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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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 Posted - 12/03/2008 : 4:53:44 PM
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Vagel and I put in a good day's work today, from about 10:30 until 3. Very exciting progress - we built a curved wall with sawn plywood top and bottom plates and 2x3 studs to support more of the backdrop, then sheathed it with masonite. Vagel will be posting more details and photographs later today.
Don
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 12/03/2008 : 5:32:47 PM
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Here are the snaps from today's work session. Don showed me a neat method for using a C-clamp as an extra hand when making long cuts in a sheet of material. You cut a foot or so into the piece, then put the clamp across the cut to hold everything together while you continue on to the end of the cut.
Here, Don has finished the first pass in cutting out one of th forms for the curved backdrop.
Once we had the top and bottom forms cut out, we cut six 2x3 studs and spaced them evenly around the curve. Don thought we'd need to install a temporary brace at the far end, but with the other end mounted to the existing backdrop wall and at the other to the benchwork grid, it's plenty rigid.
Next we cut two S-curve sections of hardboard to transition the backdrop to a lower height as the mountainside will recede moving from right to left as the narrow gauge branch travels down grade from Buchanan.
Here's a snap of me posing in front of the completed project for today.
It's really starting to come together! Don took a sheet of hardboard back to his shop, where he'll rip it into two 2x8 sheets, one of which will finish off the other side of the backdrop. Once that's in place we'll be able to install risers and sub-roadbed in the yard/engine terminal. Meantime, I'm going to upgrade the electrical service for lighting and prime and paint the backdrop now in place in preparation for installing sub-roadbed in the Buchanan/Ft. Loudon area.
See you next time,
Vagel
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Edited by - Vagel Keller on 12/03/2008 5:36:36 PM |
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Mike Hamer
Engineer
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George D
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/04/2008 : 10:33:34 PM
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Vagel, you and Don are making some great progress. It looks like someone on that crew knows a little about woodworking.
George
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/05/2008 : 06:38:14 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by George D
Vagel, you and Don are making some great progress. It looks like someone on that crew knows a little about woodworking.
George
Vagel and I do make a pretty good team. He knows way more about layout design, trackwork, scenery, etc., than I do. For one thing, he has actually built several layouts over the years, just not as big as this one.
I know a lot of carpentry tricks, own some useful tools, own a pickup truck (handy for hauling sheets of plywood) and get a lot of enjoyment from working on Vagel's layout.
I'm looking forward to next Wednesday! 
Our local NMRA Division (Keystone) is having their annual mini-conference (Jamboree) in a couple of months and we hope they will include layout tours. Vagel is aiming to have some track operational and trains running on part of the layout by then. Seems realistic to me.
Don
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WVM_Nut
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 12/08/2008 : 4:48:57 PM
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Well done Major Keller. Well done indeed sir. I recall the old B&SG having visited a time or two. Since I last saw you I've moved to East Tennessee and started a new M&WV/WVM. It's smaller, but hey, sometimes things happen. I'm happy with it.
Ed Sumner
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| I either build 'em, or I blow 'em up. Depends on me mood, I guess. |
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 12/09/2008 : 12:25:12 AM
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Good to hear from you, Ed, and glad that your model railroading survived the move. You'll have to start a thread and post some pictures of progress ... soon, I hope.
Getting ready for this week's work session, we got the new wiring installed for ceiling outlets for the shop lights that previously were powered by extension cords. Now I can light up the place with a flip of two switches; no more "trooping the line" from pull chain to pull chain. And the troublesome wall outlet has been moved out of the way of the benchwork, so that gap is permanently closed.
Since then, I've been playing around trying to envision the layout of the locomotive servicing facilities. The Kalmbach book on engine terminals has been very helpful. Here are a couple snaps of the turntable, roundhouse footprint, and coaling tower in what looks like a pretty good and compact configuration.
My fears of not having enough linear space to incorporate all the pieces of a steam-to-diesel transition era facility are pretty much gone, but there are so many decisions to make about which kits to use ... I now know I wasted my money on the Walthers diesel fueling facility; far too big a foot print for what it includes. I'll probably keep the fuel storage tank, though, and use their ash pit kit while going with the smaller foot print (and finer detail, IMHO) of the American Limited Models sand tower. In fact, there's a ready-built set that includes the tower and two fuel cranes that might be worth the extra $$$ to save time. And then there's the auxiliary fixtures that go with the sand tower but are "not included" in the kit. Sigh.
More after our session Wednesday.
'best,
Vagel
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WVM_Nut
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 12/09/2008 : 12:42:43 PM
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What is your era again? I'm guessing late 30's just before WW 2, about the time that the PA pike was going in?
Jeff Madden did a 50s-era pike that was in MR a few years back based on the South Penn as a B&O owned shortline.
Neil Schorr (whom I think you know) did a modern South Penn before switching scales.
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| I either build 'em, or I blow 'em up. Depends on me mood, I guess. |
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George D
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/09/2008 : 2:06:56 PM
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Vagel,
How much space do you have for your engine terminal? We have a couple of guys at the club designing a steam facility. The space they have available is pretty large, but they are still having to make compromises – those things take up a lot of space!
George
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hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/09/2008 : 11:56:23 PM
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Hi Vagel,
Your layout is coming along very nicely. Regarding the space for your engine terminal, there is never enough for everything that you want!! It's a law of nature that can't be broken (unless you are modeling Z scale)! 
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Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/10/2008 : 05:58:39 AM
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Hi, yunz all --
(That's a perfect blending of two cultures - Southern and Pittsburghese.)
I dropped off the Masonite that I cut for backdrops yesterday and loaded the tools in the truck last night - ready for another Wednesday session at Vagel's! Among other things, ze plan calls for cutting out a bunch of sub-roadbed with the sabersaw. Who knows, Vagel might have some track down in the very near future.
Don
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Vagel Keller
Crew Chief
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Posted - 12/11/2008 : 8:32:30 PM
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Ed asks the $64,000 question. The original B&SGE/South Penn Branch concept was, in fact, set in Fall 1938. But that was before all this great PRR big steam and first generation diseasal stuff (most with sound!) started coming out in PRR colors. Unable to abstain, I began to accumulate locomotives that would never fit in with the concept in time or space (an I1s pulling a light branchline mixed?, an F7A-B-A lash-up in 1938?).
In addition to having long ago accumulated all the motive power and rolling stock needed to support the original concept, I now find myself with a fair representation of PRR motive power and appropriate freight and passenger rolling stock spanning the period from the 1920s through the mid-1960s. What to do? HO RR Museum.
The layout under construction consists of a yard and engine terminal that will form an HO-scale sort of "Steamtown" tied at either end, via scenic blocks, to a 1930s world. Some operating sessions will be purely set in 1938, while others will consist of railfan excursions into the past, complete with rare mileage trips and photo run-bys of "historical" trains.
Regarding the space available for the engine terminal and yard, it's an L-shape about 5 x 8. I'll be able to fit the facilities in, OK. The only question has to do with storage tracks for diesels beyond the outside storage tracks around the turntable.
Here are a couple shots from our work session yesterday, with me proudly displaying the first piece of sub-road bed, while leaning on my trusty radius stick.
It was a short work session, so we left off before replacing all of the cardboard mock-ups with plywood. I'm hosting another model railroad "quilting bee" at the place this Saturday, but I think I'll spend my time preparing, priming, and painting the backdrops so we can get cracking on the engine terminal!
More next week,
Vagel
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Edited by - Vagel Keller on 02/13/2009 9:25:47 PM |
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| Posts: 720 |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/12/2008 : 12:48:18 AM
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Hi, everyone --
Vagel's system for laying out the subroadbed works well and allows for quick cutting. He lays everything out using (I believe) old water heater cartons. The cardboard patterns are then laid on the 1/2" plywood sheets, traced with a Sharpie, and cut out with a saber saw with a plywood cutting blade.
It was, as you can tell, quite satisfying to screw down the first piece of actual wooden sub-roadbed. Can track-laying be far behind?
Don
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Edited by - AVRR-PA on 12/12/2008 06:50:24 AM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 4598 |
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WVM_Nut
Engine Wiper
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Posted - 12/14/2008 : 1:41:44 PM
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It's SO nice when people buy large appliances and then leave the boxes outside your apartment across the street. I have scarfed up a pair of large cardboard cartons for scenery formers. I have lucky enough to have an old set of Gandy Dancer HO track templates by Arbour Models for standard gauge.
Since Western PA is the world's largest styrofoam mine, will you be using foam scenery Vagel? (I say that because I neve rpaid a cent for any of my foam, I found it almost everywhere in the area. Apparently it falls off trucks and gets left behind at work sites.)
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| I either build 'em, or I blow 'em up. Depends on me mood, I guess. |
Edited by - WVM_Nut on 12/14/2008 1:42:46 PM |
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AVRR-PA
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/17/2008 : 06:49:44 AM
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Normally, I wouldn't answer for Vagel, but I'm fairly sure about this one - yes, he'll be using blue or pink foam. And, yes, I'll be scrounging around construction sites and doing a little dumpster diving so he doesn't have to pay for it.
We won't be working on the layout today.  On the third Wednesday of each month, Vagel is part of the operating crew on Bob Prehoda's layout. And next Wednesday, I'll be in Atlanta. We have, however, agreed to put in a good few hours on New Years Eve.
I secretly installed a spy cam in the layout room so I can make sure he keeps working away between now and New Years.
Back to baking.
Don
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