Large Scale Central

Car Barn Project

General Discussion
#1

Well … it had to happen sooner or later. I’ve been planning this car barn for the past six years but never got around to actually working on it. I poured the concrete slab back in January 2011 at the same time that I poured the slab for my work shop building. Here is what it looked like back then. That’s the forms for the shop foundation in the background.

After I poured the slab, it just sat there – collecting various materials as I worked on the rest of the layout. Here is the slab in the background back in June of 2012 after the shop building was completed. One of my granddaughters was running a sheep extra on the newly laid portion of the RGS outer loop. You can see the slab above the loco and the first sheep car.

And now, I feel really bad after seeing some of the photos of the car barns that some of you guys have already built. So – bottom line – you shamed me into finally starting the thing. Thanks.

Here is the 2 x 4 framing I put in yesterday. It is pressure treated yellow pine.

Today I started on the roof assembly. I am framing it with aluminum angle and PVC lumber to keep the weight down. The roof will be polycarbonate panels. I will hinge the roof assembly along one of the long walls and use a 12 volt linear actuator to open and close the roof by remote control. I’m not sure yet what I will use for sheathing the stud walls, but I’m leaning toward T 1-11 plywood siding with a 4" board spacing. I’m open to alternative suggestions.

More photos to follow as work progresses,

Bob

#2

Bob, your project looks great. Are you going to light the inside or outside? Any plans for exterior modeling? Nice to see green. I miss that in NM, but on the other hand, we don’t have chiggers!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif), just Pinon Gnats in the spring!

#3

Rich,

No current plans for exterior modeling of the car barn, but here is what I am doing:

I ran a dedicated 115 VAC 15 Amp circuit to the car barn. On the exterior of the barn there will be a receptacle box with a GFCI duplex receptacle. All subsequent AC wiring in the car barn will on the LOAD side of the GFCI receptacle. There will be four additional duplex receptacles for plugging in battery chargers (two outside and two inside.)

There will be an exterior toggle switch that powers the 12 VDC 30 Amp DC power supply. The DC power will be routed to the actuator control box, interior LED lighting, and blower fans.

The actuator control box receives a wireless signal from a handheld key fob and routs power to the actuator as directed to raise or lower the roof. There will also a DPDT toggle switch mounted on the outside of the car barn that can be used to raise or lower the roof if the key fob isn’t handy. I will add LED lights to the interior and mount both intake and exhaust fans on the end gables of the roof. I will mount a panel on the outside with toggle switches to control the DC lights and fans.

I will mount a 12 volt linear actuator between the lower side wall and the hinged roof frame. The actuator has a 12” throw. It has a rated dynamic load capacity of 400 pounds and a static load capacity of 600 pounds. It draws about 10 Amps at full load. It extends and retracts at about 1 inch per second. When fully opened, the roof will tilt up at a 63 degree angle from horizontal.

There will be five storage tracks on the slab. I will fabricate some type of a door from scrap plywood and mount it to sections of “T” track on the open end of the car barn. A rubber strip at the bottom of the door and rubber spacers between the rails will help to seal out the elements when the door is closed.

I will add a second level above the five storage tracks. There will be sliding baskets that ride in tracks on the second level. These baskets hold additional rolling stock and accessories such as handheld throttles and battery chargers. The baskets can be moved to the side in order to access cars on the tracks below if needed. A ramp-style re-railer at the far end of one of the storage tracks will allow a car to be lifted from one of the baskets and easily positioned on the track beneath.

Bob

#4

Bob,

I’d like to add to Rich’s comments. Is it an engine house, factory or freight house? Give it a reason to exist, other than storing equipment. Lots of examples on here to follow or use as examples. And also will give you a destination for freight or passenger traffic during “Ops”, no matter how informal or formal.

#5

Thanks for the detailed comment Bob. Very elaborate and well thought out. Hope we can see it operate when it’s complete. Your yard/background is beautiful. Must take lot of work to maintain that alone! Keep us posted. I agree with Ric too. Might be fun to make the structure a topical part of your expansive layout.

#6

it might well be, that Bob isn’t interested in giving the building a model “reason to be”.

if i judge from the pics above, he does not have an outdoors model railroad, but a garden railroad (in the sense of: railroad in a garden)

#7

I purposely made my car barn nondescript and stuck it behind the layout. Then I got kinda sick and left 2 train consists inside it for 4 years.

I pulled out my passengers cars this last week, everything fine. I see it’s time for some more moth ball bits … keeps vermin from trying to get in.

I live without fences, so why invite worry, whether or not it’s valid?

John

#8

It has been too darn hot outside to work on the wooden frame and sheathing, so I have been building the plastic roof in the shop. I built the entire assembly from PVC 1" x 2" trim boards. This is the same material that I use for my ladder roadbed. Here are the labels on a couple of sticks:

Here is the assembled structure. All joints in the trusses are connected with PVC cement and 2 1/2" torx-head deck screws. The bracing and purlins are attached to the trusses with PVC cement and 23 gauge pin nails:

I designed it with a mono-slope truss using about a 3:12 pitch. The angles are 15 degrees at the front (right side of photo) and 75 degrees at the rear (left side of photo.) The purlins are spaced at 17 1/2" on centers. On the front purlin you can see where I am starting to fit the spacer pieces that will match the contour of the polycarbonate roofing panels. Here is a close-up of the spacer pieces:

I put a row of X-bracing above the line where a 2" aluminum angle will run the length of the roof. The linear actuator will thrust against the angle to lift the roof. I don’t have a 12 foot long piece of angle handy, but you can see where I have clamped a shorter piece in place.

More to come later,

Bob

#9

darn, that looks professional!

I think I had better go back to just sitting on my butt.

#10

David Maynard said: darn, that looks professional! Yup

I think I had better go back to just sitting on my butt. Me too

#11

Nice work Bob…I assuming you will be supporting those roof trusses quite closely as Veranda has no grain in turn giving very little structural support.

#12

I got a bit more completed this weekend on the car barn. I built a frame from 1 1/2" aluminum angle to support the roof trusses. There are four 12-foot long pieces that run the length of the roof and seven 4-foot long pieces that run along the bottom chord of the trusses. Here is what it looks like. Please excuse my messy shop in the background – I had to move a bunch of things out of the way to make room for this monster.

The cross pieces are bolted to the length-wise pieces with stainless steel 1/4" bolts (do not use regular steel bolts on aluminum.) I also drilled holes in the angle for bolts to connect the bottom chord of the trusses. I will put these in later. I will mount the aluminum frame to the wooden walls first and get the actuator alignment set up and working. Then I will mount the PVC trusses to the aluminum frame.

There were a lot of holes to drill that needed to be placed relatively accurately. At times like this, a drill press can come in real handy. Tip: If you don’t have one, make friends with someone who does.

A couple of other tips:

  1. WD-40 makes a great drilling and cutting lubricant for aluminum.

  2. Don’t vacuum up hot metal shavings into the same container that has a bunch of sawdust from your last wood-working project.

  3. Don’t mix aluminum metal particles with iron rust. This combination is called thermite. It is what they use to weld prototype rails together.

More to come later,

Bob

#13

Quick status update during a rain break … I’m making a bit more progress this weekend. I sheathed the 2 x 4 wood frame with T1-11 plywood siding that I painted with water-resistant Woodland Cedar stain. I also mounted the aluminum roof frame to the stud wall with hinges, installed the linear actuators, and temporarily hooked up the electronics. Here is the side view with the roof frame opened:

Here is the view from the open end where the entrance door will go taken with the roof frame open:

Here is the view from the closed end taken with the roof frame down:

And here is a close-up of one of the actuators taken with the roof frame open:

You can tell from the photos that I have been working in sporadic rain showers. If the weather permits, I will go back outside and mount the PVC trusses to the aluminum frame and start installing the polycarbonate roof panels.

More to follow,

Bob

#14

Coming along nicely, Bob…

#15

So, those linear actuators are going to clear the cars?

#16

Well … it’s about 99% complete. Just a few minor details left and I can check this project off the to-do list. Need a couple of pieces of corner trim, a rubber seal on the bottom of the door, and a bit of touch-up paint here and there. In between a string of high 90 degree days and a few drenching downpours, I’ve managed to get quite a bit done. Here are a few final photos.

I installed two switch boxes on the end wall, along with a 10" shuttered exhaust fan. The switch box on the left puts the fan into AUTO or MANUAL mode. In the AUTO mode, the fan turns on when the internal temperature hits 90 degrees. In the MANUAL mode the fan is turned on and off manually. The box on the right contains a GFCI duplex outlet and a switch that controls power to one half of an internal duplex receptacle where the DC power supply is plugged in.

Here is the fan from the inside.

Here’s what it looked like as I eagerly test fitted the first two cars just to make sure they cleared the actuators and the internal hanging baskets. You can see the 30 Amp power supply mounted on the rear wall. The mounting bracket along the front wall studs is for removable shelves. There are 39" long strips of warm white LEDs (tape lights) under each of the 2" x 4" cross pieces.

Here’s what it looks like when it is full and the shelves are hung on the bracket. That white object on the shelf is a Split_Jaw EZ Loader. It is handy for putting a car from the shelf or basket onto the track. By the way, for anyone designing a car storage solution for 1:20.3 scale, these tracks are 7" on centers. I wouldn’t recommend placing them any closer together. I have about a dozen more cars to put on the shelf and the barn will be full to the max!

Here’s what the polycarbonate roofing panels look like when the roof is open. The panels pass 65% of the light, but block all UV.

Well, this has been a fun project, and – although it took a little longer than originally planned – it was relatively easy. Hope you got a few ideas from this one that you can use on your own pikes.

Bob

#17

Dam fine job Bob!! Looks very professional.

#18

Very impressive. A lot of planning and designing went into it, and the result is an outstanding storage barn. You seem to have thought of everything.

#19

that was aparently well designed and looks very well and accurate finished.

what will you do with the liberated space in the house now? buy more roling stock?

#20

Nice build, looks fantastic… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)