Rails nigthmare? Make it simple with FT tools!

Referring to this layout , one of my friend said : "How's proceed your "boat" costruction downstair?"
Well, to demonstrate that I not only like woodworking.... and to satisfy Ricky query about my double slip.... here is the first slip still in progress:


Last two pictures are just to compare the Slip with a corresponding #6 simple turnout.
Enjoy

A tiny silver spike : first turnout down

Last weekend the "Chief Superintendent" (aka my wife) leave me free, so I spend an entire half of the day downstairs! It was a very productive time!

Install the Backdrop on the walls back Menlo Park up to Palo Alto: do this job as lone wolf, believe me... not simple nor comfortable! But, this is the life... when you've time... no friends around!
Then some refinements on the lift bridge: retaining walls and a lock.
Then finish to install all "thin hills" along the Bay....

And finally.... why not some tracks?

I've solder "off-line" 3 #6 turnouts made using a Fastracks jig , cut some ME Flex tracks and test fit the Visitacion icing facility.

I'm still waiting the curved turnouts jig I've order two months ago so I can't start from the main line and I decided to wait to glue down tracks as soon I can test fit all turnouts.
I ended this nice day after lunch.... starting my first #6 double slip ( well better to admit... "re-starting" as my first one was destroyed by my "sweet" cats! )

Tweaking the plan - 2nd Section

Just two little refinements on the plan:

• Added a crossover before Burlingame to better service the Feed Farm and Station Team Track (thanks Alex!)
• Added an Icing platform i the Santa Clara background. This is not prototypical, I know but will add some operation possibility ( as well find a place to fit the already done CGlaser platform I've :)

At Bayshore I plan to rebuilt the concrete PFE platform and icing house at Visitacion. Platform will be built from scratch in styrene and corrugated roof and the house will be a kitbashing from a Walthers kit.

I know on this plan there are some freelanced path , see the list here above, but these are solution I've found to flow future operations ( at least this is the reason I've found to justify the plan? )

• The branch to Los Altos - Kaiser cement plant - San Jose ... have both ends in wrong geographic position.
• Redwood Jct .have two of the "real" spurs to some industries, but a really "wrong" Wye to Dumbarton bridge! No space to model anything else but I like to have the tower and some possibility to emulate the "false" diverging route. I'm nearly sure to make the "double slip on the main" not operable!

Well.... next post will be on .... tracks !? You can believe this?

Tweaking the plan

As the benchwork slowly progress, so the trackplan too.

I’ve refined the Bayshore area , mirroring the Icing spur tracks to have a smooth job for consists that source from the City, transferring there reefers to clean and re-ice.
And, finally found a good design for the Newhall yard. I still need to check in more deep some type of operations, but it seems me that the shape resemble in some way the prototype (with a lot of compression as usual)  and enable operators to complete all jobs without create bottleneck. As somebody can note, there is no yard lead !

At the end of the layout the staging yard… it’s not a yard! A platform with all parallel track can shift horizontally connecting all tracks to mainline. Eliminating  turnouts this is the more compact design I can Image. We have a similar module in Fremo (it’s named with a French world “Coulisse”… and don’t ask me why: I don’t know )

Another hidden staging yard is positioned in the middle peninsula, above Burlingame , and is connected to the Mission Bay Shop area, emulating Mission Bay yard and interchange with AT&SF. A tight curve for the real Wye where a complete train was turned, is still in the plan, but is still object of additional  thinking…. We will see.

Icing Reefers at Visitacion and down to Menlo Park

Well, as many friends ask for an update, and this blog was born to show the progress in building this layout … here we go! Yesterday I take my camera downstairs and here are some shots of what I’ve hardly achieved!
First of all, as I want to prove me that I’m able to see some tracks down … well, as soon the Kato Unitracks I’ve  order for the staging yard on Mission, I rapidly unpack everything and stick the first 4 tracks down.
This give me a better idea about space available to touch cars … not so much, but enough.

Then, using a 1:1 scale printing (on several A3 sheets) of the 3rdPlanit schematics I’ve test the track disposition on Bayshore Icing facility (or what remain of it after a huge and drastic compression ?)
Here a sample (in reality I’ve mirrored now the position,  as you can see on the layout schematics… on the next post!).

Then I copy tracks down on plywood using carbon copy paper (you’re very lucky if you’re able to find it in some shop as with all these computer and printer around is not a simple job )

Using the free template from Fasttrack web site, I double check the turnouts and alignments and finally glue the cork roadbed using a special glue for cork I found in a big shop.
In meantime the thin wall that will border the area from the inner loop was finalized. As described in a previous post I fill a 1cm empty space between two masonite sheets with spry foam. Here the final result: a very strong and light wall. The optical effect of two spaced walls , given the hill-shape I used, is convincing me. Next step will be …. The painting job.

Some additional pictures here, give an idea of the Menlo Park future area and Redwood Junction scenery.

Take care, friend, for now… this weekend is approaching fast.

What before the Silver Spike: the roadbed !

As an old popular sentence said that “What you do at the end of the year… you do it for all the year”…
My friend Alex Corsico give me a call and we’ve organized a short meeting with the idea to put some tracks down (a silver spike?).

But, as I’ve to dedicate my previous time to more “dirty” jobs as finalize the backdrops walls, fill it with expandable foam ( see my previous post )
…. we have just the occasion to test my “Cork roadbed production jig” and put in place some in preparation of tracks. But, anyway, it was a very good time!
I wonder how much “production” is able to do just a couple of friends…. And always image “how much ... more friends can put together in a couple of hours” !!! ... :)
See here the physical result of this couple of fellows:

And here the “theory” and the Jig to manufacture tons of cork roadbed, using a roll of cheap cork:

I’ve cut a piece of 1 meter long wood stock at 45° on one side, then make a cut in the middle, add a strip of wood in the middle (see picture) and glue the 3 pieces together.

To obtain a piece of roadbed with the proper angled sides, just insert the cork in the slot and using a new blade on the carpet cutter, cut the string. This way you have one side with a good angled shape (if you want a better and clean shape, just pass your “electric file” ( or whatever you call this tool) along the wood jig.
Then rotate the string and file the opposite side. You have a nice /______\ shaped roadbed in a minute.

Just 2 cents if you don’t have a commercial roadbed on hand!

Happy New Year to all ! Sincerely

Enzo

And he create the ... backdrop walls.

In this economic crisis time, just few bucks of wood will take you busy for a period that can seems you as infinite!
That said, friends, here I’m !
I take the occasion of my last weekend experiences ( and very slow progress ) to announce you :
I’ve discover the wheel again!

As I was not really happy of the “mechanic” for the removable bridge, that was just a “drop & play” design, I’ve “steal” the idea from a drawer on my desk: just buy two “drawer sliding guide”. Now the bridge have a proper stop when in place, roll nicely up to the out position and never fall on the floor if you catch it with your head! So simple !


Then I’m thinking to a “cost effective” (how the marketing peoples call the “cheap” one) and at same time sturdy solution, for the backdrop wall in the middle of the peninsulas. This will be in my mind a “Thin wall” (as Bruce  Morden call it ) that separate the outside visible tracks from the inside loop. As a drawing is better than thousand words… see what I’m speaking here right :

I take the idea from the walls of caravans and campers: basically a simple multi-frame made by 1 cm deep wood, covered by a (well two, one each side) masonite layer, and the empty gap filled by the expandable foam.
Here is a sample of what I'm speaking :

You will find this on several home repair shops in a spray big can.
When you spry the foam is soft and you can shape it, but when dry it become “solid-soft” and contribute to the strength of the wall.
The result is a very light but sturdy backdrop wall than , if properly fixed to the bench work, is self-supporting.

The line advance south

Well friends,
to mitigate my little envy for all of you that are planning to travel to SLO for the annual SPH&TS convention ( http://www.sphts.org/convention/ ) … I’ve spend all of my free time on refining the tracks path, optimize some parts for better OP and find better solutions in places where I have doubts for scenery. Here is my effort summary:

• Mission Bay yard have definitely found a place as a living staging place. This yard will mainly feed and receive freights working the LCL facilities at King and Berry st , but can also be used to store passengers named trains. The commuter cars have a living stage in the coach yard along Townsend st.

• Enlarged workbench depth at Potrero Tower and the Mission Roundhouse to have place for the prototype Wye from Mission Bay yard. Border-wall distance now is 72cm (28” ) , still good to reach all tracks with my arm, and enough to place a 28 cm radius (11” still too tight , I know, for MT and GS) but at least a switcher with some reefers can go from Visitacion Ice house to Mission Bay yard (staging) and back.
  

• Burlingame and Menlo track layout are mostly defined as well some spurs and correspondent indicative industries along the line up to Palo Alto.

• The branch to Permanente plant and the Kaiser little yard have reach a reasonable and operable shape, but maybe I need to work more on these places. One siding is provided at Los Altos station.

• A good discussion with a friend, Alex Corsico, takes to a good idea about the backdrop position on the critical area between Mission Roundhouse and the Burlingame-Menlo main line. I will take a shot of a temporary placed “thin wall” to show you.

Last but not least, the “bulldozers” are progressing down the peninsula!
I will take some pictures of the “land” in few days, so, stay in tracks!
........
You're still in, friends? Well, "later" is ... now! Enjoy!