You can't know how glad I am that you made it through. I've seen more families grieving their loss or losses, then I care to remember. There was nothing funny about it. I'd rather see survivors. On the flip side you have something to celebrate. As for me, I just hope this cough and congestion is not a pre-lude to something worse. There is more then Covid running around out there. Historically, this isn't abnormal for me this time of year. While the spring pollen may be gone the tumbleweeds, ragweed, rabbit-bush and other drying brush is releasing very dry particulate. It's an allergy reaction. Usually after the first snow it settles down. We've had our first dusting but what I m talking about is a two or three inch snow. If we see that here I will be surprised. Got that nap and figured out what I'm going to have to do. Wish I had seen this coming while the layout was laying up against the wall. So I get to climb under it and add some L type girder support. Now I need a warmer day to go outside and rip, cut, and make up the wood I need. Back Later.
Feeling better? Not really. Still trying to hack it up. No fever, that's good news! Taking seriously the threat of the Chinese disease. Mask up out in public, keep hands washed (i don't trust these hand cleaners) and keep my hands off my face. For now it's the only defense we have. This particular Corona Virus is looking for a weak body, unhealthy body or person to infect. Unfortunately, I qualify. More I could say on the subject BUT I won't. More bad news: I learned after talking to a number of Insurance Providers that we are loosing some benefits and it will cost us more next year. Not the news I was looking for. Now I return you back to our regularly schedule program now in progress. The L Girders are all doing what I asked them to do. The layout is stronger because of them. Until...... I tried to join the elongated section to the helix square. That sounds contradictory. A square helix? The base is not quite a square but close. I had the track lined up as perfect as you could hope for and with the addition of two new L-girders...... the whole thing shifted. I know what i need to do. Drop the last two L-girders and make some new cuts. The trouble with that is once you start to cut something shorter, it keeps getting shorter. What's up with that? LOL For now I'm working on the layout when I can. I have other chores to do in caring for the feline buddies. House to maintain. I'm my own missus. Did I really say that? Need to get out and go shopping. Those essentials.
I have been following this thread but I believe this will be my first post about it. I like the Atlas connectors there, Rick My current layout (or one of three, I should say) is just a 4' X 8' flat layout and I used Atlas components because I was too lazy to build a control panel again. As I was wiring it back in 2015, it was easy to remember what selector powered what block (about 30 blocks) and which switch machine operated which switch (30+ switches). However, the layout sat in my apartment in Rochester for about 4 years after I moved to Austin and now that it has been reassembled here, I'm having to learn what does what all over again. Oh well, memorization is good for an old brain, I guess, right? I have had a cough for about two months or more but no fever or anything. I don't feel sick, at all. It's just a tickle in my throat. It is eventually getting better. Doug
Have you ever done something and knew without a doubt that you had done it right the first time. Then discovered that you had messed it up when you cut the layout up to move it. AND...... you know you will have to, "Start over." DO Over. Sorry no pictures. I don't want George throwing that back in my face (with pictorial proof) when I get to sounding to uhh...err over confident. Or anyone else for that matter. You guys wouldn't do that would you? Six pieces of track in the HS (hidden staging yard) with wires already soldered in. I've tried, off and on this weekend to find a way to bring it all together and the last visit under the train layout proved it's going back together the same as it did the first time. All the wire ports line up...do I dare say "Perfectly." The indicator I was looking for. I have to cut short, one L Girder and add it in and then I should be able to move the layout at "Will." That is if Will, will come and help me. I could say Frustrate, frustrate, frustrate......but I won't. In the end this will turn out just the way I want it. Well, it better. I will need to cut another piece of particle board to fit into the gap between the two sections. Everything else is lining up nicely so we should be good to go. I'm hoping to have trains running around the lower deck by Christmas. I have a pretty good chance at making that happen. Green Bay Packers are playing the Indiana Colts. So far Green Bay is ahead 7 to 0. Correction before I could close this posting out Indiana got on the score board. 7 to 7. It's going to be a good game. Time out for the railroad/Layout.
Hey Doug, It's good to see you here again. I was wondering if you had disappeared and went to play somewhere else. Those Atlas Yellow Slider switches will disappear. The control panel was meant to be temporary. So far i haven't taken the time to make new ones. Consider all the work that goes into making a good one. I've not been all that happy with Atlas. The China Syndrome and I'm not seeing any savings. For one issue. The other has to do with the snap track we used to get from them. i got to where i hated those tight radius curves and #4 switches. The cough is still with me although getting better. I hope to kick it before to long. Got a ball game to watch. Two of my favorite teams. Great to see them going head to head. Later.
I knew I wasn't going to get away with anything here. LOL The heart of the Hidden Staging Yard. Below: Here's what I'm up against. You can see clearly where we made the cut. How do I fill that? We cut through the sub-roadbed in order to cut one section away from the other. This also included cutting the wires you can see. Yes, I get to reconnect them. From another point of view. Below: You can see the remnants of the card stock I used to increase the elevation of the cork road bed to match Kato's Unitrack sectional track. Above: This section I originally installed as a gap filler. This is also the section that hung in the air during transfer here. Breaking all the glued and screwed joints. That's been fixed as of today. What I need to do now, is remove the remaining particle board that bridges the gap and replace it. Note to the right of the cut is a 3/4 inch piece of board, still attached. It was a part of the original section you see to the left. It will require a chisel to remove it. Sigh! Not looking forward to the work and expense of replacing this track. If I can find a way around this I will but I'd rather replace this piece and put it back together like I had it before. One more. Below: Upper left hand corner you can see broken cork roadbed. Did I bore you. Did you fall asleep. I do that more often then not. ZZZZZZ There's a ghost watching you in one of the pictures. Did you see it?
It's "Hidden" staging...why fill it or even worry about it ? Bolt those 2 - 1x4 cross pieces underneath together as tight as you can...pulling the sections together...and move on to fixing track. It's "Hidden" staging.........who is gonna see it ? Why make more work for yourself ? To bridge the track gap between cut sections...use several....N scale Kato 78mm – 108mm (3″ – 4 1/4″) Expansion Track For fear of sounding like a broken record....It's "Hidden" staging...why worry about it ?? Bolt the sections tight together lining up the track as best as you can. . Connecting Atlas track to Unitrack is simple enough...use several....N scale Kato 62mm (2 7/16″) Snap Track Conversion Sections Either I am not seeing the complete problem...or you are overthinking it.....It's "Hidden" staging.
George, Well played and well put. I'm working on it, I'm working on it. Your advice is well taken. I was just in the train room looking at and thinking about other alternatives. The trouble is I'm a persnickety, fussy, overthinking (did I say that?) fricking SO...(yeah that person) aka perfectionist. Okay it doesn't look like it but i certainly am. If I'm not happy with it I will eventually dig in and pull it all out, to replace it. I might as well do it right the first time, as in now. The thing is the two boards do not line up. It would make for a great ski or snow board jump. Okay... train jump across. One is higher then the other and the only way to correct that is to cut it all out and replace it. By the way it's not bolted together but rather glued and screwed together. Adding two more L Girders on either side. It won't be going anywhere fast. Oh by the way. Look at a Home Depot, Lowe's or Harbor Freight sales magazine. Cut out the picture of a standard upright tool box. Paste it on the front of your tinker toy and you should be good to go. Darn, that took me along time, way to long, to think that up. I have a mini-city where Greg's daughters did that with the interiors, windows and more. Looks good! I did it with the interior of a gas station to put labels on the tools, tool boxes, equipment and a picture of soda's on the obvious, soda machine. The kid that got it was in awe. Never seen anything like it. Until it peeled up and fell off. You know who got called to fix it. We shall see what tomorrow brings. I said with a hammer in one hand and a chisel in the other.
Paint sticks. Glue in some paint sticks. Or use that expanding foam to fill the gap, then carve off what grows out of the slot. Just be careful if you choose the foam route, too much and that stuff will keep growing for weeks, and possibly push things up with it as it does. A little goes a long way with that stuff.
I'm thinking sort of along the lines of what Massey said. Fill what you can with just about anything up to just below the top, then fill it with caulk or maybe even wood filler, then, even if it is hidden staging and you want to dress it up, you will have a reasonably flat surface. Maybe??? As for the track, it looks like you have a good spot right there at the rerailers to remove a small section and make a solid replacement there.
I slept on this overnight and I decided to do the following. Your suggestions are good. Don't get me wrong as you read through this. They are greatly appreciated. To answer these as you see them below: They will work on most locations on the layout but not at this spot. Allow me to respond and explain. I've wedged and shimmed in as much as I can on the bench work. The box section underneath has been torqued and doesn't fit like it used to. I don' want to rebuild it. I've reinforced it as much as I can. A sort of Retro fit. Something you wouldn't know about all of this, it is without a doubt the weakest joint on the whole layout. Always has been. It needs to be able to handle movement of the layout without torquing and or pulling apart. Something we don't talk much about up here in Idaho is earthquakes. We've had five significant earthquakes since I arrived here. This layout needs to survive an earthquake. If that's possible. More on the above. Although filler would work anywhere else on the layout it won't here. Once this section is closed in and covered with the railroad and scenery above it will be difficult to get to. I should have started with this: It is about the fact the layout still needs to be pushed back against the walls and I need for this section to stay put. As far as the track work. I need for the hidden staging yard to work without flaw. The only way to bridge that spot is to put a "Solid Piece" of particle board back-in like I had it in the first place. Shim and wedge it if needed and tie it down. This will work in a lot of places on the layout just not here. You could say, The Yeah But Committee at work. The flat surface is the problem. The particle board covering this boxed section is angled down and is torqued. You know from hanging off the wall of the U-haul truck. That was not my idea. While the other to the right is level and flat. Flattening the joint area is the hard part. It can only be solved by replacing the cut section with a new piece of particle board. Then it will line up like it did before. You are on target here. Once I get the new piece of particle board in I will use Kato's Unitrack straight sectional track across what is now the open gap. It will be a closed and I will have a solid gap after I get done, no filler. Something else you need to know. The cork road-bed has been glued down with Titebond. Not the white baby glue we played with back in kindergarten. If you get that stuff wet it will pull right back up. Oop's I spilled my Diet Dr. Pepper. Why is the track pulling back up? A lot of club layout's use the white stuff, for that reason alone. They can move track and roadbed all over the place. Nothing is permanent. Back to my track. I didn't quit there. When I installed the flex track and re-railers. The track was glued to the cork road-bed with Zap-A-Gap. The nails were removed at this point. No shiny round spots glaring back at you. Now!! The only way to correct all this is to chisel it out. I was hoping to avoid that. However the Kato Unitrack does not line up at the same elevation as the flex track on cork road-bed. I can shim that but I need to start a ways back for the Unitrack to accomplish all of that. I will need to back up past the re-railer's to make it work. If I'm going to tear that much track out I might as well pull it all out. Did you follow all of that? Humm snowing as I write. Hardly a dusting at this point. The house I'm in is almost as difficult to heat as was my tin can of a mobile home. Built back in the 50's when the thinking was dead air space doesn't get cold. No insulation. The cold pushes right in and the land lord wonders why my heating bill is so high. Sigh!
Sometimes sleeping on a problem leads to answers. I am following what you are up against now Rick. Good luck with the rebuild. I am still liking the updates my friend.
All good points. Only thing I would like to clarify is I preferred the glue paste over the white glue in kindergarten, it tasted better. I know different people have different feelings about it but to me, the snow is relaxing to watch. So hoping we see some (or maybe a whole lot) this winter in my area.
Here in the lowest elevation in the Treasure Valley we don't get to see much snow. I miss the snow of Big Bear Country. I'd like to see a couple feet of snow, right here. Oh well!!
