A construction update

I've spent most of 2017 adding benchwork to the southeast wall of the section house. It's been a slow grind. Other other things have sucked up my hobby time. Also, because much of the time I'm working on the layout by myself, there's a limited amount that I can do a few hours a week. Anyway, I thought I'd share some progress photos.

So in March I went to Tulsa for the LDSIG/OPSIG weekend where I was asked to present. Of course, I took the opportunity to operate too, including on one of my favorite layouts, Jim Senese's Kansas City Terminal.

Bernie Kempinski was the featured speaker and I was able to get him in a selfie while he was selling some of his great books.

I also operated on Steve Davis' KCS which I first saw when it was in about the same stage my layout is now.

Tom Fausser has a new layout based on a waterfront warehouse district in New Jersey.

By the end of April I had brackets up and the beginnings of an upper shelf.

I needed to remove the track from the section of spline the was completed because the latex caulk didn't work well. You can see the track has come unglued here.

I had a few folks over for a work session including Matt Latham here with Eric Mumper behind him. Did I mention that you can never have too many clamps?

Things were starting to get messy as I added spline.

After the work session I stuck this piece of curved Masonite backdrop in to help give the illusion of a backdrop. This piece was from my old Camas Prairie layout and it's been held together as a curve for the last 14 years or so.

Sometimes you forget to read the fine print in eBay auctions.

With the track in, by the end of July it was time to add some paint to the valence and backdrop.

 I told TJ about how much fun painting was and he couldn't wait to help.

One of the dangers of painting track above your head.

 My resistance soldering iron is my absolute favorite tool for adding drops.

 In August, I started adding foam base scenery.

Unlike most of the US, 2" foam isn't easy to find in North Texas. This came from a company in Lewisville that makes walk in refrigerators. Foam goobers were everywhere.

It does make a very nice flat surface and is super easy to work with a hot wire cutter of a saw. This section is between Lodge Grass and Parkman and will be rolling hills covered in cheatgrass with the north end of the Bighorns in the distance. Below is the Billings yard.

At the end of the peninsula is Lodge Grass. The buildings below are just being stored, but the Billings freight house and TOFC will be at this end of the yard.

I used small pieces of thin Luan plywood as a screw base for the Tortoises and then hot glued the base to the Masonite spline.

As of August 15, this is the state of the expansion. I spent a couple evenings vacuuming up all the drywall dust and foam goobers before I start removing more drywall to support the lower deck.

I need to build a swing out bridge at the door for emergency egress. The upper deck is wired to the west end of Parkman, which is above the turntable. I still need to add two more Tortoises and more foam scenery to give the area a hilly feel. I also need to figure out how to create some photo backdrops of the distant hills and mountains. I'd like to get back to operating, but I want to have track in along the wall on the right so the trains have some place to go past Billings.

Drop me a line if you are interested in visiting. I work on the layout most Saturdays and Sundays in the afternoon and evening.

Spline Benchwork

The upper deck of the left peninsula is starting to look like a railroad after getting the spline roadbed installed.

Lance Lassen came over and helped me get started. We got the first few splines in and I started to realize I needed more spring clamps.

We also added the n-scale cork on the passing siding in Hardin.

The next day I added more pieces to the outside and extended the length to the end of the peninsula.

A couple days later, Matt Latham came over to help me add more splines.

More spline, more clamps. I got in a habit of adding splines in the morning before I went to work and in the evening before I went to bed in order to give the glue time to dry.

This end view shows the progress of the peninsula.

Hardin benchwork and roadbed

I have always admired the sweeping curves created with the use of splines for sub-roadbed. When I got Joe Fugate's original set of DVDs, he presented a way to make spline roadbed from Masonite where you didn't have to put cork on top. With the large new space and the new layout, I decided it was time to try it. 

I found some 1/4" Masonite at the local 84 Lumber since neither of the big box stores stock it. I called around and found a place that would rip it into 7/8" strips, saving me a lot of time on the table saw. Here is what 4 sheets look like cut into strips.

I decided to use 3/4 cabinet plywood rather than the 1/2" I had purchased and luckily Home Depot had some at a reasonable price because I discovered the plywood I had been storing in my pole barn had gotten damp and was delaminating.

It took some time to curve the plywood to fit the backdrop - especially since I couldn't find my belt sander. Of course, a couple days after getting it to fit with saws and a disk sander, my wife found it in a box in the garage that hadn't been unpacked yet a over a year after the move. Lance Lassen came over and we put down some cork and the first splines. Hardin is to Lance's left in this photo. Sheetrock screws are being used to put an s-bend in the Masonite.

This is the first time I have tried spline. The first lesson I learned is to connect the Masonite to the plywood at the start. After reading some of the experiences other people have had, I tried making a notch in the plywood with a reciprocating saw on the third piece, but it looks like I'll need some additional stiffening.

The spline seems to be doing a pretty good job holding its shape with the clamps and sheetrock screws removed.

One more set of splines and clamps. I also want to have the roadbed on passing sidings lower than the main. I am doing this using some n-scale cork.

This morning I took the clamps off and this is what it looked like. It wasn't until I put this photo up that I realized that I have 7 instead of 6. Oops, I guess I got a little spline crazy. I plan on playing around with 45 degree profiles anyway, so I may be routing the first ones.

Tonight, I will work on roadbed for the first turnouts, including my first ever spline. I'll try to remember to take more photos as I go. 

Here are some links that I found priceless when researching spline roadbed:

Joe Fugate's Easy Spline video on Train Masters TV (subscription required)

Charlie Comstock's Bear Creek and South Jackson

Lee Nicholas' Utah and Western

Leave a comment if you can think of some others - especially videos.