I emailed one of the fellas here whining and complaining about how I didn’t know what to do about the Challenge this year and he set me straight. (“Stairway to Heaven” was his suggestion; which may tell you who he is! Hint: he’s on up there in Idaho…)

Anyway, my goal is to finish my layout’s mining district, which is perched on a cliff above a bridge (you gotta go where the gold is!), and a huge part of the finish is a series of stairways, ramps, docks, and rails to connect all the different elements. My concept is a giant spider, maze, interconnected, set of platforms and levels and stairs and ladders that are all one piece and made from the assigned 2x4 wood. It’ll look really weird if it doesn’t work, but if it does it could be really cool. We shall see what we shall see.

In the meantime…

You forgot your napkin

GEEEE John… Win this thing a couple of times and you think that you don’t have to play by the rules?

NAPKIN!!

We use paper towels as napkins in our house! Does that count?

Hey! It took me five days just to come up with an idea, now you want a napkin?

And, yes, Doug, paper towels are napkins, especially if you’re eating chicken with your fingers.

Doug Arnold said:

We use paper towels as napkins in our house! Does that count?

Yes, we added them as equal.(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif) Mine have a lovely pleated design…

We have a partially restored ghost town about an hour from us that was a silver mine and called Calico. To get to the mine they had a step ladder up the side of the canyon that was over 100 feet tall!

I wouldn’t have made a good miner. I don’t like heights!

Inside the mines we have a different view …

Dave. The other day you printed the schedule. I can’t find it!

Doug Arnold said:

Dave. The other day you printed the schedule. I can’t find it!

Doug, I think we have until this Saturday to post what our project is and provide a napkin drawing, or drawing of some kind anyway. Then there’s building through February 12th and final pictures the next day.

As I understand it, you can make anything you want out of wood as long as you don’t use more material than you can get out of 42" (1:24 scale) 2x4.

I don’t know if we can also use scale wood we’ve had on hand from last year or not.

https://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/27771/mik-s-build-challenge-2018?page=1

John Caughey said:

Inside the mines we have a different view …

Is that man the regional mining director for OSHA?

You couldn’t get me on a ladder when I couldn’t see the end!

I’m allowed to use recycled wood from other builds, but I must honorably subtract the sawdust (saw kerfs), so it’s what we can mill from a 2x4… different scales get different lengths to use. That’s so we could all build the same building in our respective scales.

I came across that pic, after your post.

Like the U2 song …I Will Follow …however I’m personally expecting A LOT from you my friend. WHY?..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dOHEw8izno

Yes … I know how to embed it but I don’t want too as its not needed

John Caughey said:

Inside the mines we have a different view …

Watch that last step…its a doozie.

I kept tearing the paper towels trying to draw on them, so I said the heck with it! Here’s my “napkin” drawing. As you maybe can see, it’s a series of stairs, ladders, platforms, etc., which, if I pull this off, will all be connected, maybe in one removable construction. Maybe.

I knew you could do it.

Too posh, crayons don’t tear! Well mine didn’t!(https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Ramp to what auto, I don’t see no auto!

Great use of color!

I expect your back ground scribbles to be within the lines, ok?

As I’ve been told by the RevDev; carry on.

John, knowing your skills, I can’t wait to see this come to life.

Okay, you racehorses want to see some progress, I’m gonna show you some progress…NOT!

Well, here’s the project anyway. It’s a while back, but someone may remember that two years ago I modelled a mine for the challenge; well, that mine is in place, along with the hoist that I built right after the challenge was over. The first picture is the mining district which I want to work on–I almost said “finish,” but that’s too much pressure: I saw what happened to Devon!

The bridge is supposed to be the skeleton foundation for the Glenfinnan Viaduct. This next picture is the gap I need to bridge between the mining office (red) and the wall of the viaduct; it has to be bridged so that a freight car an be unloaded. So that’s one part of the challenge. The second picture shows the size of the gap that needs to be bridged.

You can see here what disrepair the office is in:

I need an auto ramp, also part of the challenge, to go from the dock of the office to the auto/truck/delivery tunnel you see on the left (it’s a hole in the rock wall):

I need to build out a system of ramps and “sluices” (not really sluices, just channels) to get the raw ore from the mine to the ore cars that get placed on the tracks in the tunnel that goes through the mountain. The first picture shows the tracks and the second picture shows the area that needs to be gapped. All of this is part of the challenge.

Now for the stairways and ladders. The workers have to be able to get from the trucks/freight cars/and office up to the level of the hoist, and from there they have to be able to get to the level of the mine, and from there to the area above the retaining wall, and from there to the two mines that will be in the rock wall above the retaining wall (still to be built).

And finally, the stairway to heaven will ascend to the upper corner of the rock wall above the mine.

So here’s my big progress to far: I cleared off the work table, which was no mean feat to get that accomplished, not to mention work up the courage to even get started clearing it, and I found a 2x4, actually two 2x4s bolted together that I used as one of the legs in my first layout, of which there are no pictures, and cut them down to 21" because two times 21 is 42 and I’m working in 1:24 scale. (Don’t ask why I have five plastic school rulers?!?)

So here’s what’s ominously staring at me waiting for something to happen: