Had the flag out today and in by sunset.  

It's been less than three months since the last post.  Yeah!  Improvement.  

And there has been more "training" - mixture of model operation, photographing and riding the real thing.  But the story here is the V&T Rwy progress.  All work/progress has been in the main train room.  Remember, there is a 2.8% no-lex between the lowest level and the level of the peninsula and a 1.2% grade between the upper peninsula and the next level area before the last 1.2% grade up to the staging in the storage room.  Details of the Shay branch are almost final ant that will be the highest level in the main room.

Some additional cross members were added to the lower level framework for the attachment of terminal blocks.


Then elevation markings were put on the wall for the various levels including the no-lex.  This led to the discovery of the no-lex in the closet entering the train room almost two inches low.  Welllll, that got fixed with the help of Doug.  We also double checked my elevation marking in the train room and re-established some of them.  Two heads are better than one like measure twice, cut once.  We went ahead and installed the piece of no-lex that crossed the window.  

Getting back to work a few days later some brackets got hung on the wall and the basic cut plywood sections laid in place.  

  This was "exploratory" as it was discovered that some pieces identified on the scale sketch actually would better fit elsewhere.  One reason for changes was looking at two dimensional sketches with a 3D model is only an approximation of the real world.  Depth of areas above the lowest level were adjusted to the real world view and doing some actual checks of a person making a reach.

Another reason for changes is some pieces cut from the "flat" 4' X 8' sheets ended up with bow. 

Then the decision to 1] leave as it and hope the joint plate will make it straight, 2] use another piece, 3] cut off the curved portion and put a flat piece in there, or 4] see if cutting some kerfs would allow it to straighten, or at least easier to straighten.  Went ahead and put in the kerfs since if they didn't work that section could cut out removing the offending curve.














I then went back to adding a metal channel to stiffen the no-lex piece across the window [had put aluminum angles on the edges when first installing it].  

Later the width of a portion of this piece was modified  for a section of single track to cross a bridge.  The photos below show how I set in place the risers while maintaining level.

The riser is held in place by hand while pilot holes are drilled.  The plywood above is then glued and screwed to the riser below.

Then wedges are put in to get the grade where it is needed.

Cross level is then adjusted.

And the riser is then screwed to the bracket.

There are three crossing of the doorway and the original thought was to have a lift-out for the lowest level, a drop down or nod under for the middle and highest level.  I have since decided to have hinges for all three.  The two lower levels dropping down, the lowest level tucking in about 2 inches closer to the wall.  The highest level will rise up.  But first was doing a check of the degree of rise as shown in the below photos.

And a check of elevation as marked on the wall

And does it look right?

Notice the curve in the plywood

This photo shows the use of a "standard" shim at one end of the level to check for constant rise along the length of the no-lex.

Various pieces were loosely set in place to look at 1] depth [or width, the distance from the wall to the edge closest to the aisle] considerations 2] the best use of plywood as well as 3] how tight of curve of the track [two dimensional scale drawing tended to be 24" or 27" radii but if we could put in 30" curves would try to see they would "work"].  

As stated earlier, how deep should the various levels be?  There are two depths on the upper level here and a third depth was looked at.

Some places pieces of track was added to see what one level might look like.

And then compared to how that level fit with the other levels.

One corner viewed at two different times.

The second level of the peninsula was added.  First the rounded end was added and a steel channel bolted to the sheet, centrally located on the underside.  Here are two underside views.

Topside of the bolt.

Then the frame was made and attached to the wall.  The end of the frame away from the wall was held up on 2' X 4's with an additional 3/4" piece to make the required height at the far end.  The required height was designed to be short 1/32" to allow for adjustment with wood shims on the legs.  

See the upper level laying on the floor in the aisle on the left.  It has the rounded end added.

The upper level is in place, the two legs at the end opposite the wall have been added and wood shims added to make the upper level LEVEL.  A third leg was added half way between two legs and  the wall and a third leg added under the lower level as "belt and suspenders" to prevent any sag that would make either level from being non-level.

Finally, additional plywood was cut to fill in the gaps in the plywood roadbed and set in place [9 photos below].

From outside the train room looking in.

Inside looking out.  Three views.

Standing at the doorway and looking to where the photos of inside the doorway were taken.

Two photos of the end of the peninsula.  The doorway is to the right and the yard/closet is the doorway on the left.

Notice what appears to be an offset of the two levels.  The upper level will be operated from the aisle on the right and the lower level from the aisle on the left - a "mini-mushroom" design.

The photo below is standing in the doorway of the closet/yard area looking back with the peninsula on the left.

Looking back at the closet/yard doorway from the opposite direction of the photo above.

Now to cut plates that will be glued, clamped, screwed together, then get the risers in place.

Yes, over six months since the last post.  Here is what has been happening: 

1  Went "training", both prototype and model - for details go to the new blog "Training Trips" at http://waymoretrainingtrips.blogspot.com/  that is now in development.

2.  Went on a trip to several European countries, 6 languages and 5 different currencies.  And a new blog for that has begun:  http://2016rockingtrip.blogspot.com/

And have been working on various model and prototype railroad related projects.

First was to clean out the "stuff" in the main railroad room:

BEFORE

AFTER

AFTER

Most of the "stuff" went to storage and slowly some is being sold.

The hat tree was in the storage room which is destined to be the staging area.  To get the hats off the tree Dick Munnikyuysen made hat racks for the wall and the hat collection went there:

Some of my photographs and paintings have been moved out of the storage room ending up being hung in other parts of the house and given to family and friends.

Part of cleaning out the train room was to finish up a several decades old project of processing lichen.  Below are the steps:

Basic ingredients is raw/cleaned lichen, cooking pot, outdoor stove, rubber gloves, Rit dye, glycerin, wire mesh and wood sticks

Here the raw lichen is in the cooking pot of water and glycerin.

As the lichen absorbs the water and glycerin and softens the wire mesh is put on it to get all the lichen in the liquid.

The sticks are used to hold the lichen under the liquid, lifting out the mesh and processed lichen
when the cooking is completed.

The first batch is processed with the lightest tint, the next with a darker tint added and the last with the darkest tint.  Here the three batches are laid out to dry.








Curve templates were cut out of Masonite in preparation for track laying.  The respective templates were measured accounting for the center line of the track so when the template is laid up against the appropriate inner or outer edge of the track the center of the track is on that radius:

Brackets had the little nib cut off and holes drilled for the wood risers to be added
:

Holes were cut for track to go through the walls between the closet and the train room.  The screw driver provided a pilot hole for the saw:










 The saw then went to work cutting the openings:

















So now the two rooms are connected:

Using Doug Barry's laser level, all horizontal areas were marked on the wall.  Note, how the laser level is used to connect the level of the yard in the closet to the level of the main line in the train room through the openings in the wall.












The level line is marked on the wall and uprights.

 Color templates of 4 X 8 plywood sheets were made and cut to get the best use of the plywood.  The templates were cut into basic shapes and marked alpha numeric.

Purchased were 9 pieces of nominal 3/4 inch birch plywood, 10 layer thick.  Each piece was cut and marked according to the templates and stored in the train room.

Since I did not have sufficient number of the long brackets and could not find any locally or on line of the single slot style, changed the lower level to be framed in 1 X 4 dimensional pine that had come with me from Lynchburg.

Basic shape plywood pieces laying in place.

Observing upper and lower levels full scale has led to some adjustments in details of the layout plan, namely widths of each level in some cases.



                                   


The upper level peninsula will come off the board attached to the wall.

A homemade adjustment for the 2 X 2 legs were added before the installation of the legs.

LATEST NEWS

TRACK  PLAN UPDATES

Track plan has been updated but most of the work has been on selected detailed sections of towns and industries.  In some cases specific "building locations" and track purpose have been identified.  The previous track plans [the three "overview" plans below] were 1/2 " [two blocks] = 12".  The detailed sections are 1" [four blocks] = 12".

Additionally, a short [around two walls] track was added at the upper level to go to sawmill with the power to be geared locomotives.  

Another addition has been added to provide for continuous operation at the lowest level with the addition of a removable track bridging the doorway.  This connection would not be in place for operating sessions but is designed to provide ease of re-staging, brake-in running and, if appropriate, demonstration running.

FIRST, AN OVERVIEW OF THE LAYOUT

Going from top to bottom, trains going down travel in the clockwise direction [except for the track going behind Ozone - number "2"].

AND HERE ARE THE MORE DETAILED TOWNS AND INDUSTRIES [again, a train going down would be going clockwise - except the track leading off behind OZONE which goes up about 6%].

The lowest level and all industries and towns are level.  The grade between Hagerstown and Ozone and then from the other end of Ozone and Saltville is 1.4%.  The grade between Satlville and Elza Gate is 2.8% [note: beyond Gate City yard is a turntable at the bottom of this grade and at the top of this portion of the grade there is a "Y" at Salville].  Bimstone and LaFollette are neither industries nor towns but are interchange points for holding staged trains and are on the 1.4% grade.  There will have to be at least one "car/train holder" on the main line, certainly for switching Devonia.  Elza Gate is at 46", Saltville at 58", Ozone at 63 1/2" and Rockwood at 65 1/2".  Grade transitions to be about 1 1/2' to 2' long.

For the detailed drawings, a commercial template was used for curves and switches.  The switch template used was #6 and parallel track spacing was chosen to be 2 1/2" minimum spacing to assure enough space had been allotted and what was drawn could be built AND operated successfully.  In a couple of cases, pieces of tracks were laid out and measured and found to have up to 20% more space than the drawing was showing.  Certainly, details of specific towns and industries may change but the detailed drawing shows a workable layout suitable for operation.  By necessity, the down side for this much track and maintaining a 3 1/2' aisle is that buildings will have to be essentially two dimensional.  Light lines represent the edge of benchwork for the given level and, in some cases, for levels below.

The plan is that major switching areas have little or nothing above or below them.  The three track sawmill is above the two track coal mine [Devonia] which above the two track ore mine in the area of Elza Gate but not much time would be spent at any of these locations.  No switching is under Ozone, no switching is above Morley nor Piney River and very little switching is under Saltville.  Piney River is a bit off set from Saltville which should [like that word!] separate those two operators.  Brimstone and LaFollette are only holding tracks for interchange, no switching is done there in the closet leaving the yard operation and engine servicing to the two operators in the closet.