OK,
Having been shamed into giving this a shot by you people and my primary partner, Oldest Daughter, I will take a crack at this challenge. First, I had to find a location. Pu’u’oma’o is ostensibly where the plantation railways meet the Triple O to deliver sugar and other agricultural products for onward travel to the piers at Haluku’ilio and export abroad. At least it is in my imagination…Here is the site for this future repurposed 2x4:
The Triple O is only in its third year of existence, so this will be a simple build to mount and partially disguise a pair of light switches that will allow me to turn power on and off to the mainline and passing sidings / engine service track. The crew has been grousing we cannot run enough trains at once. CINCHOUSE mandated this not be one of “Dad’s hobbies,” so the crew has a lot of input on projects…
Having found place and purpose, thus satisfying a “need” for this contest, I had to evaluate…
- Time. I will miss two weeks of the challenge period for professional reasons.
- Tools. I have dremel, a HotWire kit, basic home repair stuff and gardening tools…
- Talent. More limited than my tools. I have experimented with “Craft sticks on core” in a couple cases, and the results resemble “buildings.”
Finally. I had to consider the design casualty, in this case an encounter with…
…Kid-zilla! Triple O company policy prohibits the parking of cars on sidings if Kid-zilla is active in the area. An interesting operating challenge, but I digress.
At any rate, Oldest Daughter and I settled on using the 2x4 as a frame / core, then planking it over, possible using foam along the bottom to represent a stone foundation. If time allows, we will use our supply of strip “lumber” from the craft shop and Grandpa’s scrap heap to craft a tower for the yardmaster to observe operations. Though not a napkin, the sketch on the scratch paper here pretty well sums it up.
Simple, but hopefully in the spirit of the challenge! Even if I don’t get it done in the timeframe, the challenge has forced me to take the plunge on a long delayed project.
Aloha,
Eric