Both sets of railings completed. Test fit appears to be fine, there will be some fine adjustment before gluing. Now to the paint shop.
Tonight we began to turn the corner on current projects and begin to look to once again operating the RGW. As such, Bob replaced more structures in the lumber mill, put some final touches on piping and anchoring the truck chute in place. There was a long conversation about track approaches to the turntable, so much so little got done. Wrapping up some more tree planting: And yours truly cleaned up the lower staging. Yes there is track down there. A final shot of the new Cedar River Bridge to the Boeing plant, ready for install. That's it for tonight. Thanks for checking in. M
Tonight was a chance for me to get to work on our initial crossings of the Cedar River. The river runs through Renton, essentially bisecting the town. We will cross it in three places, you've all seen the primary mainline crossing, but here in Renton we have two. First I needed to carve out the river bed. Most of this was open or pre-cut, so all I had to do was cut through a support. This did require moving some screws and re-inserting them. Next is the foam. Here's a quick and easy way to determine the space you need to fill. Just remember foam can be cut and shaped and even glued back together if you're wrong, so just getting going and getting a smaller piece to work with is the best method; for me anyway. I start by placing tape over the space. This gives me a flat support for paper towel. I place the first piece using the longest straight line. Then place each piece using other straight lines. Once I'm happy I tape the pieces together. I then take the paper towel template to the foam and place it in the best spot to fit my piece. I transfer some of the edges to the foam, then finish with a straight edge. A test fit and we keep going. You'll note I did cut this piece after my initial test fit. I did this so I could channel out a groove in the underside to allow the power bus to fit comfortably. Once I had that fit, I glued it back together.
Hi, great progress on your layout. Nice idea for making a template for the foam. Very nice work and all is coming together fine. Regards,Chris
Got out to the train room for a few minutes after dinner. Here is current progress on the riverbed in Renton. Here's same shot with bridge in general location, no abutments, no shoes, just taking measure of clearances. More tomorrow. M
Quick update, more foam.... Foreground foam left tall for now, it will get sculpted down later. Don't want to hide the good stuff.
A short and sweet report from last night. Ed worked on the location of the Cedar River Bridge in Renton and while I don't have a photo of that, trust me it was a lot of work to get the height just right and the level correct. I spent some time prepping the ballast at our other Cedar River crossing. The real sand is merely to eat up space. It's cheap and accessible, so why use up expensive ballast. Last week I received an order of trees from China. They were bright green and very symmetrical. Doug spent some time nipping branches and the hit the tree with brown and forest green paint. Here are two of the trees side by side for comparison. I think the revised version is superior. Scott reworked the turntable approach area. By extending the base, we eliminate the "S" curve in the approach track. That's it for today, thanks for checking in. M
Got home a bit early today so went out to train room and started fabricating abutments for the Boeing Cedar River Bridge. Took a piece of 6 inch 1x4 and cut it at about 1x3. I then hit the sanding center and rounded the edges. After that, it was back to the layout to test fit for location. Once I was happy with the location, I drew around the abutment and then took my foam cutter and cut out the piece. Took a couple of tweaks to get the angles where I wanted but not much time. I dropped the abutments in place and the fit was good. The real test was cutting the abutments to the correct height. Lots of back and forth between the layout and the sanding center, but in the end I think it's a great fit. Here's how it looks: More to follow, so stay tuned. M
After a long weekend of little league baseball, I actually got out to the train room for a few minutes. I spent the time sealing the riverbed edges with clear caulk and then used a small amount of Woodland Scenics lightweight hydrocal to create the transition between each half of the riverbed. Here's how that turned out. It's my plan to create a small waterfall at the center of the transition.
Great night on the RGW, we were short two of the crew, but made up for it with plenty of progress. Before anyone arrived I sculpted the hydrocal in the riverbed. Then once Ed arrived, we removed the temporary bridge and trackwork along the front edge of the table. The extra room allowed me to use the sawzall to take off the front fascia. Here's how we stand after tonight: Once Ed finished helping me, he moved to the other side of the island and started putting in switch machine brass tube in Maple Valley. Just opposite him, Doug kept pruning our Chinese trees and then hit a few with the first coat of brown paint. Scott and Wain were busy in the back 40, debating turntable track angles and wiring switches. The layout of the area took form by evening's end. The white rectangle is the foundation of the RIP shed which Wain is building. You can see the track locations marked with blue tape. After completing the riverbed area, I installed the mirror at the back of the Cedar River Bridge crossing. Later in the evening I made some adjustments to the colors in the river. Our final item of the night was ballasting the bridge approach tracks. I wanted this done so we can pour the water and reinstall the bridge without complications. Very pleased with jobs well done and a fun evening. Thanks for checking in. M