A Small Logging and Switching Layout on the Greenbrier Sub

Cutter Feb 5, 2021

  1. Cutter

    Cutter New Member

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    Cool cool cool. They worked fine in the post editor. Glad there's no edit button, that's super helpful. Here, lets try again.

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    Kurt Moose, Dogwood, Sumner and 2 others like this.
  2. Cutter

    Cutter New Member

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    I finally made it to my grandpa's place to put together the benchwork. I don't have a great area to put it together in my small apartment, and my grandfather has some experience in amateur woodworking and cabinetry that proved invaluable during the construction process. Before heading to Home Depot, I booted up SketchUp again and drew up some plans.

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    The "layout box" is designed to be cheap, lightweight, and portable; the various panels disassemble to flat-pack. This allows me to fit the whole layout in the back of my Civic, and also to open up the frame for maximum access to the layout during assembly. The frame is 1x2 furring strips sheathed by 1/4" birch plywood. As built, the benchwork cost less than $100, with one important caveat: I want to eventually "picture frame" the opening of the layout with a nice hardwood like walnut. With lumber prices what they are at the moment, even such a small amount would have tripled the price. Thus I'm leaving them off for now, and won't attach the fascia boards until the layout is complete and, hopefully, the lumber market has calmed down a bit.

    Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the entire frame assembled in the garage, but here is the base back in my apartment being adhered to the foam subroadbed. It fits into the alloted space perfectly!

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    One of the perks of working in an architecture office is access to a large format printer. Thus, rather than having to print my layout plan on 30 sheets of letter paper and painstakingly jigsaw puzzle them together, I have the luxury of printing out the entire layout plan at full scale on a single sheet of paper. Some spray adhesive lightly tacks it to the foam base. Looks like it fits pretty well!

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    I'm still making small revisions to the track plan here and there, but the turnout count and total track length is pretty fixed, so the next step is to buy some track! Just have to bite the bullet on the $300 or so it'll take...
     
    Kurt Moose, Joe Lovett and BoxcabE50 like this.
  3. Cutter

    Cutter New Member

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    (For the record, The Fountainhead is merely dead weight in that photo and is a relic from my high school required reading list. I f**g hate Ayn Rand. :) )
     
  4. BigJake

    BigJake TrainBoard Member

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    Looking good!

    Have you thought about how (if) you want to hide the rear corner vertical supports?

    The top diagonal braces are superfluous, unless you need support to prevent racking without the plywood skins attached. You don't have any for the sides or back anyway.

    I haven't read Fountainhead, but I generally liked Atlas Shrugged, though perhaps more the theme than the volume. Rand herself was an incendiary figure.
     
  5. logging loco

    logging loco TrainBoard Supporter

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    I'm enjoying following along. Looks like this will be a great layout.
    I really like your printed building. The horizontal board detail is amazing.
     
  6. Cutter

    Cutter New Member

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    Conveniently, the rear verts are where mountains will be, so only the tops will be exposed. If they still bother me I'll curve some styrene in front of them and blend it into the backdrop. And you're correct about the corner braces. I ended up not needing them, buit I kept some aside just in case.
     
  7. RedDogF5

    RedDogF5 New Member

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    Sorry, not related to this thread at all, but this picture brought back memories of my first job, "peeling poplar" as a wee lad. I had an uncle that worked for a papermill and logged on the side, and the mill paid more for debarked poplar trees, so that's what he logged. My cousin and I had the debarking job, with spuds more industrial than that, a chunk of 1" round handle welded to 1" think chunk of steel rounded and sharpened on the end. At six cents a stick, we were rich! :)

     

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