Dogeared & Broken Spine RR

Thanks to all who helped me designing the D&BS "City Line" (Motto: "We take this City Job & shove it!") over on the Layout Design forum.
Between the end of the school year (100% of my students passed! & I'm a darn demanding teacher: no grade inflation here!) & the start of summer school, & with the wife & kids in Japan for the summer, I've been able to finish the basic benchwork at the woodshop at school, bring it home, & today I set it up for sizing.

Here's the plan, revised with much help from many fab people here & elsewhere:



I turned this space:



into this:







I put a 1'x2' diorama with 2" foam that I'm playing with & making first handlaid turnouts on there to show final roadbed hight (minus the thin ply I put under the foam), along with chair to show operating situation (carpet to top of foam = 41").

Feels pretty comfortable, both sitting & standing, with good views.

There'll be 10" of backdrop (will come up to right below the outlet for the airconditioner we never use here in fabulous bayarea california) all along the back of both sides, and a 7" fascia in front, all of 1/8" masonite (any tips how to join edges in back between sections?).

The benchwork is in three sections: 4' table left, 3 1/2' bridge middle, 83" table right, so all can break down & fit in my scion xb (if we ever move, like in a couple years).
I also made shelves for under the 2 tables, which I'll install tomorrow. The lights are 75w bulbs on a dimmer (in photos, at about 70% bright). I'll get the foam this weekend (one 4'x8' sheet will cover it!)

Things going groovy! but if you see / think anything I need to do at this stage, feel free to remind me! First time building benchwork, so yr input is appreciated!

Happy Summer!
Cheers!
--Mark

 

Looks great Mark. Nice start.

 

Thanks, Greg!
& thanks for all yr help on the design end of it.
you took my drawing & took the time to mark it up with specific & well thought-out criticisms.
I very much appreciate yr time & effort!

Cheers!
--Mark

 

Looking pretty darn good !:tb-cool:
You say the "CEO" is in Japan for the summer.:tb-err:
I sure hope you got 'Executive' approval before she left...LMAO!:tb-biggrin:

.

 

"Liberties are taken, not given."

But yes, it's all officially approved. I'm actually taking up less space than before (see mess-of-a-desk photo at top.

& her main concern was dust, so I cut / built all the benchwork at the crafts/woodshop at the high school I work at. & there'll be moocho vacuuming before everyone gets back.

I have a 24"x42" desk I've built at 32" that fits under the bridge table in the middle that will serve as a laptop / workbench station.

The plan is to have benchwork, wiring & track laid by august when they get back, but since I'm handlaying turnouts, we'll see how it goes.

If there's something for my train-crazy son to play with when he gets back, I can pass it all off on "father-son" bonding.biggrin:
cheers!
--mark

 

Looks like an isolated switching branch only accessible by carfloat, I like it. If it were me I'd take out the turntable and just use a small 2 or 3 stall enginehouse. I don't know what your setting it but here is a link to a bunch of old NYC isolated carfloat operations:
http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/IndustrialLocos.html

 

Plans and concepts are wonderful things and we need them to give us direction. Warning: You can expect them to change in a moment or the twinkle of an eye. Despite the minor frustration you will like what you end up with...I guarantee it.

 

Mark, looks like it's gonna be a super little switching layout! :thumbs_up: The area across the top of your plan is reminiscent of the Kingsbury Branch. Can't wait to see this layout come to life

Mike

 

Looks great and fun to operate! Mucho kudos to the space saving you have done.

 

Thanks for all the feedback!
I'm pretty excited about it myself: layout planning is one thing, but having the benchwork up & at em allows much more imagineering & visualization of the scenes on the layout.

No set time period, though I'm thinking late 1940's, early 50's.
Right now I have a Kato NW2, a Spectrum 44 tonner & a Walthers 0-8-0.
Eventually I want to slide more steam into the roster, which is why I have the engine service & turntable taking up more space than a more modern desiel operation.

As for laying track, I was going with Atlas code 55 on cork roadbed, except for the yard & some sidings. I feel very comfortable with cork, & feels it gives a solid base & deals with sound well. I know a city / port wouldn't have too high a roadbed, so I will sand down a wee bit, but I'm also ok with filling in the spaces between tracks with layers & layers of dirt, gravel, weeds, etc. I like layering textures! & can build up to the roadbed if need be for a more flat terrain.

Soon to come: screwing down the joists & plywood, spaypainting & attaching the masonite backdrop / fascia, and glueing the foam down to the ply. Then wiring!

Fun Summer!
Cheers!
--Mark

 

Track plan- fwiw?

Basic observation is that too many spurs are feeding multiple industries. While this may occasionally occur I'd wage there'd be war between neighbours at having to 'move my loading cars' because you need a bunch of 'empties next door'. This seems to be a very common modellers error. It is not 'service' to the industries which is the pretence of what we are modelling.

Railroads would look for more efficiency than this and have a lead that served shorter or direct individual spurs- look at SP, WP based layouts and Denver switching areas and you'll see this.

The next biggest error I observe is the '3 car switchback' spur that leads to 8 car 'industry trackage'- meaning you have a 3x switching repetition assuming maximum utilisation. One extreme model I noted recently was a full granary complex (about 16 car lengths) hanging off a 4 car/ hopper switchback- completely unrealistic and unworkable in model terms.

Trust this is acceptable commentary,
regards dave

 

Progress picts.
So over the last couple weeks, went from this:


to this:


to this:


Just put the bus wires in (16gauge) & getting ready to transfer plan to foam top. The fascia is removable, so I can cut away for the harbor & lowered road elements & replace.
Will also paint foamtop soon so pink isn't predominate. I have flat black rattlecan, though thinking a muddy latex might be groovy too.
Nice to have a "blank slate", though, to start playing with track & imagineering layout / operations!
Cheers!
--Mark

 

Mark,

That is a very nice looking start you have there.

Looks like you should be able to have alot of fun operating your layout.

Craig

 

Finally got to almost start thinking about beginning to start to think about laying track.
All benchwork & bus & panel wiring done.
& the workbench under the middle.

& got a wee bit of track laid & connected:

& here's me work train, ready to haul anything along the 16" of line laid down so far:

The Dogeared & Broken Spine RR is operational!
Feelin' pretty groovy since this is my first dcc setup (after 15 years of dc with dad in the '80s).
Here's a video overview (if it works: still working on how to embed videos):
http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu99/mclitton/?action=view&current=MOV05106.flv
Many wonderful, fab picts this weekend!
Thanks for inspiring!
Cheers!
--Mark

 

Mark, the layout's looking really good! It's always a good feeling to get a train running, even if it is just a few feet Are you going to use the Fast Tracks fixtures and solder your turnouts or use wood ties with spikes?

Mike

 

Thanks!
As for turnouts, hopefully some combo of the both.
I have over 30 #4.5 turnouts, so I have a jig on the way, but I'd also love to try my hand at yr method with the spiking:
I've "left" myself a couple wyes, curved turnouts & slightly irregular #4.5s to try them out.

I've been very inspired by yr postings of yr handlaid turnouts, & have been messing around with them, but the main reason i finally broke down & got the jig:



my totally botched (but fun & instructive!) attempt at laying turnouts tie-up with both pc board & wood.
As in, lay ties first, then solder track.
funny thing! guess what! not only are the pc boards WAY slimmer than the wood ties... the caulk that glues them down MELTS when soldering the pc board rail. [craxy lafter here]

that frog's spead so wide it croaked.
anyway

I'll be using the fastracks jig for the standard, but there's a lot of curve & odd angles, so I'm also building a MDF jig (inspired by yrs) so I can try my hand at handspiking.
Especially some curved turnouts.
This is my first "big" layout & I'm trying to build in as many learning experiences as possible while still having things move for the kids, wife & me!
So thanks very much for taking the time to post & write about all yr progress!
Any advice is much appreciated!
Cheers!
--Mark

 

Mark, for your first time, they sure don't look all bad! With a little bending, that croaked frog could be brought back to life
It is quite hard to glue the ties down and get them to line up real good without some sort of jig. All it takes is practice, both the soldering method and the spiking method. Now that you got your first one (or 2? ) under your belt, your next one will be many times better!

Mike