I was able to find the exact grass mat I started with on Ebay. It’s been over 10 years and the price was only about $6 more with free shipping. It’s not a perfect match to my old leftovers but close enough. New in center, old to the left and right…
This is pretty cool stuff. Way better than the old Lifelike grass paper. It’s vinyl and can be shaped with heat or scraped off for roads. From Woodland Scenics…
It will be my base layer for the entire indoor layout. Ballast and scenery on top.
Just a suggestion.
Maybe paint the outside edge of the bench work a dark green (almost on the blackish level). Or perhaps you plan to trim it out? Easier to put paint on it now and besides the layout is a different element of the room.
Just a thought.
Eventually.
One option is black edge cap on the plywood and either paint the frame or face it with something like vinyl or Masonite. I might want to ballast the track and to do so will require a face that extends above the ties to contain the ballast.
This is all ‘down the road’. Now that weather is good for working outside I have more than a ton of projects to work on. The RR will once again take a back seat once this end is operational and I’m very close to that.
As mentioned above, that’s not in the budget right now. But what might work is a custom bent curve of a little tighter radius. I have some 5 foot pieces of SS and 6 footers in aluminum. If I can gain just 6 inches that will do it.
Looking super sharp, Jon.
I found my old Aristo single rail bender and was able to approximate a 6.5’ diameter curve to parallel the 8’ diameter inside track. That allowed me to move the crossover and track 1 switch 6" toward the corner giving me enough room to get two cars and the 45 tonner clear of the switch on track 2 (center).
After some brief testing I screwed everything down through the curve. Track 2 is attached to just before the next crossover switch. To finish screwing down track 3, I will need a custom cut. I want to do extensive testing before cutting rail.
With some help from Ric Golding I’m close to settling on a track plan for the yellow area. This is the latest…
The turntable will be constructed similar to the one Al Pomeroy built in his garage. Instead of folding down, it will fold up to allow access to the bins below. This will be a project and may delay much more track being laid before fall.
After discovering a pinch point in the curve, I tweaked it a bit and re-attached track 2.
Track overview in the corner…
Locomotives in the yet to be named west yard…
Hopefully I can catch 19 here tomorrow with good light…
That’s Awesome!!
I spent the morning finding homes for most of the stuff that was still on top of the RR bench. The goal was to be able to put down some test track on the turntable approach. I ended up going one better and simulated the turntable with some scrap plywood for the bench and a 30" piece of track pivoting on a screw at center as the table…
The long straight blue tape is the center. The tape where the curve begins is the end of the turntable. I ran several tests with the diesel to confirm that the approach was good and the “table” would pivot on the screw with an engine loaded. Once that was confirmed I very carefully turned one of my C-19s.
Now that this proof of concept is good, I need to construct the actual hinged bench and table before committing any of the other track. The view from the other end…
The long range goal is development of the area above the tool bench (just beyond the Rolling Rock case) and then installing the Brunt Coal trestle.
I put down a little more track on the North end, put out a few more cars, and then ran extensive tests. The S-Curves created by the crossovers cause a bit of a problem with close coupled locomotives. The C-19 has more side to side throw on the coupler and pulls everything I have tested through the S with no issues.
All of my Fn3 cars tested so far will traverse the crossovers connected together with no issues. The diesels, however, have minimal coupler swing and can pull a car off the rails through the S.
Along with testing, I started logging track capacities and drew up a schematic for what has been built so far…
Industry #1, Track 1 must be switched one car at a time as there is only room for one car clear of the switch while track 2 can switch two cars at a time.
I still need to come up with location names. My old railroad town names were taken from places near where I am now like Kistler, Meadow Gap, and Tyrone. Maybe I should use Connecticut town names here 
Jon;
You kindly mentioned that you first experienced the idea of the “Edge of table” half pitless turntable, here on the OVGRS, IPP&W railroad. We do have 3 of these turntables in constant use during our EVERY Saturday morning operation, during the Summer months. www.ovgrs.ca
The fact is, that the original idea for locating a turntable in such locations came from Dave Goodson many years ago. He deserves the credit for the idea…
I hope Dave drops by and sees that he isn’t forgotten for his many years of supporting OPERATING Large Scale Model Railroads, and pioneering the use of Radio Control/Battery on our railroads.
I gather that he is still alive and "Playing with Trains…and I think we should reach out and let him know that he is remembered and missed on these pages.
Fred Mills
Yesterday I started on the turntable extension. A few days ago I drew up this design concept…
Because of a few cutting errors it’s not built exactly to that plan, but it’s close. The leftover plywood I used had a pretty good bow in it, so I beefed up the framing to try and get it flat. Shown here in the raised position while I figure out the hinge mounting…
I’ve probably mentioned before that I have a hard time working in three dimensions. Because of that I struggled with the piano hinge placement spending a most of the afternoon and evening trying different things with no final result. This morning, with a clear head, I see where I was screwing up yesterday!
My plan has been to swing it up to access the bin storage below. I’m not sure that that will be the final plan. When hinged up it blocks access to the track at the end of the bench. When in operating position it makes the reach to the back of the bench impossible without a step ladder. One alternative I’ve considered is not to hinge at all, but add an attachment strip to the edge of the existing bench and pins to align and hold it in place.
It’s been unseasonable hot the last few days and will continue until the weekend. I think I need to switch my attention to getting the window AC installed.
Better luck today!
My window AC went in without any issues and it actually survived the move and works!
After changing where I was mounting to the top the install was successful. It’s about a 16th lower than the main bench which works out to allow for a washer under the pivot point. Where it’s at before lunch…
I need to mow the lawn before it rains, so no more progress on this today.
jon,
You may want to rethink your hinge position. on the one i have that tips up (Lizard Head Wye) i had to position the hinge point at the top of the rail, and still did some clearancing of the rail on one side.
you will find this out when you lay track and try to fold up.
i will go out and get a picture shortly.
AL P.
Here are a few photo’s of my lift up section at Lizard Head Wye.
You can see that the ends of the rails go thru a considerable arc. i do not think i need to trim the ends of the rail back, my thinking is it was an earlier attempt that didn’t work
Al P.
Thanks Al. I had the same configuration that you show on the two fold up bridges in CT.
There will be no track crossing the gap except when the table is aligned to the approach track. Before lifting, the table is turned parallel to the joint. It’s also placed so that it is back far enough from the edge that it does not pinch when lifted.
So it took me a couple beers this evening to figure it all out after seeing this thread at lunch today.
I’m thinking OK…
Now lets go into Roosters mind from lunch today and try to follow along.
1…So when did he run water out to the shed?
2…How is he gonna run the drain line?
3…If he’s doing a top loader then it gets flipped up but if he did a front loader then the point is mute. Furthermore if he’s adding a dryer he’s gonna need 220 to the shed or bigger propane tanks?
4…Marylin is gonna be pissed if she has to go to the shed to do laundry!
Currently getting into the beer this evening and still trying to figure this out from lunch today.
1…OK, he’s fitting right into the new territory quite well!
2…He’s gonna do cold water only with a garden hose feed and if so he will have to disconnect and reconnect the hose in the winter months.
3…Perhaps the drain is just gonna be a hole out the side of the shed into the ground maybe in a stone pile to hide it.
4…Yes, it took me 4 beers to figure out he was talking about a washer under the turntable. But it made me drink too much in a short amount of time!
Nothing to see here please move along and thank you.
I missed that washer bit. In CT he had the layout going over the dryer, so now all you’re saying makes perfect sense.
No, there will not be any laundry equipment in the shop. Marilyn is thrilled having them on the first floor Vs. the basement in CT. I’ll need to improve the lighting before I have a modeling project to photograph.
Today I ripped a 3 ft 2x4 for the legs. I spent quite a bit of time getting the first one cut just right to keep the top level. Then, without studying the landing spot, I cut the second to match. When I attached it and tested, it was about .75" short! I failed to notice that the bench leg I was landing on was further back that the first one! Oh well, I just moved the landing spot up and now it’s fine.
Here is where it’s at as of lunch time…
Next up is to get a temporary turntable bridge cut and track installed. Then I can finalize the approach track. Once that is done, I’ll pull everything up to install the grass mat.
My goal yesterday was to get a plain wood turntable bridge operational. The original piece of sheathing I cut for it was too warped, so I cut a new one out of much better plywood. Then I custom cut some aluminum rail to the perfect length. I grabbed my hand spiking tool & supply drawer only to find one spike. Not wanting to delay the next steps for over a week, I went ahead and put Aristo ties on the AML rail, then glued styrene to the bottom of about one third of the ties. The center was found and a washer glued to the ties at that point. Quick & dirty…
I tested the track yesterday with just vinyl on the bottom. That was a no go, and there is a lot of drag on the rough sheathing plywood. To address the drag, today I sanded down with 80 followed by 120 then filled the low spots with latex caulk. After a few hours spent going to Walmart in Huntingdon and stopping for Pizza in Mt. Union, I sanded with 120 again. There will be grass mat everywhere the table doesn’t touch. I rough masked out the circle then painted with some flat black. I bought the paint probably 20 years ago and there was less than a pint left in a quart can. I was shocked that it was still in good suspension and mixed up easy! What it looks like now…
I’ll clean up the circle when I apply the mat.
Why not just add another thin washer underneath (meaning why does it have to sit on the plywood?
