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

[C855B]

And an update to the update... contractor will be here tomorrow morning to install the perlins. I hope one of his crew is experienced with a scissor lift, or otherwise I'll be doing the driving. The thing weighs as much as a small car, and the brakes aren't as good. Much "oops" potential. Grid parts are in, so a truck outing to Lowes this evening. Need to pick up some Unistrut whilst there, maybe a few panels of sheetrock.

Yeah, I have fun with wiring, too. If that isn't obvious... so far, there's got to be nearly 2000ft of MC in the building. I should have invested in copper futures. 440? Ugh, but you're right if you're dealing with old commercial buildings. But I still get the heebie-jeebies doing 220, completely ignoring the fact that nearly every set of 110V lines I run has 220 potential with the circuit next to it. It's a mind thing, clearly.

On train stuff, I've been having some fun with the time-lapse recording I've been doing with the railcam in the past week. For the first time I have a truly accurate count on passing traffic - 30-36 trains a day, Sunday being the slowest. CN seems to have ramped things up since I last did a "24 hours at..." survey, and now I have confirmation that it is 90% northbound. Apparently the Edgewood Cutoff gets the s/b traffic, otherwise Chicago would be sinking into Lake Michigan given the accumulated locomotives.

[nscalemike]

On train stuff, I've been having some fun with the time-lapse recording I've been doing with the railcam in the past week. For the first time I have a truly accurate count on passing traffic - 30-36 trains a day, Sunday being the slowest. CN seems to have ramped things up since I last did a "24 hours at..." survey, and now I have confirmation that it is 90% northbound. Apparently the Edgewood Cutoff gets the s/b traffic, otherwise Chicago would be sinking into Lake Michigan given the accumulated locomotives.

I would be very curious to know the daily numbers here in Champaign.  I don't know if they would loose any between here and there or not, maybe you already would have the answer for this.  I know the yard seems to be pretty active everyday with trains being broke up and reassembled.  Not sure why since we have limited industry anymore, so I am assuming somewhere close by the are going a different way.  You can certainly tell which trains are stopping at the yard and which ones are not,  I work 100 yards south of the signal/turnout for the yard and only a handful of northbound trains get a green without stopping.  When they do, they are moving pretty quick too, usually stack trains.

My unscientific guess is roughly the same number per day.  But, I don't have any way to put a camera up to watch it and can't sit there for 24 hours!

Nice progress on the building by the way!

Mike

[C855B]

Well, since you're above the Edgewood split I'd hazard that you have roughly 28 trains on a good day, maybe a couple of more. Take our 36, subtract 10-12 NS, 5-8 BNSF and add in the southbound CN balance of 8 to 12, and voilá! The high side on the numbers down here reflect locals, with NS and BNSF adding two each.

...only a handful of northbound trains get a green without stopping. ...

And, sadly, that includes Amtrak, too. CN's been heck on Amtrak since the court ruling last year. Champaign is a bottleneck. Northbound not so bad, but I think every trip we've been on going south in the past year has been snagged at the north end of the yard. Southbounds are typically an hour late or more by the time they get to Centralia.

[nscalemike]

And, sadly, that includes Amtrak, too. CN's been heck on Amtrak since the court ruling last year. Champaign is a bottleneck. Northbound not so bad, but I think every trip we've been on going south in the past year has been snagged at the north end of the yard. Southbounds are typically an hour late or more by the time they get to Centralia.

Yes, Amtrak has all kinds of trouble here.  I'll stop into the Amtrak terminal and talk to the ticket guys there sometimes.  It is always the same thing, leaving Rantoul, be here in 12 minutes . . . . 45 minutes later it shows up after 2 freights pass.  I guess it is something with passing sidings south of here or something like that.  I have heard rumors for quite a while now that CN was going to double track the line through Champaign.  They still have the space to do it I think, but I would be very surprised if anything happens on it in the next decade.

[mcjaco]

Aren't a lot of the sidings still stub ended down that way?  I knew that was an issue when I went to EIU.  We always ended up in siding, waiting the IC freights, then had to back out, and head on our way again.  I was never on time once we got past Joliet.

[C855B]

Another banner day on the GC&W!

All of Robyn's insulation work is paying off in spades... and we're not done yet! The electric bill arrived today, bearing in mind we are all-electric. It is one-third of last December's bill, with no difference in average monthly outside temperature. But wait... there's more! We are now heating the entire 3000 sq. ft. space, not just 600 sq. ft. of the studio. Woo hoo! What an incredible difference!

Seriously, it's been a combination of lots of insulation and plugging multiple air intrusions. I had mixed emotions anticipating this month's statement because it was the truth test. The last major project left is getting the grid ceiling in above the layout area. Currently still open 20' to the roof, once it has the R-38 in at 14' I expect the heating bill to go down another 50%. This may be another couple of months away, but color me elated about the results so far. Drywall will progress in comfort, and then bring on railroad construction!

[3DTrains]

And be cooler in the Summer, Mike. Congratulations!

Cheers!
Marc - Riverside

[C855B]

OK, engineers and enginettes, grab your slide rules and put on your thinking caps.

Here is the challenge - put a door where shown in the photo and not have the roof cave in on you:



I have been wrestling with this one ever since the decision was made to move the observation deck. In the previous version, by compromising headroom both on the catwalk and above the layout, I was able to get access to the deck without messing with structure. Not so with this location - we need to step down from the attic/mezzanine to the deck through the truss.

I had this conversation with my builder on Friday, throwing ideas out there - my first thought is a queen post to the left of the balcony, and a new chord corresponding to the the top of the door frame extending to the right between the queen post and the top chord. Possible secondary queen post to the right of the first floor door opening. Builder commented he has done similar things, but cautioned there would be discomforting groans and cracking noises on cutting the bottom chord. IOW, moving force vectors around, maybe to places they shouldn't be.

Anyway, I'd like other minds on this. I'm vacillating between the plan I just mentioned and abandoning the deck altogether even though it has been hours of work to get it to this point. I need to make this decision this week as it is the last detail before starting to hang drywall around the perimeter for the ceiling grid prep.

[wazzou]

Can't you just frame the upper part of the door between lower and upper chords with a header notched into webs.
Then tie it into top chord before you cut the bottom chord and then continue the lower door framing once bottom chord is cut?

[Philip H]

If it were me I'd toss in a spiral stair or ship's later on the left side and call it good.  I agree with your builder - a queen post with a new top chord will be a squeaky, groany, unruly SOB.  Not to mention a devil to get square for the door opening.

[C855B]

I have considered a ship's ladder. It's not visitor friendly, however. I've also thought about one of those pull-down folding attic ladders. But you're right, the engineer in me is always visualizing the force vectors and I get that queasy feeling that no matter what I do in moving loads around with modifications, the result simply isn't kosher. If it were new construction I could use a fully-engineered truss with appropriate queen post placements and properly computed stringers.

There are a couple of pluses about dropping the whole idea and dismantling the balcony - I'm having to do a bit of tricky design to raise the grid ceiling enough for headroom to stand on the deck. Then if I were able to solve the balcony door problem, there is another truss in back of it that has similar issues with no doorway.

Here's a thought... since I'm Mr. CCTV, why not put an HD camera or two up there instead? Hmm.

EDIT: Additional fear point - once the balcony is removed, there is no easy going back. The left and right sides of the deck box are cantilever extensions of long floor joists. Once they're cut the cost and complexity of doing something similar goes way up.

[x600]

I've been a carpenter for 25yrs. All Phases, commercial and residential and whenever someone shows anything like what you show,
there is one rule that pops into my head, and comes out of my mouth:
NEVER- EVER Cut a truss without an engineer's drawing, NEVER!
That being said, if I were to tell someone how I would do it IF IT DIDN'T MATTER to anyone important, like a building inspector.
I might suggest to get the sawsall out, cut the bottom chord the rough opening width +6" (King stud, trimmer on either side)
Run the King Studs up to the diagonal truss members, run a double 2X6 header 1" above door height with trimmers underneath
the header and just to appear to know what we're doing  use some "T" straps to strap the King stud/trimmer to the bottom chord of the truss
on either side of the door.
With the rest of the framing, this should insure that the truss can't spread.
I'm not a structural engineer, so anything I say is just practical knowledge, as I personally would NEVER-EVER
tell someone to cut a truss without an engineered drawing, NEVER.
Where do I send the bill?
Greg O

[PRRATSF]

I've been following your build since page one, and decided to go back and reread your journey to see how your vision for the balcony has evolved. Its amazing what you and your Wife have accomplished. Your last post almost sounds like your trying to convince yourself its actually not worth following through on. A viewing platform would be a nice thing to have, but is the amount of work to make it happen worth doing. There seems to be several additional complications beside cutting into the truss as well. Personally I wouldn't follow through with the balcony. I don't think what it will add is worth the potential complications. If you do feel the balcony would enhance your space I would forgo with doorways and go with spiral stairs mentioned earlier. Just my thoughts.

Sam                     

[C855B]

... cut the bottom chord the rough opening width +6" (King stud, trimmer on either side)
Run the King Studs up to the diagonal truss members, run a double 2X6 header 1" above door height with trimmers underneath
the header and just to appear to know what we're doing  use some "T" straps to strap the King stud/trimmer to the bottom chord of the truss
on either side of the door. ...

Thanks, Greg. This was similar to my original thinking. Instead of T straps I would have run glued and through-bolted 2x8s to both faces of the truss to frame the opening, connecting meat to meat. The cut in the bottom chord would be to the width of the rough door opening. I have no issue with increasing the thickness of the frame relative to the wall formed by the truss.

... Your last post almost sounds like your trying to convince yourself its actually not worth following through on. A viewing platform would be a nice thing to have, but is the amount of work to make it happen worth doing. ...

And there you have it. At this moment I am 95% at the point of taking the thing down. There are numerous issues, some that may have been touched on in earlier posts, some not:

• The building is already of compromised design, what I call "penny-engineered". This is where you're saving very small amounts by sacrificing reserve capacity or ease-of-use normally designed into something. Things you don't immediately see in the picture include that the trusses are "married" - two 2-by trusses sandwiched together at the site, not at the factory. They are also on 13' spacings, apparently OK 40 years ago but certainly not today.
• I have run roof loading calculations, prompted by Dave Foxx's observation about the thin purlin support. It was on the very edge of the acceptable snow loading spec for the area. It's also why I had my guy add purlins last week.
• The original concept for the observation deck was prompted by two examples of large (HO) layouts I enjoy. One is the Greeley museum, the other a local HO layout of similar scope associated with a LHS, albeit neither famous nor as well-executed. They have the space, and since they're HO, space for the deck, stairs and other accesses have less impact on the track plan. Also, the areas beneath their decks have seriously compromised headroom and are not public.
• My initial design - nearly page 1! - had the deck and access across the north wall. This is significant because this was entirely between trusses and therefore the ceiling modifications were straightforward. I also had not yet added the chase for the HVAC, which cut that "free" space down the middle. To vault the grid around the current location is possible, but will add many hours of difficult work and likely waste a lot of materials in the trying.
• The lighting plan would also have to be altered around the vaulted ceiling area. Not impossible nor particularly difficult, just needing special design considerations that complicate things a little.
• Overall ceiling height is not as originally planned. The new concrete raised the floor 6" in the area around the balcony, and the grid has to come lower to accommodate insulation. Once the grid is in place the actual ceiling height will be ~12'6", not the 14' first thought, and then there's the intrusion from the suspended lighting. I can work the numbers forever, but it's not going to yield 7' of headroom on both levels.

Putting the exclamation point on all this is the extreme project creep we've already had. We were supposed to have started layout construction two years ago. I have a bad feeling that the modifications to make the balcony work are going to extend things another couple of months and cascade into more delays. If I get all fired-up about still wanting some sort of observation perch, I'll figure something out that is structurally independent and can be added after the space is done.

[jereising]

Mike

I'm with you on the 95%.   But I'd go to 100%.  Never, ever cut a truss.  The building will never be the same in a hundred little ways.  From everything you've said about the building design I see nothing but trouble should you pursue the obs deck.  Ditch it and move forward.

I'm another who has followed stealthily and am a great admirer of what the two of you have accomplished.  Wish I had the guts to do it!