The Chicopee Road - Midland Sub

GP30 Dec 28, 2015

  1. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    This thread will document the construction of my new layout. The Carolina, Chicopee & Central Illinois' Mountaineer Subdivision. The Chicopee Road is a free-lance Class 1 carrier set in Autumn of 1967, the full system runs between Newport News, VA (under an agreement with the C&O for accesses to the coal port) and Louisville, KY. The Chicopee Road reaches Chicago on trackage rights over the Illinois Central (a joint owner of the Chicopee Road with Seaboard Coast Line).

    More specifically, the Chicopee Road's Mountaineer Sub runs between Stuarts Draft, VA at MP 220.6, where it connects to the Tidewater Subdivision to the east, and Ravenswood WV at MP 547.8 where it connections to the Valley Subdivision to the west. The portion to be modeled on this new layout is a 61.6-mile stretch between Ravenswood, WV at the Ohio River and Grantsville, WV, paralleling the Little Kanawha River most of the route.

    West Virginia tends to be a common locale in which many modelers have chosen (Allen McClelland's Virginian & Ohio, Tony Koester's Midland Road, and many others) and have primarily focused on the coal hauling aspect with steep grades and high mountains. The Chicopee Road, while a free-lanced railroad, follows prototypical geography on this layout. The town and community names match what you see on any road map and are in the right order (they may not all be on the layout, but they are in the right order!). Also, the geography between Ravenswood and Grantsville is not overly rugged or it is an area of mass coal production The elevation of Grantsville is only 105 feet higher than Ravenswood, with primarily Natural Gas, Carbon Black and farming as the major economic driver of this area.

    Oh don't get me wrong, there will be a coal mine just outside of Grantsville to the east and there will be plenty of through coal traffic for power plants on the Ohio River and such, but mixed freight will be predominate.

    Without further ado, lets talk about the layout. do have a final track plan that I am coloring and labeling. I plan to have that posted in the next day or two. I chose to build using the open-grid style of benchwork. It is sturdy, yet light and allows for a modular, (or in my case semi-modular) construction.

    I am trying to minimize the use of legs on the layout due to the low height of the lower deck (28") so operators in rolling desk chairs can navigate as freely as possible. In order to achieve this, I am using 8"x8"x1" flat corner brackets from Home Depot as a side-mounted shelf bracket.

    [​IMG]

    I initially wanted to use Jeff Johnston's plywood shelf bracket method I found on YouTube. He was kind enough to send me a emailed sketch of his shelf brackets. Due to my limited workshop space at the new residence and limited band saw access, I chose to go with the pre-fab corner braces.

    Using Jeff's testing method on his video series, I decided to test the flat corner bracket method I chose:

    [​IMG]

    As you can see above, the metal corner brace works very well. With one leg of brace screwed into a 2"x3" mounted to a stud and the top leg of the brace mounted to the 1"x4" benchwork, it was able to hold this 5-gallon bucket of wet sand with only about 1/2" sag at the end of the 24" long 1x4 span. I estimate the weight of the bucket of wet sand to be about 100 lbs, which is far, far more than what the benchwork would ever need to hold.

    Over the Christmas holiday, I was able to construct and install a few pieces of benchwork in the layout space. I used a paint stir stick and a level to make the front edge of the benchwork just a little bit on the high side to allow for a small amount of flex when there is track and scenery on the layout.
    [​IMG]

    Here is a shot of what I have installed as of 9:30 PM last night. I hope to have the last three pieces in place by the weekend.

    [​IMG]

    The above shot was actually prior to the installation of the metal corner braces. I need to add a few 2"x3" supports and corner braces to the corner sections of benchwork this weekend as well as cover the dummy vent (unconnected) at center.
     
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  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hmmm. For some reason I am not seeing the images right now.
     
  3. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Kind of frustrating that I can't go back and fix the problem.

    Corner brace testing setup:
    [​IMG]

    Corner brace load test in progress. I estimate the bucket to be holding around 100 lbs of wet sand:
    [​IMG]
     
  4. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Corner braces on the actual benchwork:
    [​IMG]

    Benchwork installation as of Sunday night:
    [​IMG]
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A five gallon bucket will hold an 80 pound (dry) sack of traction sand. So if wet, you are easily 100 pounds.
     
  6. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    With the scenery and buildings shown, the entire picture really comes into focus.
     
  8. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    This looks like a really great MRR to follow during the build. I need to get some of these PC skills too.
     
  9. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I had a little bit of spare time yesterday right after I got home from work. I have now installed all of the benchwork I had assembled prior to installation.

    I've never built a layout of this size before, I'm amazed at how fast the benchwork has gone up so far. [​IMG]

    For reference, there is one more 6' section to be placed to the left of the current installation, and then the bottom level will be at the location of the helix.

    Sent from my PantechP8010 using Tapatalk
     
  10. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I am probably going to have operating problems at Ravenswood with trains going to and from staging. If I have a train in the yard that needs to go west, it would have to reverse out of the yard before heading westbound to the wye.

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  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Unless a switcher pulled the assembled cars and caboose out of the yard to that siding at lower right corner, by the chemical plant. Then the power runs out, gets on their train and then heads west. This would not be un-prototypical.
     
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  12. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I had mentioned in the "Way too early planning ruminations" thread in the Layout Design section of TB, there was a bar in took apart and planned to salvage some of the materials for the layout.

    The top of that bar was 3/4" oak hardwood flooring nailed to a sheet of 3/4" plywood..... Very heavy. As I'm taking the top apart, I'm wondering how well 3/4" hardwood flooring material would work as a road bed on my open grid benchwork.

    Other than it being oak and therefore tougher to cut and drill than pine or the like.... I'd like to think that it's would be very good as road bed, right?

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  13. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    FWIW: On a previous layout, I used some 1x3 painted pine trim salvaged when a neighbor tore down a one-car garage built circa 1920 and replaced it with a 2-stall garage. Even though they were pine, these old boards were very dried out and VERY hard to nail/screw/drill.
    Your oak floorboard/bar top may be younger (less dry), and a few test cuts, holes drilled, and nails driven will let you know if the pieces will be soft enough to work best as:
    1. roadbed to attach track to directly (without any cork or foam roadbed),
    2. subroadbed providing support under cork/foam roadbed and track which are secured directly to it by glue and/or track nails,
    3. risers or stringers underneath a subroadbed made from sheets or strips of Homasote, plywood, or foam, which, in turn, are under the cork/foam roadbed and track.

    My current layout contains 1x2s, 1x3s, 1x4s and 2x2s collected through 4 decades of previous layouts. What is nominally 1 inch thick probably varies from 9/16ths to 13/16ths of an inch. I suspect the 3/4 inch oak floorboard/bar top will not be an exact match to the 3/4 inch thickness of a nominal 1x4 recently purchased at your local big box store...so you may need to have cardboard or cardstock on hand to ensure the smoothest transitions over seams between 2 modules using different ages/types of wood, or where you've spliced a 4ft piece of oak and a 2ft piece of pine on a 6ft long module.
     
  14. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    The flooring was stamped "92" on the back, I'm going to guess that is possibly a manufacture date. I'm planning on gluing or caulking cork to the sub roadbed and caulking the track to the cork. Seems to be a pretty typical scenario. I thought about homasote, but it is hard to find and I don't have a garage to keep extra materials or extra power tools anymore.

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    Last edited: Dec 31, 2015
  15. ppuinn

    ppuinn Staff Member

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    Permanently gluing or caulking cork to the subroadbed and then caulking the track to the cork is, indeed, a fairly common practice. But on my N-scale layout, I prefer using track nails through the plastic ties of flextrack or turnouts, and pressing the nail into the Homasote just far enough to keep the cork roadbed seam from shifting away from the track centerline while a 1:4 glue:water mixture dries to secure green ground foam blended turf and tan ground foam dirt to the subroadbed (or shelf surface). Since a little of the 1:4 glue to water mixture usually wicks under the edge of the cork roadbed, when it dries, it will glue the cork to the subroadbed, but not so securely that minor adjustments or tweaks cannot be made by slipping a putty knife under the edge of the roadbed to separate the cork from the roadbed . If the roadbed is glued (full strength) or caulked, then changes can only be made if the track and old cork roadbed are completely removed and the surface carefully scraped and sanded smooth again, before relaying new replacement cork roadbed.
     
  16. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    The use of the repurposed hardwood flooring for sub roadbed will be limited, as there aren't many straight sections of railroad to use it on.

    On the last layout, I glued the veneer plywood to the foam base and spiked my rail to the tie strips. Didn't have too much trouble getting spikes into the plywood. I still have some left over code 70 and 55 as well as Central Valley tie strips, so I may hand lay a few places to use up that material.

    I believe others have used a latex adhesive because it did allow for removal and adjustment of track without total destruction. I'd be surprised if cork would survive an adjustment with any kind of adhesive used.

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  17. Colonel

    Colonel Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Going to be a great build look forward to seeing updates
     
  18. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I've been coming up with different ways to light the lower level of the layout. The best idea I think I have come up with thus far is to use a series of these small-base sockets with low-wattage bulbs. Hopefully, the efficient, low wattage bulbs will 1) provide good light with a cool thermal output and 2) not use too much wattage to simply plug into a couple separate outlets.

    http://www.lowes.com/pd_391789-82939-40412_1z0yt4w__?productId=4745327&Ns=p_product_price|0&pl=1
     
  19. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Have you looked at LED's for lighting? This time of year, maybe a chance to save a few dollars in post-Christmas sales?
     
  20. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I have been looking at LEDs. I haven't looked enough to determine yea/nay, but it is an option at this point.

    Joe Fugate is using incandescent 40 watt bulbs on his Siskiyou Line. He also had an electrician come in and add extra electric panel and circuits for the lights.

    I was thinking of a similar design with efficiency bulbs, smaller layout and only using that design on one level.

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