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  • Thank God for that first picture. You are a human after all.
    No such thing as a good tax - Churchill

    To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.

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    • OSB... Lots of OSB

      I've been working on the railroad almost the entire week and have made significant progress on the benchwork. I've have six pieces of conventional benchwork left to install with the rest being the swing-out portion and the area for the bridges. I've got a lot of pictures today so I'll do two posts.

      After I measured and laid down the left end elevated curve (actually its a grade that returns to base level) I was getting suspicious that all was not right. So I clamped up some pieces to better visualize what was happening and here's what I saw.



      You can clearly see that both ends leading up to the gorge do not meet. I'm not sure why since I measure from the center of the inside circle to the center of the outside and used this dimension to position the outer curve relative to the rest of the installed road bed. So I removed all the screws holding the OSB to the risers and pulled the whole curve assembly out about five inches. I basically just sighted over the corner and stopped pulling when they lined up. It took less than a half hour to make the adjustment.

      Here's the after picture. While it's still not perfect, I can work with it.



      With that fixed, I glued filler pieces into the v-shaped gaps that showed up as I "bent" the curved piece to conform to the new pattern needed for the bridges; which BTW have been ordered and are in transit. They're kits by Plastruct and look pretty real. I may have to shorten their 30 inch length since I still don't have enough straight track leading into the bridges. My long steam engines have some significant overhang on the outside of corners and they may hit the bridge. Beings kits of a bunch of structural steel replicas, I may invert the bridges and make a truss deck bridge. With all the structure under the tracks, the engines won't have anything to hit. I will have to make the gorge deep enough to give realistic clearance under the bridge.

      Working around the curve, I tackled the big piece that I laid out backwards. It required a "radical" fix, squaring up the angular end that was backwards, and pulling in a filler piece that matched up to both pieces.



      And here's the splice plates underneath that stiffen up the whole assembly.



      I'm using ply and OSB for splice plates instead of the Simpson Strong-tie plates, partly because I have too many screws sticking through that I need to grind off when I use the thin sheet metal plates. They're also stiffer. I'm making sure that I put the splice plates on each piece before it's onto the risers. It's easier to put them on at least one side when I can flip the OSB upside down and work standing up. Once the piece is one, I still have to put the screws into the other half working over my head, but it's only one side.

      I then moved on from sheet to sheet. I'm now having to handle some pieces that are almost a half sheet of OSB and they're heavy; too heavy to push up in the air with a riser in my left hand and a quick clamp in my right. I needed a tool to help me out. This morning I realized I could make a simple jig that would support the sheet at the proper height making it easier to fit the remaining risers underneath. Remember; one end is already resting on the splice plates of the previously installed OSB panel, so I just have to raise the other end under it's level. The sheets are bowed in both directions, so I put the level between the high spots and push a riser into the middle until there's no gap under the middle of the level. Here's the jig.



      I just life the sheet, slide the jig under it and supported across a joist. It works. It greatly sped up the installation of the big pieces with less wear and tear on me. I don't place all the risers under the sheet. I Just install one at each joist with one screw. I then take the OSB off, level the riser cleat and put the 2nd screw in to fix it. Then I clamp the level to the top of the installed risers and clamp the other riser on the joist so it's pressing up against the level. I fasten this one with one screw also, level the cleat and then put in the second screw. This insures that all the risers are dead flat and at base reference. When I put the OSB back on top and start screwing the cleats to the OSB from underneath, it pulls out all of the warp and the sheet is dead flat. Neat!
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      • Here's what it looks like when the OSB is pulled off and all the risers are in place.



        Here's the progress shot showing the sheet that was just being installed in the above picture.



        The next piece went in cleanly. The piece after that needed a little trimming to align perfectly to its neighbor. Here's a shot showing the edge that I needed to trim with the saber saw. It's getting easier to saw stuff since I have a lot of study tables all over the place to clamp a work piece to use the saber or circular saw. Speaking of saws, I think something's going wrong with my Craftsman Power Miter saw. After cutting a lot of pieces in succession, the auto-brake is not working or working intermittently. It just started doing this. It's not to scary since the saw has an effective blade guard, but I have to be careful when bringing the saw down to align another cut.

        I've photoshopped this picture to highlight the area.



        And here's the schematic showing where we are now.



        The gray OSB panels are added since the original design. When I added the run-through rail yard, I needed to put some wood into the gap. I'm also adding some rectangular OSB to fill in what would be just open joists. There are buildings and structures that are going into these spaces. All of the OSB will be done by the end of the month. We're taking a trip back East and my wife and I are attending the Eastern Division Train Collectors Association semi-annual expo in York, PA. It's the largest toy train show in the country getting 30,000 people each Spring and Fall. I used to attend them religiously even when I was living in Germany, I got the York show. Since we moved to Louisville, it became a bigger deal to get there. This will be my first visit in 3 years. Unfortunately, I've dropped so much cash on the rebuild so far that I may not be able to buy anything.

        The target is still to get trains running by Thanksgiving when my son and his family come to visit. My oldest granddaughter, Anna, is tech savvy and the trains.
        Attached Files

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        • Awesome railroad you're building. Have you given any thought to having a train hauling battleship gun barrels?

          Its a wonderful build presentation too - I am enjoying it - sorry I've been too busy to say much.
          Last edited by USSWisconsin; 13 Oct 12,, 04:30.
          sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
          If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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          • Thanks Jay!

            Sure! Why not! 16" rifles are about 15 scale inches in 1:48. It would work except the curve overhangs could be a problem. Would have to route them where clearances permit... kind of like real life. My grandson would love to build a 1/4" scale Iowa turret with all the insides... so would I. I probably won't work today. The only thing that really feels my age is the hands... I've put in a thousand screws already, and even with the superb tools I have, it's a lot of hand work that they're not used to.

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            • Here's a picture of a 16" Army rifle being moved by rail in the early part of the 20th Century. It's on a short flat car and spans two others. The Missouri rifles are 68' long so that's a scale 17". I found another site that talks about a real Missouri surplus rifle being moved by rail to Cape Henlopen in DE for a permanent display and it sits on one, long, 4- truck, high capacity flatcar. (See inset pic on below) It needs to be... the gun weighs 120 tons. I don't have a lathe big enough to turn a 17" long object. My lathe isn't big enough to turn any of the model. I could make it out of telescoping plastic tubes. The straight sections aren't a problem, but the tapered sections require special care.



              It should make my curves since I have engines that are that long and they make it. I have a four-truck drop center flat, and MTH makes a 4-truck straight flat car so the train part should be easy(ier) to do.

              Today's session involved some young helpers. My grandsons actually helped. Jack (8) did some fastening of splice plates using the small B&D cordless driver, and Alex (11) did some serious work using the big DeWalt. He put in all of the underneath screws holding on three panels. We actually got more done with the two of us. I was pleasantly surprised. He really wanted to get to work on the railroad and today we were able to.

              Here's a progress schematic of project status. Notice there are only a few pieces left. I need to hit Home Depot tomorrow for some more lumber (1 X 4, 1 X 3, and 1 X 2); not much just a few pieces. If I didn't have to scrap those old furring strips, I would have been fine. Alex also drilled splice plates and assembled a bunch of risers. I did a count today and I have 12 more, but need 30, so I have to build 18 more. There could even be more needed since I don't know how many are going to be consumed on the swing-gate or the bridge end. I haven't done a final tally, but I'd bet that there are 100 plus risers holding up this system.



              Here're some shots from today's work. Everything is nice and level. There is some slight height differences between some pieces of OSB, but I think I'm just going to fair them in with the belt sander. The kids really like the progress so far, and Alex is constantly commenting on how much bigger it is than he thought it would be. Funny... my wife keeps saying the same thing. The nice thing about the size is there will lots of clear space around the tracks so it won't feel all cluttered.





              In the above pic you can clearly see the splice plates waiting for the next adjacent piece to be installed. I'm making them out of OSB now since it's very stiff in short sections like this, and I've got lots of scraps to consume. I used 6, 1-1/4", #9 Grip Tite star-drive, Deck Screws on each side of the plate. They're not going anywhere, ever!



              It's getting harder to see progress in these overview pics since it's all taking place at the other end. I've been building a PowerPoint presentation showing the time-lapse evolution of the layout. It's pretty neat, although, my positioning and lens settings varied slightly between some of them. I'll share it with those interested when the layout is further along (read... having some track with trains on it).
              Attached Files

              Comment


              • Here's a picture of a 16" Army rifle being moved by rail in the early part of the 20th Century. It's on a short flat car and spans two others. The Missouri rifles are 68' long so that's a scale 17". I found another site that talks about a real Missouri surplus rifle being moved by rail to Cape Henlopen in DE for a permanent display and it sits on one, long, 4- truck, high capacity flatcar. (See inset pic on below) It needs to be... the gun weighs 120 tons. I don't have a lathe big enough to turn a 17" long object. My lathe isn't big enough to turn any of the model. I could make it out of telescoping plastic tubes. The straight sections aren't a problem, but the tapered sections require special care.

                It would be a neat way to tie the two projects together - the Missouri and the train layout. Thanks for sharing those pictures, I'd never seen them before.
                sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
                If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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                • Finishing up the main platform

                  We got back from our 11 day trip back East on Sunday. We drove the entire trip in one gulp (11.5 hours) to stay ahead of Superstorm Sandy. It was a good decision since West Virginia, where we would have stopped for the night was experiencing some pretty weird weather themselves. Finally got back to building the layout today with the piecing together of various sizes of scrap to fill in the final areas of the main platform.

                  The reason for this "jigsaw puzzle construction" was this. I originally didn't have any OSB on the section near the swing-out door. After I was designing the place for the town, I realized that all that real estate needed to be paved over. But I didn't have any large pieces of OSB left so I used up some of the saved scrap and pieced it together.

                  Before doing that I had to make a fix. The last big piece I put on didn't have enough risers/cleats under it and it was pretty badly bowed in both length and width. The bow was down in the center as seen in this not-so-good picture.



                  It's not so easy to see in the picture, but the dip was about 3/16" in the center. I tried to put additional risers in the middle and push them up to remove the bow, but it didn't work. At first I said, "what difference does it really make?", and then my perfectionism kicked in and I decided to make a permanent fix. I figured it would be easier to pull the bow down instead of trying to push it up. So I removed a zillion screws and removed the sheet. I then went back and added a full set of risers in the center of the sheet and made sure they were dead level. I turned the sheet upside down so the bow was up, and fastened it all down again. The result: Bow is gone and sheet in dead flat in both directions.



                  With that out of the way, I started piecing together the "jig saw" which is what I'm calling the multi-piece assembly of scrap to make a large flat section. I fastened the various pieces together using splice plates, and then set up the riser field. Here's the splice plates holding a couple of pieces together.



                  And here're the risers in place



                  Here's all the pieces laid in place.



                  Only one problem... it seems that I've been getting some height stack up. The new pieces are somehow 1/4" higher than the big piece they're abutting to. While it seems like a simple thing to just lower the risers a quarter inch, but the last piece next to the jig saw is leveled perfectly with them AND the pieces down the front side. If I lower the jig saw risers, they won't be level with the front panels. So... I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.

                  When all these pieces are in place, it will be time to construct the swing out gate. I've got the structural designs pretty close and I'm still working on the latching scheme. I bought a bale type case latch which should work.

                  I'm also designing the interlocking circuit so the power is shut off when the gate is opened. My grandson suggested tying the microswitch directly to the latch bale. This way as soon as the latch is moved, the power would shut off, even before the gate started to move. I believe I can do this. I've been researching some relay schemes with or without timing circuits so the trains would activate with some delay to let you get away from the gate. I'm also researching whether to use digital control (or not). I've read the manual and have decided I am going ahead with it. It will require using twisted pair 14 gauge wire for the best signal propagation.
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                  • table top finished and more

                    I finished fastening all the pieces of the Jigsaw. I had to raise the panel next to it so they met correctly. I then turned my attention to making the swing-out gate. I did some re-design to make it deeper. It came to me that scenery could be installed on the gate so the space could be used effectively. Here's the final plan. When opened it gives almost two feet of clearance to access the inner parts of the layout.



                    Two fixed casters are shown. I'm also installing a smaller caster under the yellow piece to support the other end of the hinge line. I didn't want to have any torque stress on the piano hinge. The fixed hinges will be mounted on the radius line from the hinge so there will be no scuffing when the door is opened. Here's a sketch showing some more construction details.



                    For the sake of brevity and time, I didn't add any thickness to the members, but I wanted to understand the geometry. Here you can see the small fixed wheel on the hinge side. Just before I finished this afternoon I decided to check the level between the far right end on the curve and the platform that I just finished on the other side of the gap. As I feared, there had been some "level creep" so the right end which was completed months ago, was about 1/2" lower than the part I just finished. Rather than mess with a zillion risers, I'm going to adjust the leveling screws on the bottom of the legs. A 1/4" down on the left side and a 1/4" up on the right. I can change the value over a broad area so there won't be any grade inserted in what should be level track.

                    I used a temporary fence and the circular saw and sliced of the edge of the new OSB so it was all even AND on the same line as the structure below it. Then I fastened a 1 X 4 below that will act as a "door jam". I then built the first part of the gate itself, the front L-girder beam. Each piece was mitered at 22.5º and held together with wide Simpson Strong-tie splice plates on both sides. I finally bought screws that won't poke through to the other side. Lowe's had a good selection of Lath Screws which work nicely with Simpson plates. I dropped a line directly down from the jam area on the left and the hinge point on the right and made marks on the floor. I then measured and cut leftover old L-girder material for the beam. The back beam is a single piece and won't need any splice plates.



                    The last thing I did today was to start working on the hinge post. The problem with L-girder (if there are any) is that the structural members are few and inset from the edges so I had to create a hinge point. My first attempt wasn't good enough. I want the post to fall as close to the corner of the roadbed as possible. My first attempt used the wrong thickness of wood to space the post in the fore and aft direction. I also neglected to leave space for the movable part to butt up against the post so the hinge can be assembled.



                    I removed this first attempt, used the correct sized packing pieces and realigned the mounting holes so there's a space for the mating part to the hinge. This space may still be too small. I find out next work session.



                    The broom will not be part of the final assembly. I'm going to add a sway brace running 45º back from the hinge post to the girder behind it. This should add some rigidity. If not, I'll have to add some more boxing on the other side of the post.
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                    • Based on feedback from a reader of this thread that I'm also posting on a Model RR forum I revised the hinge post...again. This time I ran the supports across the entire face of the legs. I then ran a diagonal from the back. Between these two changes, the hinge post is quite rigid and I think it will work okay. It's also nicely in line with the corner of the outer OSB end point. I wanted the hinge point to start exactly there since I know everything clears the lally column. The spacers under the horizontal braces are there to pack it out to the same point as the ends of the OSB.



                      Here's the diagonal brace. As before, I like to fasten these kinds of assemblies to cross-grain wood, not end grain so I added the block under the brace to capture the screws properly. If this brace isn't sufficient, I can add another one deeper down the leg. It will join at a funny angle on both ends so I would fasten it with Simpson Strong-tie straps bent to conform to the various angles.



                      With the hinge post in place I was able to get back to building the upper framework. The piece I cut yesterday on the left side was too short so I to cut another one. Of course I had to make the 22.5º miter again. And of course if there a least four ways to cut the miter either in the wrong direction or the wrong end, I made three of them. I was still using left-over L-girder from the older layouts and didn't want to use new stock which I'm saving for building the structure under all the bridges.



                      I going to finish the framework, position and clamp it in position and then build downwards towards the wheel assemblies. Won't be able to work tomorrow or Tuesday, but may get some work in on Wednesday. My consulting "semi-retirement" just got busier with the addition of another project. I'm finishing up one and starting another. It helps the cash flow, big time, but more "real" work time means less train building time.

                      I tried adjusting the 1/2" difference between the two sections of the layout, but was unable to shorten the leveling screws on the high end very much since they were already near the end of the inner travel. I should have paid attention to their position when I was initialing putting the legs into position, but it was a detail that I missed. I did raise the low end a bit by lengthening their screws, but didn't want to add too much to that side since it would "unlevel" this part of the layout. It's not going to affect the grade portion since it's already unlevel. The ground level portion will require some adjustment.
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                      • Believe or not, I actually had a little over an hour today to do some work between a dentist appointment (hooray...not cavities again) and a work related meeting. I finished the top works frame for the swing-gate and reinforced all the joints with double Simpson splice plates. Then I put the whole thing into position and leveled it. I added a temporary leg in the front and made measurements for the middle support that's going to have the casters. I cut the OSB plank that's going to hold the wheels and support the legs.



                        To get the correct radius to mount the fixed casters I used the Rotape with the center point being close to the hinge line and extending it out so it intersected the OSB base somewhere in the middle. The Rotape has a drafting pencil lead in the other end and I scribed the arc darkly on the OSB. I will use nuts and bolts to mount the wheels. The holes are 5/16". I'm also going to reset the radius to move the wheels a bit more to the right giving me more clearance for the caster fasteners.



                        This is sort of how they'll look mounted, but I just realized something looking at this picture. I best make sure that I mount the wheels from underneath since the arc is not symetrical with the board since it is struck from a offset center point. If I were to screw them on in this orientation, and then turned the board over to mount the legs, the wheels would no longer be correctly aligned with the center of rotation. Believe it or not, this is actually a benefit to me in blogging this build in such detail. As I write, I'm thinking about what's been done and what needs to be done.



                        I'm going to frame the top side with either 1 X 3 or 1 X 4 as a mounting point for the legs. I will screw these parts on from the underside of the OSB into the regular grain of the dimensional lumber. I don't trust OSB with screws into the side. I can't twist the board since the legs must mount square to main rail. The legs will be fastened with carriage bolts and nuts. Then I'll add sufficient diagonal bracing to stiffen up the whole deal.
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                        • I feel like I am hanging out in your basement and watching this come together. Thanks for the wonderful photojournalism - it really shares the experience nicely. Its so much more interesting to watch it being built, instead of just seeing it all done.
                          sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
                          If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

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                          • Jay... you are my biggest fan!

                            I got done work early today and my wife had a night out with the 'girls', so I worked before AND after dinner on the Swing Gate and it's getting near done. I got the wheels mounted, built the center pillar and braced it. And then built the hinge structure on the door. When it was all done, I realize the the hinge plank was not plumb and will have to be adjusted. I speak more on this later.

                            I did change the wheel path just a little bit to ensure that their hardware cleared the side planks. I screwed it all together and again used carriage bolts to hold the vertical posts to the L-girders. This makes a very rigid structure. The other holes you see in the L-girders are left over from their previous life when they held up part of the older versions.



                            I installed cross-bracing that will stiffer the fore and aft movement using 1 X 3s. and then I installed a diagonal brace on the left. This was a weird angle so I used Simpson Strong-tie straps that could be deformed to conform to the angles. It only has to support the short end and it will work.



                            Braces on the right side and back were easier since they were in line with parts on their upper and lower regions. With this, the pedestal is secure.



                            Now it was time to build the hinge post structure. It too had to be rigid in both planes. I used a 1 X 3 for the post itself, and then made a box structure with the left end terminating in a 2 X 2 in the left corner, and a 1 x 6 across the bottom. I then ran a diagonal from the lower right to the upper left to stiffen the side to side direction. For the fore and aft direction I made an angle block to give a plane surface to mount to.



                            However, when I pushed everything back in place I noticed I have some adjustments to make. The hinge post is not plumb. I will have to remove most of the screws holding the hinge framework in place, pull it into square and then replace the screws in new locations. It just reinserted them in the same places there's a good chance that it would wrack it again. Once the hinge plane is correct it's time to put the piano hinge on permanently.



                            It's proof that the hinge assembly is rigid since I couldn't budge it at all to move it. BTW: the wheels work perfectly and the radius is dead on.
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                            • Swing gate swings!

                              Realigned the hinge post and then was able to install the piano hinge. It works!

                              With that out of the way, I was able to lay the curved subroadbed sections over the gate and trim them so they fit exactly in the space when the gate is clamped in the closed position. I then clamped some temporary supports to the fixed portions at both ends and clamped the curved piece to this. I used the outside curved piece for this part. I then installed the joists that would support everything. I wanted the joists to end in line with the curvature of the roadbed piece. I was running out of 1 X 3... AGAIN... so I used whatever was left laying around the shop. I will have to go to Home Depot for more since I'm going to need it for the bridge sections on the other end of the layout, but I didn't want to stop work today since I was on a roll.

                              I cut and installed the joists, and then working from the inside to the outside, again laid in the inside curved piece clamped at both ends and added the risers underneath until it was level and flat. BTW: I had to create another 10 risers and cleat assemblies... After the inner curve's risers were all settled in, I did the same for the outside curve. The curves are now ready to be permanently fixed. Once this is done, I'll finish up the engineering on the jamb end and install the latch. Here's a photo sequence showing a working swing gate which easily clears the lally column and gives a nice opening to access the insides of the layout. Sweet!











                              One more work session should finish up the swing gate and it will time to move onto the bridges. Rather than wait until I build the bridge kits which will be a significant effort, I think I'll install a temporary "gap filler" so I run trains while I'm building the bridges and it's associated terrain. It could be several months before the bridges are actually complete.
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                              • Most of the dramatic work on the swing gate was posted last session, but I did some important finishing things.

                                I added the outer loop on the gate and then installed the latch. Before installing I beefed up the mounting point by gluing some plywood blocks under the OSB. There's a lot of stress on this point and it's right at the edge of the sheet. I didn't want to risk any pull-out later on. The screws protruded below the ply so I cut them flush with the Dremel and cut-off wheel. They were in a very dangerous spot which could have easily injured someone. The latch is mounted at an angle. I first installed it square to the face, but the mating end has a tab that was having trouble entering the latch since the door swings in laterally. I remounted it on an angle and the two mate up perfectly. It draws the gate tightly shut.



                                I added some landing blocks on the jamb and hinge ends to add some additional support under the movable parts since, unlike all the other OSB on the layout, the pieces are not firmly screwed together with splice plates. There was some give to them which could allow them to drop a bit when and 11 pound locomotive runs over the junction. The landing blocks prevent that from happening. I sanded a slight taper on the blocks so the mating parts would slide together nicely.

                                The only problem with this arrangement is the latch location. When you're inside the layout you can't reach the latch. It would take two people if you want to run the trains from the inside using a hand-held controller. One solution would be to add an inside latch in addition the outside. When inside you'd use that latch, and vice versa. I'll think about it.

                                Jamb End


                                Hinge End


                                I used the belt sander to level some of the joint areas and ground off some protruding screws that were missed in previous work sessions. I then cleaned off all the tools and material and moved it to the other end of the layout in preparation for building the bridge area. This is the last piece of the puzzle to be built and then it's onto laying track.



                                It's a great feeling to draw all this stuff out in plan and then have it come out exactly as it was envisioned. Pretty neat.
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