Procrastinated today and didn't get out in the shop to about 5. Worked an hour and a half and.... ... got most of the mainline and track to the mine done. Just out of sight to the left is the track elevator that will raise a train 10+ inches to the second level. I'll try and get more done tomorrow. Need to get the cork down in the town area and to the small industries. Sumner
Spent the morning scraping paint and painting 3 exterior door frames and putting new brick molding on one. Rested a bid and then spent a couple hours ….. . …. finishing the cork almost to the elevator before running out of push pins. I'm beat. The crew putting down the roadbed is way ahead of the track layers at this point. Time for them to get busy! Sumner
Developing calluses in strange places on my fingers pulling them out Got the new cork.... . ... prepped for spackling today. Click ( HERE ) or on the image above. Sumner
Finished spackling the new roadbed today and will get a YouTube up on that later but shot one that is .... ... an overview of where I'm at on all of that now. Click ( HERE ) or on the image above for the video. Sumner
Got the spackling down in about an hour and later after it was dried sanded it in 20 minutes. Personally I feel this is time well spent. You end up with a nice flat, sealed surface to caulk the roadbed to and the cork flows into the layout surface and doesn't look like it is laying on top of it. The following is a video of applying the spackling to the last 5 feet of the cork.... Click on the image or ( HERE ) for the video. Sumner
Put a coat of grey down on the roadbed as the last step before moving onto laying track. It might help later if the ballast doesn't quite cover a spot if I get to laying ballast. . On to laying track and turnouts. Sumner
Track Elevator Upgrade... A long read......................... Had a friend from Missouri visit recently and when he saw the track elevator (built sometime back HERE ) he said that he had a couple tread mills that he took apart for parts and if I wanted them he would send them to me. I didn't really see a way to use them that would be an upgrade but it got me to thinking about alternatives to what I've been using. Been using two 5 gallon buckets with one connected to a rope that goes over a couple pulleys and pull the track elevator up 10.25 inches when the buckets weight overcomes the weight of the track elevator. It has been working fine and is a simple application where I pump water (cheap little pumps) from a stationary bucket to the bucket that is attached to the elevator and pulls it up when near full. He suggested I go to something that pull directly on the elevator with limit switches and this was considered when I started the project. The main problem I see with that is things need to be very accurate so that the tracks line up pretty much perfectly going up and down. With the approach I've taken I can align the elevator in the up and down position with low tech simple stops and angled pieces of wood that guide the elevator into position in the up and down positions. In the down position the elevator ends up sitting on stops and slides into position via simple angled pieces of lumber. In the up position it hits and stops on to horizontal braces and again is nudged into positron with angled pieces of lumber on the elevator's surface. All very low tech and with minimal forces to deal with since the bucket only weighs about 15-20 lb more than the elevator that is all the force there is on the horizontal braces that stop the elevator from going any higher. Likewise in the down position there is just the weight of the elevator on the stops in the down position. So if you are still with me what have I changed? I bought a $65 110v winch and now use it to lift and lower the bucket that weighs a little more than the elevator and can put weight in it other than the water that has been used. Since it only lifts the bucket and not the elevator all the other forces remain the same. The travel of the winch cable is not critical. If it tries to lower the bucket too much when the bucket lifts the elevator and stops going down the winch cable goes a little slack. If it raises the bucket a little too far then the rope from the bucket to the elevator goes a little slack. So there is no need for limit switches and such. The hand control that came with the winch is all that is needed and the winch is stopped when one sees the elevator at the top or bottom and the cable or rope goes a little slack if you overshoot that a bit and that is actually what one does. Now for the big plus. Before it took the elevator about 50-60 seconds to ascend or descent. Not bad but now it takes 5 seconds and works great. The elevator fits in a space that originally was going to be a helix between levels. It was going to cost about as much to build and take far longer for the train to move between levels and wouldn't of been quite as versatile as some options I have with track layout there is with the elevator. . . . . . . . . . For a video of the new improved track elevator click the image above or ( HERE ). Now maybe on to track laying................... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Very cool. You took the best features of the old system and translated them to the new system! AKA, very good engineering! I like that the system is set up such that limit switches are non-critically located. The mechanical stops ensure the accurate stopping locations.
Track Elevator Roadbed and More... Before moving on to laying more track decided to get the roadbed down on the elevator. Also going to get it down to and from the elevator on the lower level and maybe all of the upper level. Before I get much track down on the lower level I really should get the upper level done or near to it as I'll be working over the lower level a lot doing that. Above and in the next three images the cork as been laid down on the elevator and the lower level three approaches to the elevator. . . I'll extend the approaches a little further on this side and will also get the roadbed down on the 'run-around' track. Then move to the upper level's roadbed. A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Moved onto gluing down the upper foamboard on this side of the layout. . . . A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Halt to Roadbed & Trackwork – Canyon #2 – Pt. 1... Recently I've come to the conclusion that I really need to get the scenery, then roadbed and then trackwork down and pretty closed to finished before going on laying track on the lower level. The upper level isn't real easy to reach and working up there later after getting trackwork down on the lower level would be a real pain and a big mess. So onto working on the upper level scenery that will be behind the track and below it. Then will get the roadbed down and finally the track. Like in the real world where the scenery was there before the track. I'm starting with a canyon that is going in and one of the more main features of the upper level. . . . . . . . . . to be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
Canyon #2 – Pt. 2 Work on Canyon #2 continues..... . . . . . . . . . to be continued...... A link to this whole build ( HERE ). Sumner
