Got back from Pittsburgh on Sunday and made some progress on the layout over the last couple of days. Added the fascia plywood and painted it flat black. I'm not happy where the plywood cracked in some places. I'll have to just deal with it, but I didn't feel like the bends were that bad.
That's an impressive layout base, it looks like a professional job. Do you have a background in cabinet manufacturing? I think you have a hidden talent!!! What is the dimensions of your layout? Joe
Very nice work so far. I'm just joining you and catching up. You have some great skills in building a layout, and your work area is so CLEAN! Good grief, my layout builds were never that clean. It usually looked like a disaster area.
Not professional, but woodworking is a hobby. I create woodworking videos for my YouTube channel. 18 feet long, 30" deep at the center and the ends are roughly 4x5. All of the mess is left back in my woodworking shop I tried to do as much down there as possible and then bring the completed parts up to the attic for final assembly. Still some cross bracing to do. Against my better judgement, I went with the traditional 2x2 legs and pockets. They are a bit swaying. Some good cross bracing should fix that and I shouldn't have to brace every leg, just the crucial ones.
Not much more done, but I did get my little parallel marking tool made. Pretty simple T square from red oak scrap. Drilled holes where I want to scribe lines for laying cork/track center. The holes are sized so the collar of a standard sharpie fits snug.
Very neat idea for straight tracks. I used a yard stick with a hole drilled at the one inch mark, and the other holes at the 11 and 12 inch marks for drawing my curve radius. Never thought of a tee square for drawing my straight track lines.
I just built 8' of benchwork for my expanding layout. I thought I did a good job till I saw your pics. Great looking woodwork!
I made a lot of progress on the layout this weekend Friday night and Saturday. Had to reserve Sunday for other things around the house. I'll have to split this post into a few because there are so many pictures and I think there is a limit to how many per post. Mostly cork laid down. I'm about 1/2 through the double main lines. Might work some more tonight before bed time. Here is what I have so far:
In addition to track work, I also got my four NCE cab panel installed. Along with drilling holes under the bench work for cables and wires:
I love layout progression threads and yours looks great, Jason! How far above the floor is the track surface? Doug
Thanks! I try Some parts have been a challenge, but so far a majority has been business as usual Might be a little higher than average. I'll have to measure to tell you for sure (because I forgot), but I know we went roughly six inches higher that the average kitchen counter top. I'll keep posting them as I progress!
Took a break on Sunday to work on converting a couple more Kato SD70MACs to DCC and add ditch lights while I was in there. Took the chance to make a couple of new videos for my YouTube channel and got them uploaded this morning.
