Gibbon, Cozad & Western - "The 100th Meridian Line"

[C855B]

Today's work on the layout:

[Scottl]

Progress! 

[ScrewySqrl]

all I can say is you must be incredibly patient.

This thread stated two years ago, and you're pouring concrete now.

[Specter3]

Now!? This thread is epic in its sheer scope as he takes an old building, repurposes it, and does all the right things to have it be a first class, no corners cut, facility. It is what most of us have dreamed of doing after years and years of drooling over spaghetti bowl MR layouts. "Man, if I had the space". Well he went out and found that space and has sunk a lot of blood sweat and tears into making it something that I am sure will be talked about for years. This concrete pour was not in the original plan but became necessary once things progressed to this point.

[ScrewySqrl]

not denying that. I'm genuinely impressed. I just know I would not have the patience to keep it up for 2 years before even starting benchwork 

Of course, I'm perpetually broke anyways   

[C855B]

[...blush...] Gosh... thanks! It has been quite a journey, and thankfully we're 90% there. The patience comes with reveling in the accomplishments as the vision unfolds into reality, each accomplishment usually a major project unto itself. The nose-to-grindstone takes frequent breaks to stand back and admire the results. Also, the "no fear" approach to adjusting the game plan helps considerably.

This concrete work, for example. I was fully prepared to deal with the uneven floor, even drew the layout plans around "hiding" the stepdown under benchwork, with ramps in walkways. As we were moving along on finish issues, it occurred that a whole bunch of work could be avoided if there was a decent floor in the west half. Then the CFO said, "I hate that floor. It's most of our dust problem and a pain to keep even a little clean. Let's ask Mike [our contractor] what it would take to do it right."

And there you have it. She and I are both elated that it's now done. We can clean things up while the concrete cures, and once dry enough I can bang together the interior studwalls and get her started on insulation. There's momentary concern that it is drying too slowly, so I've cranked up the heat a little to move things along.

Here are today's results:



Curing for the day is nearly done in this photo, standing by for one more pass with the power trowel. Compare to yesterday's photo of the inside work, and you'll see the two windows on the north wall are now gone. The saved metal siding was perfect, and aside from painting and scraping, the north exterior wall is as intended. A big benefit of the new slab is several major gaps at the base - with wind intrusion and [ahem] vermin issues - are now completely sealed.

And for fun... we could not believe the train traffic this morning. We were on-site at 7:30, and there must have been a train every 20 minutes until 1 p.m. or so. It was hard to maintain a conversation. "Damn trains!" is a favorite phrase when we're interrupted by the horns; an EMD or two under load shakes things up and Robyn will usually respond, "Oooo. Nice. That's not a toaster!" I've taught her well.

[C855B]

DAGNABBIT!    A week later, and the concrete is still not set enough to drive on (the scissor lift, that is). The second pour is still dark gray. Even with running the heat. Good thing we're unseasonably warm for the next few days. We've made the Menard's run for the materials and are ready to rock'n'roll, but unable to use the lift or stack stuff on the new floor we're sort of dead in the water.

In some respects it's a good thing, as concrete that dries too fast isn't as strong. But I don't expect to be running 18-wheelers over it, and our patience is being pushed. As if we can do anything about it! We learned our lesson on the last pour in the studio area, and stacked materials on it too soon... it cracked. Not bad, and it's covered by flooring, but it was pretty clear not letting it set fully before loading cost us.

Winter's a comin'... tick tick tick tick tick tick...

[mcjaco]

Low seventies this weekend, right?  Open the doors, and find some menial tasks to do?  Or watch trains?   

[C855B]

Yeah, that might be the ticket, at least for tomorrow. Unfortunately train traffic will be down midday since our fall festival is tomorrow. CN puts a display train on the main for four or five hours, with a matching operations window. NS and BNSF might send a couple through, but otherwise it'll be quiet. In spite of this, railfans are typically everywhere since the display train invariably has something fun - a restored E8 sometimes, usually also a freshly painted something-or-other, and a couple of business cars. But that's by the Amtrak station and not in view of the building.

Was getting at least a little work done today, mostly redoing the rough framing for the double door between the layout room and the workshop. The concrete raised the floor there 4". I thought I had allowed for it, but was off by an inch. I have the doors on-hand, so tomorrow may be as good a time as any to install them.

Surprise of the Day. Setup the laser level in the "new" space to see exactly what we were facing. Uh oh. In the 38', there is a 9" drop from north to south. I knew this was an issue, but today was the first time it's been quantified. So... the floor comes with its very own 2% grade. Two thoughts in mind - first is to level the benchwork for a 48" average height, corresponding to 43.5" in the north and 52.5" in the south. I don't know if I'm happy with the 52", which will put the highest upper level portions at 62" or so. Too high for my tastes.

Second thought is where I might get creative. Let the benchwork stay at a constant 48" from the floor, but have the roadbed "fake" a 2% grade up and down the peninsulas while it actually remains level. An optical illusion, basically. I'll have to go back to the plan to see how this relates to the real grades for the nolix to the upper deck and legitimate grade separations.

[ScrewySqrl]

Surprise of the Day. Setup the laser level in the "new" space to see exactly what we were facing. Uh oh. In the 38', there is a 9" drop from north to south. I knew this was an issue, but today was the first time it's been quantified. So... the floor comes with its very own 2% grade. Two thoughts in mind - first is to level the benchwork for a 48" average height, corresponding to 43.5" in the north and 52.5" in the south. I don't know if I'm happy with the 52", which will put the highest upper level portions at 62" or so. Too high for my tastes.

Second thought is where I might get creative. Let the benchwork stay at a constant 48" from the floor, but have the roadbed "fake" a 2% grade up and down the peninsulas while it actually remains level. An optical illusion, basically. I'll have to go back to the plan to see how this relates to the real grades for the nolix to the upper deck and legitimate grade separations.

If you do that trick (2% grade to counter the 2% grade in the room) you effectively have a 0% grade so it should not effect your nolix.

[C855B]

No, the nolix still has to climb relative to the rest of the layout since the second level branchline is 12" above. Anyway, the target max grade even then is 1.5%, and that was only in this one location (so far). Whatever was going to be done layout-wide would have to somehow compensate for the floor grade. (I know there's a lot of ground covered in this blog. Hidden somewhere in all the words is the goal of long train operation - 15' is the objective. 2% grades tend to work against that idea.)

As I think this through, there are two additional concepts dominating. First is a hybrid of the two original ideas. Do the "fake grade" everywhere except the terminus yards, where benchwork height would compensate for the floor. This especially works with my view of the MRR world - this way the areas with the least-tall benchwork would be the yards, where a more overhead view makes a certain amount of sense.

The second new thought is tantamount to insanity - redesign the whole layout with the peninsulas in an east-west orientation (the original plan!), recreating it as a series of virtual switchbacks. The return-route backbone option could then become more or less a one-lap helix, completing the 9" rise in about 100' of track - a much more palatable 0.7% grade. Challenge there is making it work in the context of geographic order, although come to think of it the return backbone was never intended to make sense that way. It was just a MRR construct to make continuous train ops an option by bypassing single-track territory.

...hmmm...

[Chris333]

My basement has a drain in the center so the floor slopes. Even with my little door layout one end is about 1.5" higher than the other end. Layout is level floor isn't.

[wcfn100]

Layout is level floor isn't.

And probably propped up by a another layout. 

(there's an xzibit meme in there somewhere)

Jason

[GaryHinshaw]

Wow, a 2% grade in a floor is enormous.  FWIW, my upper deck summit is 66" above the floor and I really like it (but I keep plenty of step stools around).  You might try to mock up a 62" deck to see what you think.

(I know there's a lot of ground covered in this blog. Hidden somewhere in all the words is the goal of long train operation - 15' is the objective. 2% grades tend to work against that idea.)

These are exactly the parameters I have on TBC and it works really well for me.  Just enough challenge to be fun.

[C855B]

I spent some quality time with the laser level this morning, and determined the way to go will be to slightly lower the "average" benchtop to 46" and shoot for level all around (excluding scenery cuts, of course). This makes the north end 42.5" and the south 50.5". I was happy with the visualization against the south wall, and this makes the upper deck go from ~54" to not quite 60" off the floor. So it's all good.

Yes, 2% in a floor is HUGE. I don't know what they were thinking in the original construction, but apparently it wasn't that important to them because the current slope is an improvement (yikes).