Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

Cut up $25 in plywood and managed to keep the pieces intact.


just a mockup on the elevation for now. Tito's is slowing the project for the evening. Settling for 1 1/4" of elevation to try and maintain 2% grade. Should still clear the stack on the loco with room to spare.


The white painted line is where the track will lay. The yellow line was the old plan. I widened the radius all the way around to make it easier for the locomotive to negotiate the curves. I was using the medium radius , and while they roll thru it fine, you can here the groan of the wheels on the rails as they scrape their way thru. Plus pulling a grade on a curve reduces tractive effort.

These are the templates I made for this. Top is the old radius, bottom is what it is now.

 

throwing some caution to the wind, went ahead and cut up the 40+ spacers needed to achieve grade.


This is with 1 1/4" of elevation.

stack is directly below, and there is a scant 1/4" of clearance.
But there will be another 1/8" of roadbed and then whatever supports the bridge track, so there will have to be some tweaking to get it to clear. I see why the NMRA recommends 1 1/2" of clearance. But there will also be an 1/8" of roadbed on the upper portion as well, so it may be ok.

 

Trimmed up and glued/nailed down. Ended up adding 1/8" of shim material(cardboard) at the trestle areas to give the locomotive a bit of room to pass under.
Next up is laying the roadbed down and then the track.

 

This track is tiny.
The rail joiners are the size of a grain of rice
No exaggeration.
After an hour and a half of fucking shit up, thru trial and error, I managed to complete one section.
Had to replenish my soldering gun tips, clean tips are key here. And a box of pushpins to hold that flexy shit in place.
Now where did I stash that jewelers loupe....

But first a break to calm the nerves and stop the shakes.

 

I figured out a system and went ahead and laid some rail. It's all soldered and the train runs smooth without any issues.

 

could i see a train, on a track next to a can of beer for size reference por favor?

 

It's about time for a beer anyway


the rail joiner next to uncooked grains of rice.

 

well fuck that's small! (that's what she said)

 

https://youtube.com/c/PeterWaldraff

 

update on the progress. Prolly won't get too much done as summer makes it's approach.
I've been using a product called Celluclay for the terrain forming. It's a blend of paper mache and plaster. So far I like it. Might spread some plaster on the vertical areas today and carve in some rocks.
Painted some blue in there to break up all the white, not sure how big the final lakes will be.

 

Started growing some rocks and grass .

 

will the track going over the canyons not need to be supported or is the train to track strength no concern?

 

the track is more than strong enough for the model, in real life it would crash though.
That being said, there will be a trestle/bridge under each section. I just have to make them.
Something similar to this, but more simple in design.

 

Starting to look like a scene. Several coats of stain and the rocks are looking a bit better.


did a little black stain under the tracks. Supposed to look like the grease stain from the loco as that shit gets flung off.

 

Started the bridges today. Not much, but it's a start. Going to make one long span and cut to fit.

 

Dam, I thought you had one of those old school football table game where the players just went in circles.

 

Cut, test fitted and carved stuff as needed, but didn't get pics.
Did the railings, letting the glue set up.
Needs sanded to make it look better, then a coat of paint. Then I'll prolly set them in place for good.

Edit, i guess i did take more pics

 

It's similar

 

We've had this discussion before.
All trains go either in a circle, or point to point and back again.