Rainier Great Western Const Update

RGW Feb 19, 2007

  1. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Quick update from this weekend. On two separate occasions I went out to the train room to work on my shoofly turnout. I started by forming cork roadbed, turned upside down, to fill the gaps between the mainline and the shoofly. Once I had what I wanted, it was glued in place and I set 123 blocks on it.

    [​IMG]

    As you can see from the above, the second visit included using pink stuff spackle to cover the work I put in place and then to smooth out the transition from the new inserts to the main block of foam.

    I'm looking forward to seeing how this looks tomorrow night. Until then, thanks for checking in. M

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
  2. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    This will be short. Scott and I each finished the spackle on our respective turnouts. Here is mine:

    [​IMG]

    After last night's work, I sanded things smooth, then added where needed and also used the spackle to cover exposed areas, like foam I used for contouring.

    Here is Scott's:

    [​IMG]

    His area is actually down grade from mine so we need a bit more elevation. The last thing I want are train cars rolling into the turnout when they should be idle. So he's used more of the shim than I did, by quite a margin. He used spackle to ease the transition to the foam and a small amount to create contiuring, mostly roadbed shoulders at the end of the shims.

    After that, we spent the night doing odd jobs. I cleaned the workbench and sorted a slew of 2-56 screws Rey bought for me. I'm fairly certain Scott did a run around with the new GMD-1, but I could be mistaken. Odd jobs, hmmm...

    Anyway, not as much progress as I hoped, but we had fun doing it. Until next week, thanks for checking in.

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
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  3. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Here's a couple of updates on the shoofly scene. I marked the edge of the track that will be closest to the aisle. I used a preliminary spacing of 2-1/4 inches. That may change as we put down the track. I then taped all the existing track area and using my hot wire foam cutter, contoured the front edge of the foam.

    [​IMG]

    I then taped off the fascia and filled any gaps with spackle. The next step was to start painting the scene a basic brown to cover the spackle. Don't want any of that pesky white showing through later!

    [​IMG]

    I'll let the front edge spackle dry before doing anything else today. That's it for now. More later. Thanks for checking in.



    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2025
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  4. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    Looking good Mike, you guys always seem to make some good progress.
     
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  5. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Ty sir!

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
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  6. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    We had a full crew at the RGW tonight and made good use of it. Rey was putting the finishing touches on the Seattle Yard by powering the two frogs. At night's end when he ran our lighted wheelset through each leg and the results proved the tortoise reversed the polarity, we all high fived.

    As for Scott, Doug and I, we again tag-teamed the shoofly. I started the evening by finishing the fascia edge sanding then painting the entire area brown.

    [​IMG]

    Then Scott and I test fit the track and once satisfied, tacked it temporarily in place. We ran our test train back and forth several times before moving on to the next step. Scott then put in a set of feeders.

    [​IMG]

    Once he finished, Doug and I started ballasting the entire area. That took quite a bit of the evening, but before we called it a night, we started hitting the area with 50/50 solution.

    [​IMG]

    I try my best to leave clean ties, it's always fun to look at it when wet and see the results.

    [​IMG]

    One final note, there was one area where the track did not sit flush with the subroadbed. It was an easy fix though. I packed sand into the void before the ballast. Once it's covered up nobody will even know the difference. I merely weighed that spot down to assure adhesion.

    [​IMG]

    That's it for tonight. Next week we'll begin working on the road and the backdrop. Until then, thanks for checking in.

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks like freshly laid ties which are leeching creosote. (y)
     
  8. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Here's a quick update from today's progress. I am trying to make quick work of the shoofly scene, so every chance I get I want to get out to the train room.

    Today I added more ballast along the tracks then ballasted both turnouts. I use 50/50 white glue and water for all non-turnout track, but I use 90/10 mix of water and matte medium for the turnouts. The matte medium is easier to work with along the points and throw bar; as in should you glue them in place, you can pop matte medium, not so with white glue.

    After that process was complete and given a couple of hours to set, I came back in and started to put back scenery, using real dirt and full strength white glue. Along the north side of the shoofly I added a buffer of fine sand to cover up the vertical edges of Scott's shims.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I only did the relatively flat surfaces for now. Later I will cover the flat surfaces and blow real dirt and then turf grass on the more vertical surfaces. Here is how the scene looks at this point.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I'll head back out after dinner to give the dirt a shot of the 50/50 mix. More soon. Thanks for checking in.

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
    Last edited: Feb 2, 2025
  9. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Here are tonight's photo updates. Put down ground foam of different colors and sizes, then hit the entire area with 50/50.

    [​IMG]

    Then immediately started working on the road. First, the subroadbed layer which is graded dirt.

    [​IMG]

    Then at the other end, on top of the subroadbed layer, the aggregate layer (gravel) and the intermediate layer (crushed old asphalt).

    [​IMG]

    Everything to the right of this picture will be the asphalt later, multiple layers of styrene painted asphalt gray. Each layer will ultimately have equipment consistent with the progress of the road.

    That's enough for now. Thanks for checking in.

    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
  10. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Greetings from Arizona. Here for a couple of days, needed some sun! Ventured out to the garage tonight to work on the PMBL. Just so you can reference the layout design here's a look. There has been one design change, I took out the crossover to building 5, Pelikan Office Products and moved the access point to the lower right of the town.

    [​IMG]

    Tonight I started laying out the track centerlines. I started with the mainline along the wall. Later I added the spur tracks along the wall and garage door.
    In the foreground of the left hand main, you can see I also started laying out the rough locations of the turnout frogs.

    [​IMG]

    Once I had an intersection point, I worked out the radius point for the mainline curves. The inside curve is 30in and the outside curve 32.25in.

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    After drawing the curves, I needed to fill in a couple of spots where the curves traversed mid air. A couple of quick cuts on the miter saw and a little glue fixed those.

    [​IMG]

    As that set, I worked out the layout of the yard tracks. There are 5 in total. I'm using a spacing of about 2.25in between each.

    [​IMG]

    The temperature here is fabulous. It was 70 when I started and still is 64 as I call it a night. I could get used to this....thanks for checking in.



    RAINIER GREAT WESTERN RAILROAD
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2025 at 4:57 AM

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