June 2022 Update

26 June 2022 – Photos from March 20, 2022 to June 23, 2022

I have given a couple of update presentations on the Thursday Zoom calls we do with the Michiana Division of NMRA, but haven’t updated the blog in awhile, so here goes.

The last post was on the Ore Dock and that got set aside for a few months because I didn’t like where I was going with the wiring for the track and LED lighting. I had some ideas about how I wanted to finish off the benchwork so I started working. In the past I have planned my track work using Third Plan It, but this time I just started measuring and building. There were a couple of hang ups because of this approach, but generally it came off without too much trouble.

The last benchwork I had installed was tricky. I had to get around the water heater which would be hidden (see Traversing the Water Heater from January 2021). The picture above shows what I refer to as “The Western Passage.” It’s actually east on the railroad, but it is the western most part of the basement and it is an area where the four lines coming off the layout travel over about eight feet of hidden trackage. Two of the lines (from Powers and Felch Jct.) go directly to Escanaba staging and the other two go to the Ore Dock and to a TBA industry in the alcove by the heater (more on that below).

As you can see it’s a tight fit back there, so I will need to stay at my current weight or less in order to get back there to maintain the water heater and clean track. The S curve goes under an exhaust pipe from the heater. That wound up being problematic but at this point I measured and had plenty of clearance.

I framed this area using mostly scrap lumber that I had accumulated. The basement floor is not level and the stairs that I was enclosing were not uniform in length, so the walls are a little wavy, but I was trying to save space (and $$) and it came out okay.

I measure carefully and was sure the holes through which trains would travel on both sides of the alcove were level. I am using milled homasote from Cascade Rail Supply (now defunct) for road bed on the S curve and the TBA industry, and 1/2 inch generic homasote from Menard’s on the other side of the wall in Escanaba (staging). I was careful to account for this difference (or so I thought).

I sketched a plan on a sheet of paper and started cutting boards and putting up benchwork in the laundry room. I had originally planned to have the railroad go through the laundry room and require a raised bridge for access to the laundry. I live alone, so I had no one to tell me that this would be impractical. Luckily I wised up as I was drawing these plans. I sacrificed about five feet of track running for easy access to my paint booth and laundry facilities. A good trade.

I had cut and assembled shelf braces for the Western Passage in January 2021. I finally got around to installing them and attaching plywood.

I had enough scrap plywood to complete this area including the S curve. I did purchase one piece of decent quality plywood for staging and the engine facility. I am glad to be done purchasing lumber for awhile!

One of the reasons I had put off building this last bit of benchwork was the difficulty of altering the staircase to save space for the railroad. I finally bit the bullet and got it done.

I used L-girder construction on the wall behind the laundry and the engine facility areas. It may be overkill in these areas, but I had the lumber for the most part and it turned out very strong.

As I mentioned I was careful to plan the transition between the heater alcove and the laundry room.

Ultimately I got the plywood and homasote cut for staging and the engine facility and moved on to the heater alcove.

The heater alcove was painted and open grid benchwork installed.

Now that everything was rock solid, of course the S curve was about 1/2″ below the grade in the heater alcove. Did I mention how carefully I planned this?!?

I was able to raise the roadbed for the S curve, but once that was complete, I no longer had the clearance I needed under the exhaust pipe. I learned a new skill and cut myself a new pipe and installed it. When I did this, the temperature outside was over 100 degrees. Fortunately the air conditioner still worked after I was finished.

With the benchwork largely complete, I moved back to the Ore Dock. The good idea that I needed to get back on track with this project was provided at the NMRA Indy Jct convention in the form of a clinic by Bill Schoonmaker. Bill presented on how to create custom PC boards. More to come on that topic in the next installment.