Thanks for the responses guys. I’m out of town camping but will address this when I get back.
I finally got back to working on the layout again. First up this fall was fixing the sagging workbench. I screwed up and didn’t include enough support posts despite reading everything here. Instead I trusted the retired civil engineer aka my Dad…
Since then, I’ve had a track building blitz and have gotten most of the mainline, sidings and turnouts built.
Photo dump later.
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Ha,
It will stall again and once again it will be my fault; just wait and see. Devoning seems to be contagious. But Craig and I have been talking 3D printers and he finally went and bought himself one. Now he will be spending his time designing (to perfection) and printing.
I still like building junk outta junk
Well I’m trying really really hard to get all the track done in phase 1 before the end of 2021. A lot will depend on how much more time I will need to cut up more ties.
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Rooster,
I’m still building junk out of random junk too. But every once in a while, there’s a part I just can’t quite figure out ( my snow dozer front comes to mind). And somehow it’s easier for me to move, cut, paste digitally than with plastic. I know strange.
Photo test. Here’s a relic from the past Garden Metal Models deck girder bridge.
Now that I know that works…
I’m building this bridge currently.
It should fit nicely in this space here.
I milled a bunch of lumber in the fall for this project.
And as I found out last week my 3’ wide opening at the bottom is nice for the septic guy to drag his equipment through. Once this trestle is done, I’ll have to figure out a way to keep big opening on the bottom.
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Grab shot of my boys testing out the new trackage that was installed this week. They are running using the Protothrottle and I’ve installed Martin Sants Protothrottle interface boards on all my locomotives now. Once I get the track settled down, I can start tweaking the Loksound decoders a bit more for nice smooth running.
IMG_20211116_165029016 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
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My current build is this trestle just outside Redmond.
Screenshot_20211109-160945-230 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
I’ve got an old Garden Metal Models deck girder bridge that I’m using as a fill in for the prototype and it’s only a few scale feet short of the 70’
IMG_20211109_160628088 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
The mini lumber mill was busy at work…
IMG_20211109_160342860 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
So far I’ve got about half the bents done.
IMG_20211121_085425635 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
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The way those kids are dressed you would think you lived in the mountains not the tropics.
That deck girder is not an exact match. You can’t use it. I expect an EXACT replica down to prototypical rivet spacing. I’ll count them
When you come over with a welded bridge that’s exactly 70’ long in the same shape, I’ll replace it.
Deal?
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I’ve now got one bent assembly finished at the cost of breaking my drill press.
IMG_20211124_220459495 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
IMG_20211124_220504399 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
IMG_20211124_220530729 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
The table mounting bracket had a hairline crack for a long time and it finally broke. I’m searching for a replacement part for a drill press built in 1994 is a bit harder than I thought. But the drill press is a nicer higher end model so it’s worth fixing.
IMG_20211124_144821141 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
Well I got half the trestle built now. I told myself don’t play with the resin printer until the trestle is in place on the layout.
IMG_20211127_192554932 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
Now onto the second half and final assembly.
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Craig,
I am just getting caught up on this thread. I cannot wait to see your models on this layout!
Eric
Thanks I can’t wait to get back to “models” again as well. I’m trying really hard not to itch the scratches of weathering and other “non essential” projects in order to get the layout done. The beauty of a small layout is I don’t have that much to build. Well, ya right…
I want to get “phase 1” track done before the end of the year. Then build phase two of track next summer.
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A few breaks between the showers have allowed some progress with the bridge and the layout. I lowered the benchwork to the appropriate height and need finalize the bracing. As is it now, is just mocked up to verify heights.
IMG_20211210_160217310 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
The deck girder section is all finished. Old photo without track spiked
IMG_20211206_162202770 by Craig Townsend, on Flickr
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So the car represents the track height? Looks to be about eye level!
Top of the car is about eye height. Just a few feet to the right ( towards the house) the track is 40". Then going the opposite way, down the hill there’s one section almost 60" high.
I’m planning on adding a nice layer of wood chips for a walking path and elimination of the grass in the yard so that might add a few inches of height.