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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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 Posted - 09/04/2008 : 10:56:25 PM
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This is a second edition of the original post that introduced a thread chronicles the progress on construction of a new layout for my HO/HOn3 Blacklog & Shade Gap Eastern. I inadvertently deleted the original post. I maintain a website for the B&SGE, and the URL appears in a later post.
The original layout resided in the partially finished basement of our 110 year-old victorian house in the East End of Pittsburgh, PA. It was cold in winter, damp at all times, had exposed floor joists above, and the layout shared space with a very noisy forced air heating and air conditioning plant. Moreover, it had begun to suffer the encroachment of spousal detritus, such as out-of-season artificial floral arrangements and exercise machines. Here is a scene from the old layout:
Beside all the liabilities listed above, there were a lot of things wrong with this layout. I didn't solder the rail joints, with predictable results (magnified in HOn3). The benchwork was of the table-top variety, with 1/2 inch homasote over 1/2" plywood, which resulted in lots of track irregularities in that damp environment. The last operating session occurred during an open house for the NMRA MCR regional convention in 2004. After that, the layout was ignored for a year and a half as I concentrated on finishing a Ph.D. dissertation. When my attention returned to model railroading, I found a layout covered with dust and soot and trackwork with so many issues that I threw up my hands in despair. There matters lay for two years.
In October 2007 new life was breathed into the B&SGE when we were able to buy a three-apartment building across the street from our home. It's newer than our home, having been built ca. 1920, and one of the apartments was an open L-shaped space that had been used as an architect's office. It proved perfect for a layout space. While our contractor renovated the other two apartments for tenants, I got to work preparing the "office" for a new, greatly expanded version of the B&SGE.
Here are some before and in-progress shots of the interior:
The age of this building and the architecture of the space gave me a unique opportunity to place a layout set in the 1930s in a space from the 1930s. Thus, the 2-tone green office scheme; friends with memories from the era tell me I've nailed it. The "after" view here is a bit busy, cluttered as it is with various module projects for contribution to NMRA MCR Div. 2's FreeMo layout (SEE Don Reed's posts on this topic at http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22539)
Enjoy the rest of the chronicle,
Vagel
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Edited by - Vagel Keller on 12/11/2008 9:56:24 PM
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| Posts: 727 |
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hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 10:59:46 PM
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Hi Vagel,
You may want to delete this thread since it is a duplicate of the other. You can use the delete icon at the top of the message.
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Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 11:09:12 PM
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Thanks, Andy. I tried that before there were any replies, but permission was still denied. I've emailed MikeC, administrator, to see if he can do that. I didn't realize I had hit the post key in the middle of trying to upload an image file.
How embarrassing!?
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/04/2008 : 11:39:06 PM
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Hi, Vagel --
Great to have you on board! Even though I'll get to see it happening FTF, I'm also looking forward very much to seeing your photographs and reading your narrative.
Don
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/05/2008 : 12:38:22 AM
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quote:
[i]
How embarrassing!?
Ha, Vagel, if you've seen some of my posts, you have nothing to be embarassed about!! 
Glad you are getting to enjoy the group.
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Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
Edited by - hunter48820 on 09/05/2008 12:38:58 AM |
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Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/05/2008 : 07:36:30 AM
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Vagel,
You have a great new home for the layout! I'll be following along.
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Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
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Bbags
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/05/2008 : 08:37:45 AM
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Vagel,
Nice looking layout room and also glad to see that the building itself has had a face lift and a new lease on life.
I added this thread to the ever growing listing of layouts under construction here on Railroad-Line.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22362
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John Bagley
Modeling the Alaska Railroad in HO in Wildwood Georgia. |
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George D
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/05/2008 : 09:00:48 AM
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Great story, Vagel. This is going to be an interesting thread to follow.
George
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Tabooma County Rwy
Fireman
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Posted - 09/05/2008 : 09:47:44 AM
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Vagel, that is definitely a neat place for your railroad to reside. Far different from the typical basement or bedroom layout - lots of character! And with Don helping, you'll have the benchwork completed in no time. Looking forward to many more progress updates!
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Frederic Testard
Engineer
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Posted - 09/06/2008 : 5:23:06 PM
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Vagel, I've read with interest the story of the new home of your layout. It's nice to have such a pleasant space to play with our hobby. I was also interested to see that others can be impatient enough to forget do things that will be quite tricky to achieve later. I'll be happy to follow the thread about the building of your layout.
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 09/06/2008 : 8:32:54 PM
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Thanks for all the positive comments. Today I hung a 4-ft backdrop section in the kitchen, and, in the process encountered what I know will be many issues involving layout construction in a "This Old House" scenario. I'll take some pictures in progress and, hopefully, be able to post an illustrated update on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, I'm building a new topic to sort of close the loop on my dual gauge FreeMo module that has appeared in several posts in the now inactive Topic in this Forum by the great Don Reed about our NMRA group (SEE http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=11232). After exploring various Fora to find the most likely home for it, I think I'll post this one in the Logging, Mining, and Narrow Gauge area to maybe get some layout building juices flowing there.
'best,
Vagel
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Tom Sullivan
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/06/2008 : 9:08:39 PM
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Vagel...great space to build a rr...by the name, can I assume you are modeling EBT territory?....tom
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 09/07/2008 : 12:31:03 AM
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Hello, Tom! Yes, your assumption is correct. I believe I provided a link to the earlier "history" of the B&SGE ... my model RR is a "historically" freelanced empire based on a "what if?" EBT off shoot.
Perhaps I should transpose the www "history" to this medium.
'best,
Vagel
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MikeC
Administrator
Premium Member
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Posted - 09/07/2008 : 10:35:47 AM
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Vagel, I just got a chance to read through this thread. Your 'story' adds a whole new meaning to the phrase 'preparing the layout room.' I'm looking forward to future installments.
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Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm a busy man. I have a railroad to run.
Visit the Central Missouri & Southern
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 09/07/2008 : 9:48:22 PM
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Thanks, Mike. And then there's the stuff in the category of "some contents may have settled in shipment" that you just have to live with, I guess. Such as the bizarre discovery that, while the doorway from the main room to the kitchen is plumb on the main room side, it's out of plumb on the kitchen side to the extent of 1/4" per 2 ft! Look at this!  I used painters caulk to fill the gap. The first bead shrunk a bit, so I added a second run to get a straight angle of transition to hide the seam. I think it'll turn out OK with a coat of primer and then the sky color.
Meanwhile, at the other end, I came up two inches short (although it's at least plumb at this end).  I thought the partition was less than 4' long on either side of the opening between the kitchen and the alcove and had the lumber dude at Home Despot cut the second half of my 4 x 8 sheet of hardboard into 2 x 4 sheets. Too smart, by half. Oh, well, it's a corner and I think the good ol' painters caulk trick will work here, too. This shot didn't come out as I intended, but the idea is to use the caulk to smooth the transition and hide the 1/4" difference between hardboard and wall.
It was late afternoon by the time I got this all done and pretty humid, so I decided to let it all dry overnight before priming. Meanwhile, the scrapping of the old B&SGE continued with the stripping of the original Buchanan module I built back in 1985. It was based on Bob Boudreau's Mansfield Jct. that appeared in the Oct. 1984 Model Railroader.
The hillside came up easily, and the ground cover was easy to scrape up after saturating it with water from an atomizer. But the roadbed and ballast is going to be a challenge. The 2 x 6 sheet of plywood and 1 x 2 framing is too good to throw out. Maybe I'll just disassemble the wooden frame work and turn the plywood upside down after I rip up the track.
Last thing before tying up for the night was to sand the trim pieces donated by Don Reed for the bookcase in preparation for staining and move my lantern collection and start to move my railroad library into its new home. I know this probably belongs in another area of RR-Line, but things are starting to run together in this project.
That's it for this installment. It's time for scotch and a Hornblower episode.
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