I drilled a pilot hole where the track centerline met the backdrop. I had to start somewhere.




Seeing as the pilot hole didn't hit a stud I cut away a 4" high x 3" wide (centered on the pilot hole) by removing the backdrop and drywall behind it.  I couldn't believe my luck (lottery ticket time?) as the pilot hole landed just inside a stud, man was I a happy camper.  I then took a 5ft long 1/4"drill, laid it flat along the track and drilled through the wall to see where it landed on the other side.  

Where did I get a 5ft long drill bit?  When I bought the house (over 30 ago now I decided to install my own alarm hardware to save money.  In order to run the wiring through the floors where I made a hole in the wall for a device I would pass the 5ft drill in the opening and drill through the floor plate to the basement.  There is a hole at the end of the drill bit where you could add a fishing swivel that you could attach the wire to and pull it up through the floor to the alarm device.  Who knew that I would find a use for them 30+ years later.  Probably be another 30 tears before I find another use for them.





The location of the drill bit in the modeling room where the staging yard is being built.



 

The pilot hole also gave me the height of the track (railhead height).  Using this information I marked out where to cut the hole through the modeling room side of the wall.  For the record the opening is 7-1/2" wide by 4" high with the left side being 16" from the pilot hole.  Have I mentioned that I'm one happy camper as no studs needed to be cut for this. 





The hole cut through the wall.  All I needed to do now is remove the insulation.




Using a piece of On30 flex-track I cut the hole on the layout side till I got the clearances I needed for the rolling stock.  I used a Bachmann On30 coach for this as this is the biggest piece of equipment I own.

In the next update I'll show how I lined the opening through the wall.

Thanks for stopping by.


 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Coming on nicely, Ron.

I was sure you meant a five inch drill bit - but I see you didn't!  It looks like it was plenty long enough...

Cheers, Mark.

[elwoodblues]

Coming on nicely, Ron.

I was sure you meant a five inch drill bit - but I see you didn't!  It looks like it was plenty long enough...

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks Mark,

Yes the drill bit was plenty long enough

[elwoodblues]

Update #5 . . . . Where's the Dynamite?

Because of the insulation in the walls and the fear of a piece of equipment derailing and falling into the void never to be found again, unless a major "renovation" is carried out to retrieve it, A tunnel liner needed to be built.

I had pieces of 1-1/2 and 2-1/2 wide poplar left over left over from the module build so I used them to make a tunnel liner.  Because the wall was constructed from 2 x 3's which is only 2-1/2" thick I took a piece of 2-1/2" wide piece and wedge it into the bottom of the hole and glues it into place.




To make up the sides a piece of 2-1/2" wide piece cut to length and a piece of 1-1/2" cut to length was glued together and clamped until the glue cured.




The edges were sanded on an angle and glued into place.  In order to attach the top a piece 2-1/2" wide poplar was cut to size and a screw was partly screwed into it.  This was used to pull down the top of the tunnel liner down onto the sides.




The finished tunnel portal.

Thanks for dropping by.

[elwoodblues]

Update #6 . . . . Now for a little planning

Now that the location of the track coming through the wall is established I needed to figure out the track location to determine the size of the last module.




The goal here is to create a "signature" scene where the track comes through the wall using a mountain tunnel that immediately crosses a deck girder bridge then a trestle before hitting land.  There is also the the triple curved turnout that is the yard ladder that needed to be placed as this will determine how long the trestle can be.  You can see the Girder bridge in the background that will be used in the scene.




The finalized plan.  The red centerline was the original track centerline while the black centerline is the actual centerline that will be used.  The solid red line at the bottom is the front edge of the module




With the final size now set I made a preliminary drawing of the module.

Thanks for looking in.

[Philip]

The black hole is sealed. Where did that huge switch come from? Guessing a fast tracks jig?

Nice work!

[elwoodblues]

The black hole is sealed. Where did that huge switch come from? Guessing a fast tracks jig?

Nice work!

Philip,

The black hole is finally gone.    The huge switch is custom made, no Fast Track jig to make them.  I did use a Fast Track #8 point and frog jig though.  I only own turnout jigs for #4, #5 and #6 straight turnouts.  Every thing else is custom made to fit the space. I do have #4, #5, #6 and #8 point and frog jigs.

[Philip]

Excellent.