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Benchwork Construction - Engine Terminal and Staging Yard Area

Here are photos of the construction of the benchwork for the yard portion of the layout. The most recent set of photos is at the top. 

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April 3, 2005 - Staging Subroadbed

Staging Subroadbed Plan Pete Brown - 3rd PlanIt - April 3, 2005

On Sunday April 3rd, I decided to cut out some of the staging subroadbed. I first put the subroadbed outlines on my 3rd PlanIt plan. Once that was complete, I copied the outlines only to a new plan, and rotated them/moved them so they would best fit the plywood I was to cut.

You can see the subroadbed plan in the screenshot to the left.

Staging Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 3, 2005

In the shot on the right, you can see I caved and went out to Lowes and picked up the Bosch jigsaw and some blades. Let me just say that working with this is an absolute dream. It easily plows through the plywood 2-3 times faster than my old jigsaw, while maintaining a pretty clean cut, and close-to-perpindicular blade alignment. It also has a little blower that ensures that the cut line is always visible and never obscured by sawdust. Quality tools never fail to make the task more enjoyable. Or maybe I should say that cheap tools always seem to make the task a chore :-)

In the same shot, you can see where I traced the outline on the plywood. I did this by first transferring to the plywood key measurements from the plan. Once I had those in place, I free-formed the curves as best as I could. If your subroadbed is very close to the track edges, you'll want to use a trammel or compass to ensure you get the curves exactly on.

Staging Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 3, 2005

Next you can see the cut plywood. I shifted it and the sawhorses a couple times during the cut to ensure that I would clear the blade, and also provide support to the pieces that were already cut.

I performed similar steps in planning and cutting the remaining subroadbed pieces.

Staging Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 3, 2005

Once I cut the subroadbed (three pieces, total) I fiddled with getting them in the correct position on the layout. This was actually more difficult than it would have appeared. In the end, I took measurements at every foot on the plan from the wall to the outermost track center and ensured that the roadbed was in a location that worked for that. I then did the same with the innermost track location.

The subroadbed is not yet installed, it is just sitting in place. Once I trace track centers on there (or use a full-size printout, which I am considering), I will affix it in place with screws.

April 1, 2005 - Terminal Subroadbed

Reinforcing Plywood Pete Brown Photo - April 1, 2005

I made a trip to Home Depot on the way home from work on Thursday and picked up two new sheets of 1/2" 4x8 BC plywood, and one more sheet of 4x8 1/2" Homasote.

Picking plywood there was as painful as always. I lifted and moved about 15 very warped (and heavy) sheets before I found some that had warps in only one direction, instead of the twists evident on the rest. Picking wood at these stores is always very frustrating, as it is low quality, never properly stored, and always warped/twisted or otherwise beat up. The 3/4" plywood isn't much better, is much more expensive, and is too heavy for me to load on top of my CRV myself. It is also significantly more difficult to take the warp out of a piece of 3/4" plywood. While the 3/4" stock does tend to have less warp, any warp will wreak havoc with your layout, especially if your rolling stock is very free-rolling, which is the case with rolling stock equipped with Proto:87 wheels.

I was able to manhandle the two 1/2" sheets and the Homasote onto the rack on roof of my CRV and strap them down myself without a whole lot of effort. Many folks think that 3/4" plywood is the way to go for flat benchwork tops. I do not, except for extremely large, flat areas that need to support a really significant amount of weight with supports spaced further apart. If you do decide to use 3/4", remember that you need to have adequate support for it. That means the 1x2 and 1x3 supports are not going to cut it unless you double their number.

Terminal Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 1, 2005

Because of the warping on this plywood, I reinforced three sides with 1x3 S4S pine. I picked the straightests ones I had, glued those on edge, checking for clearance with other benchwork and with the staging area (which is why there is no reinforcing on the front) glued them in place and then screwed them in from the top. To ensure a tight fit to the wall and other benchwork, I did not put the reinforcing members right on the edge. Instead, I left the plywood about 1/4" proud.

Once I had the plywood reinforced and down (two sheets with factory edges against the backdrop side), I cut them with my jig saw to the correct profile (I attached my shop vac to the saw to catch most dust). The way I did this was to take measurements on my plan at every foot, and then transfer those measurements to the plywood. I then free-handed the curve that connects those and did my best to follow that curve with my jig saw. If you want to be smoother about it, use a thin piece of wood and some nails to mark your curve.

Terminal Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 1, 2005

An aside on jig saws. I have a cheapo crap Skil jig saw. If you have a better jig saw, the blade will bend less, and you will have much better luck making clean cuts with 90 degree edges. For Christmas 2004, I bought my father-in-law a Bosch jig saw rated tops by most of the magazines. It has blade stabilizing supports that really help you make a clean cut. I highly recommend that if you're going to purchase a jig saw, shell out for the decent stuff. I bought the Skil several years back, before I learned the value of quality tools. In fact, by the time you read this, I likely will have bought the Bosch to make the rest of hte benchwork construction go smoother.

To level the plywood, I used a combination of a regular 2' level (longer would be better here) and a laser. The laser, which can be seen in the photo, was something I picked up for cheap at QVC. It is self-leveling so you don't need to get it level before using it. That is a HUGE timesaver. Once the homasote is glued in place and flattened, I'm sure I will need to re-level it. Since the top is not yet screwed down to the support members, that is not a problem.

Terminal Subroadbed Pete Brown Photo - April 1, 2005

After that was all done, I put the 4x8 sheet of Homasote on top and then oriented it so the 8' length was along the back wall with the backdrop. This prevents any seams in the middle of the engine terminal. The only Homasote seam will be towards the front of the layout at the left (looking at it from the front) where the plywood comes out some 62 inches or so. I cut the Homasote with a utility knife. This is more work, but far less mess than using a jig saw.

You can see in the photo to the right that I have also marked the location of the turntable. That is one of the critial locations in the yard, so I was careful to take exact measurements from the plans and transfer them here. I will likely cut that out with my rotozip-clone and a pivot point once I decide on the exact outer dimensions of the to-be-built 115' turntable. The inner dimensions are easy, but I need to account for wall thickness and whatnot to ensure the turntable will stand up to use without crumbling.

Next steps:Mark Homasote with locations of ash pits, roundhouse inspection pits, etc. and cut them out of the Homasote and Plywood, and cut and install the staging subroadbed.

March 26, 2005 - Engine Terminal Benchwork Restarted

Terminal Benchwork Plan Pete Brown - 3rd PlanIt

The latest version of the track plan required some significant changes to the terminal/staging yard benchwork. Here are some photos (click to see larger versions).

I found it very useful to use 3rd PlanIt to lay out the benchwork for the layout. I was able to take my measurements directly from the drawing to my miter saw where I cut the boards to length. In the plan on the right the visible track is the staging underneath the engine terminal area.

Benchwork Pete Brown Photo - March 26, 2005

The plywood from the old terminal and yard trackplan is here just to test clearance and level. Unfortunately, it is a bit too small to work with the new track plan, and the turntable cutout is now in the wrong place. I'll be off to Home Depot to pick up a replacement. This piece will be cut up and used for sub-roadbed elsewhere.

Benchwork Pete Brown Photo - March 26, 2005

In this photo you can see the two-tier layout support. The bottom tier will hold the staging track, and the top will hold the engine terminal and the approach tracks. Unlike the original plans, there is no visible yard other than staging. I gave that up in order to have a more prototypical engine terminal, as well as a return loop to allow for continuous running.

Note the pipe insulation I use to protect my head and back. Install this early on and you will really thank yourself, as you will scrape your back or hit your head on it when emerging from working under the benchwork.

Staging Clearance Test Pete Brown Photo - March 26, 2005

Staging Clearance Plan Pete Brown - Autodesk QuickCAD

It's always a good idea to check clearance, even if you have it already figured out in CAD. While I had figured out what I thought a reasonable amount of clearance would be, I just wasn't sure if I could get my hands in there and re-rail cars and whatnot. It turns out that the planned spacing is enough for me. More would, of course, be better, but it would also have required unrealistic grades to get in and out of staging.

The track the car is on is a piece of the Chaffee branch that I had to rip off of the wall in order to replace the window sill with my Father in law. That was quite a project, and one of many delays in getting the layout put together.

In-Between - Painting, New Floor etc.

In the time between the September 2003 and the March 2005 updates, my wife painted a new backdrop for me, I ripped up the old carpet, installed a Pergo floor, replaced all the baseboard trim, replaced the entire casing around the window, and made major revisions to the trackplan to accomodate continuous running and staging, as well as a more prototypical engine terminal.

You can find the updates for each of those in the appropriate sections by choosing from the menu to the left.

September 9, 2003 - Modified L-girders into C-girders

Based on an email conversation with Ed McCamey, I reinforced my L-girders so they would more soundly support the weight of the yard without so much bounce.  Ed had actually suggested that I sandwitch the bottom of the L-girder between two 1x2 boards to make a type of I-beam, but I misunderstood his suggestion at first.  His suggestion would have made the girders even stronger, and also kept the overall girder height down.  At any rate, the C-girders are much much stronger than the older L-girders ever were.  I might still put a 1x2 or 1x3 backing on the lower back-side of the girder, but that may be overkill.  I'm learning all this as I go along, so I surely will make some mistakes along the way :-)

When I did that, I also took the opportunity to lower the entire set of benchwork by several inches so I could support the yard on risers without it being too high.  The reason for this was two-fold 1) The 1x3 joists are not as dimensionally consistent as I wanted, and would make less than optimal yard support; and 2) I wanted to make sure I had clearance for the tortoise switch machines.

Here is a photo of the C-girders.

September 1, 2003 - Yard Benchwork Resized, Homasote Painted

Shortly after the June 29 photos, I installed unpainted homasote and then set the layout aside while I worked on a project at my job.  That project took almost all of my free time, so I didn't make any progress until now.

On September 1, I resized the plywood and homasote (required cutting off about 3" along the facing edge), rounded the corner and painted all sides of the homasote.  The reason I had to resize the plywood and homasote was so that I could realize the latest version of the layout trackplan.  The paint I used was from the reject pile at Home Depot.  It's a nice chocolate brown exterior flat latex.  The thick paint will work well to seal the homasote and reduce the common shrinkage problems associated with homasote construction.

Here is a photo of the freshly painted homasote.

June 29, 2003 - Original Yard Subroadbed in Place

Here's the yard area with the subroadbed installed.  The subroadbed is 15/32" 5-ply A/C plywood.  The sanded and plugged A side is, of course, facing up.  This grade of plywood is expensive ($22 per 4x8 at Lowes), but the five plys make it far sturdier and stable for its weight than other lesser grades.  One thing I did find out when I did this was that 1x3 s4s is not always the same dimension.  Folks talk about how much homasote varies from one end to the other (and yes, it does), but you rarely hear about differences in dimensional lumber.  I have one 1x3 that is fully 3/16" shorter on the 3" dimension than the other 1x3s.  I'll remove that from the joists and use it as a riser instead.  This is one reason why it's always good to get some extra lumber.

June 22, 2003 - Yard Benchwork L-Girders and Joists

The yard area with some of the joists resting in place.  The main advantage of this type of construction is the ability to move the joists around so they aren't in the way of things like switch machines.

L-Girders installed.  Note the logo on the wall.  No speed-lettering here! ;-)

Detail of how the L-girders are mounted to the wall. The span of the long L-girders (12') is within the 13' unsupported span that you get with a 1x4 L-girder, so no legs are required.  Mounting directly to the wall in this way really frees up a lot of underneath room, and makes it easier to get around under the layout to install those 30+ switch machines.  Please note that this is something I came up with by myself.  I'm not a carpenter, so this may or may not hold up in the long run.  Given that, I see no reason why this would hold up any differently than the same span with regular legs instead of legs that are hidden by 1/2" drywall and some latex paint. :-)