The "bridge" in place

Well, as I've predicted, what you put on a drawing and seams "perfect" .... when you realize in reality ... never happens ( at least on my construction!).
I must confirm again... this part of the hobby is not my job.
The previous mentioned bridge between the two peninsulas was planned as a swing bridge, as the initial shape was a rectangle. During the development of the plan, given the easements and enlarging the curves to obtain a better realistic tracking for 80' passengers cars, the bridge shape was changing to ... an "L" ? See the previous pictures above.
That said... it was hard to plan an hinge in an appropriate position!
So, I just shift to a "shift bridge" , or better to a removable module. In fact, discussing with some of the future crew, the need to open the bridge was only to entry to the Dispatcher table at the beginning of the Op session .... and for him.... to reach the bathroom "occasionally" !
Anyway, here are the hard work steps in the construction, for the few "carpentry lovers" here around.
Cover the Spiline with plywood: I put some paper (recycle some paper roll already printed on one side from the office?) on top of the Spilines , follow with a pencil the border, then cut the paper and position on the plywood to optimize the wood cut.
I start with the bridge section, ending where the bridge will "presumably" end:
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Then shape the sections immediately near on the curve:
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Here I'm cutting the bridge at the end:
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The final removable section in place!

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Next ... "Up to the stars ... to the infinite"

San Francisco tracks review

As I've stated in the previous post, the City stub was too crowded!
I've done a review of the plan and doing so... oh, you see here: lot of compromise in place!
But at the end I thing better operational possibility and not so much revolution from the prototype.

- We loose 3 tracks on the passenger stub.
- I've add a switcher pocket that in reality don't exist.
- I've provided better curve to reach the City from tunnel #1.
- The 7th street tracks now run as the prototype.
- There is also the line to Backer&Hamilton warehouse.
- And the simulation of the connection to industries spurs crossing Townsend street.
- Unfortunately, no way to provide a decent Wye back to Potrero tower.
- The Mission Bay shop have two service tracks to reach the Turntable.

Using a printer to “view in the future”

I’ve put in place two ideas, today, and seams both have got some kind of result:
- I’ve print the whole 3rd & Townsend area using row/columns split capability of 3rd PlanIt, put in place the “patchwork” of printed sheets with paper tape , and , taken a step back, admired that .....
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....I need some “fine tune” in the design: maybe a track less in the passenger stub and more distance from the passenger to the freight yards….. I need to think about.... Anyway the area seams too crowded for the moment!
Some more space between tracks with the “butterfly” platforms.
And, doing so, also the space for the sweet mission style station go a bit more in scale.
Some additional space is also needed along the 7th st. along the front wall to have the tracks running partially on the street pavement and a better separation from the “false” wye around Potrero tower.
(false for the narrow radius of one side, that can’t be used to turn a whole consist as the prototype. I leave this just for scenery and give the feeling of the real things).

But, at the end, a good experience! This printout give me more positive feedbacks than just the drawing on the computer screen.

- The second idea was born yesterday, when a kind friend, George Dean , Bayshore native, send me a big aerial picture of the City, I presume taken from the top of the Bay bridge in 1970-74 period.Well, this give me the idea to try to use an half of this picture as background for the City part of the layout.
With some patient work I evaluate the length I need (and more or less I underestimate of … one meter= 40” ! ), then crop the part I need , re-dimensioned the picture with the real dimensions of the wall, smooth a bit the pixels that now seams evident and finally print on a big color plotter.
As I was so impatient to see the result all together, I’ve just put the roll of paper on the wall without cut away at least the bottom white border…. Another step back to admire…. Not too bad, but just .. out of measure!

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Taking in mind that the border of layout will hold low relief buildings and this will cover the nearest details the things that seams disturbing is … only that thinks are not in the proper place!
But… again… not too bad?
Well, I need to cancel from the picture the visible tower of the Bay bridge, then strech the whole thing to fill the “distant” background of Mission Shop, render some foggy morning in the same area to have a proper background to the Potrero hill….and reprint.
In the meantime I need to prepare a good masonite base on the wall….
OK: I well know this job will never finish! I’ve realized now!
But, it seams a good start?

The bridge: Round one

Friends, just 6 seconds to view 6 pictures!
The splines for the "suspended" (then "swing or lift" ) bridge are in place!
I think there is no need to comment ?
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The lift bridge... a top-down project.

Some little progress ahead this week:
- the two middle room peninsulas now have definitive splines ready for the sub-roadbed
- The lift bridge between have start to take shape.
About this last project, I've take an approach that "seams" strange, but to me have sense after several consideration. I've first taken in place the two spline pairs for the two-track main line. Then I plan to support these with the bridge chassis. In this way I can have an exact idea of the vertical projection I need to support and consequently the size and shape of the bridge.
I plan to build the support bridge with a separate chassis and then slice and split the splines.
See the pictures here above:
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Brisbane & Bayshore (left) ___--- (right) Burlingame
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Bridge Spline in place (the down line need a second spline)
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Another view and the first bridge support.

Clear the gap... level 3

Another little step forward, this weekend, on the long road to set steady foundation for the "Valley line": the crew reach Menlo Park border!
The right-of-way still need to be covered by well shaped plywood, but at least the path is ready and shaped with sweet curves and easements, and .... the work team job survived with no damage to an occasional earthquake : a giant helping on the hard work, stumbled over an electric wire on the floor and .. tested the peninsula anti-quake rules ( the region is well know for these accidents, you know! )
Here we go, as one picture is worth thousand words :
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How "prewiew" your final layout? Just print it.

As I'm using 3rD PlanIt to design the tracks layout, I've used the capability of this powerful software to experience a 1:1 scale printout of the future place where the 3rd & Townsend Mission style station will be.
As most of you I've at home a printer that print on A4 size paper (document standard size here in Europe), so I've done a grid of sheets and this the result.
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Nearly an SP...line?

Between the two peninsulas holding respectively South SF and Burlingame, the terrain along the room wall will cover a series of curved right of way that crossed in 3 levels.
As the Coast line is a double track main, I consider a simplified way to adopt the "true spline" concept. First simplification was to find a Ready-to-use strips of wood, and I found some "samba wood" strips of 1 x 0.5 cm with 2 meters length. Thats free me from the dirty job to cut (or have cut by the shop) the usual Homasote sheets. This will takes to have a sigle track spline done using "just" 5-6 strips. Good Start!
But ... I'm pondering about the land between two track .... and the double job to have parallel splines ... so I've take the short path: basically I use two strips each side of a double track right of way and ..... fill the land with multilayer plywood (1 cm high).
See here a drawing with a section of what I mean:

This way I still have the "auto-easement" capability of the spline method plus the property of give a natural contour to scenery approaching yards or flat land following the curve.
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In the meantime having a flat continuous support of tracks avoid to have steps or jumps on the junctions from spline to plywood parts.
( well, maybe all these are just reason i give me to justify what I've done? )
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(Left) A detail of the end of the spline intersecting the workbench :
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and (Right) 3 levels nearly finish!