Boardman River Branch switching shelf

[Hawghead]

I duct mine through a dryer hose into an enclosed, filtered 5 gallon bucket.

Do you have a picture of that?

Thanks,
Scott

[wazzou]

Do you have a picture of that?

Thanks,
Scott

This is the only one right at the moment.
The green 5  Gal. bucket lower right has two bent coat hangers that form a shelf about midway up/down that support a circular cut piece of furnace filter.
You can see the hose that goes into a hole cut in the lid from the outlet at the back of the fan.
The whole booth is made from Foam Core board with a plexi-glass window on top where the swing arm lamp shines through.

 

[freedj]

The spray booth worked really well last night. Now I just have to up my airbrush cleaning game. For solid colors and clear coats I think my dual action brush is overkill. I may pick up a cheap single action external mix for those jobs.

[nickelplate759]

I just switched from my Paasche external mix  back to a Paasche dual-action internal mix.   I found that external mix worked fine for lacquers (e.g. Floquil), but not so much for my preferred paints - Tru-Color - due to paint buildup on the tip while spraying.   Yes, dual-action is overkill for just "painting", but I'd recommend an internal mix single-action.   See Peteski's notes on how to clean it!

Regards,
George

[amato1969]

@nickelplate759 my experience is similar...  My trusty Paasche H (single action) works for the majority of my work.  I also have a Badger Patriot 105 for detail work, but it is very sensitive to tip dry.

  Frank

[freedj]

This post brings us to the end of the Boardman switching shelf v1.  There are a few design obstacles that seem insurmountable at this point and i am feeling like a fresh start is in order.

When I original started building this layout I wanted to keep it small and limited to a small bit of my office space (1x8) That lead me to a switching shelf layout with no opportunity for roundy round.

I have since retrofitted a turnback loop and a turnback helix and expanded the layout to a footprint of 2.5 x 12.  This design gave me the option to let the trains run and a staging track, but with the helix and tight radius on the turn back loop along with the 2.5* incline proved too difficult to get consistent performance from my locomotives.  I have one loco that can go up the helix with a 5 car train, the rest can not.  One poor performing car can prevent most of my locos from going up the turn back loop side with more than 2 cars.  Even with all those obstacles it still makes me smile when my 3yr old wants to go watch the trains   I think the design could have worked if I had another 6" of depth to play with, but I do not.

I am also really struggling with how to make the structures make sense on the layout.  I did not do enough pre-planning on where the 'glue' would end up.  I know where the structures go, but I can't make any sort of road system make sense with the space I have.

In the next iteration I will expand the layout to an around the room design which will remove the need for the incline and helix.  It will require a drop leaf or removable section for continuous running though.  I have also done a much more thorough job of finding prototype industries that I want to model before starting.  In the next few posts (or a new thread) I will outline the space the layout can take, as well as the prototype industries that I want to model.

I am attaching a sketch of the the space.  The purple is my desk, and the drop leaf is on the left side.  The shelf depth on the top and bottom can be reallocated but the isle width at the drop leaf is fixed.

There are some fun ideas in the works including an Arduino/stepper vertical staging 'yard' on the right as well as a drop leaf that will hide in a cabinet when dropped.

[freedj]

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The first area I am focusing on is the top of the vertical staging yard.  This piece is designed so that the whole section can be lifted to expose multiple 5' long staging tracks.  The section break is where the red lines are.  This section crosses in front of a window and is also right next to my office workstation, so I want to keep the depth to a minimum while still having a scene. 

I am looking at putting the transload shed that was the first structure I built on this section as it's a very small structure and would fit fairly well in the space while still giving a few feet of whitespace on each side.  That fits the prototype shed fairly well.  (streetview)

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I have had to mirror the curve and street angle to put the dock door on the isle side while still keeping the section entrance points as close to the wall as I can.  I'll be using this shed:

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I've picked up some C40 rail to try hand laying the inside spur/run around on this section.  If all goes well i am planning on using it for all the sidings on the new version.

One concern I have is using the forest as a screen on the front of both ends but not having anything behind the tracks.  I could put in a short backdrop but I am resistant to putting a back drop on this section because it will block more of my office window.  I could extend the depth another inch or to in order to get a few trees behind the tracks but that feels like it would start to be deeper that I really want it to be.  I could also just make the screen really dense & tall in front and hope that it masks the fact that the tracks are right on the rear edge.

The design for the linear slide is coming along nicely.  A piece of 12mm plywood will span between two of these assemblies and the vertical staging will be built on that plywood.  While my design calls for only 3 levels (top and two others) this design could easily be expanded to many more levels with longer linear rails and lead screws.

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[MVW]

Sorry to hear about the demise of version 1, as I think the basic design holds a lot of promise for those that want switching and some roundy-round action. But if the functionality isn't there (and it sounds like it isn't), all you can do is move on. Looking forward to whatever you cook up next.

Jim

[freedj]

Turns out V1 isn't dead yet!

I've started building the module outlined above and will use the current track work of v1 until i've finished the other side of the room.

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I have updated the track plan slightly from whats above by moving the turnouts onto the module.

[freedj]

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I finished the two turnouts for the current module and was happy with how they are working, but after gluing them to the ties with pliobond the throw is a lot harder. What is the best way to free these back up?

I’m considering a bit of solvent under the moving pieces or trying to get a bit of 400 grit under to remove any sticky glue.  There really isn’t much room to work there though.

As a last resort I could remove the ties in the moving section and really clean it out and redo the tie placement.

[Angus Shops]

In my experience it’s really hard to keep the pliobond off the point rails and you end up gluing the point rails to the ties. It only takes one errant bit of pliobond to gum up movement of the point rails. I’ve taken to omitting the ties under the moving parts of the point rails until I’ve installed the switch and then sliding them under the rails with a little white glue. In some cases I sand the ties a bit prior to installation to ensure they slip under the rails easily but this isn’t usually necessary. In some cases I don’t install any wood ties under the switches until they are installed.

I also add a couple more (suitably gapped) PCB ties after the switch is removed from the Fastracks jig. I usually add one more tie on either side of the insulating gap locations so the there are two ties on both sides of gaps. There can be a lot of stress on the rails as you try to jam on the rail joiners and instal the turnout and its frustrating (and difficult to fix) to have a soldered joint give way. This may be overkill on the gap in the point side of the frog, but on the ‘diverging side’ of the frog the inner rails will be secured one tie after the gap is cut.
Geoff

[bdennis]

Im with Geoff.. I added a few extra copper ties to mine to build strength especially around the frog and point  area.

When applying Pliobond, I went and got a bunch of 5ml siringes with 1mm blunt needles. I then add Pliobond to the siringe and just apply the Pliobond where I really wanted it by turning the turnout upside down and run the Pilobond along the bottom of the rail.
I also cut out turnout templates (from fasttracks as I use their jigs), used a glue stick to apply glue to the template and then added the wood ties to the template (in the appropriate places). Then applied the Pliobond per above to the turnout and then flip the turnout and place it on the wood ties on the template. Saves a heap of Pliobond mess.
I then pre weather the turnout before installing it on the layout as then the weathering paint covers the wood ties nicely and also the paper template that they are attached to.
Once I used the siringe and needles I then take them to a chemist to have them disposed of appropriately.
My turnouts are a bit stuff but when powering them with a turnout machine I use a heavier guage wire to drive them.

[dem34]

I found that stiffness can be remedied fairly easily by notching the underside of the point rails. Its basically invisible if done over what will be a tie and doesn't effect sturdiness meaningfully as long as you don't go crazy with it.

[freedj]

After a bit of re-work I was able to make the turnouts work well.  I ended up desoldering the throwbar and cleaning it all out really well, and then very very carefully resoldering the throwbar in.  I did this on both turnouts.  Thanks for the advise everyone.  I do have the turnouts assembled and glued onto the paper templates.  I have reinforced the ends with a single extra PCB tie, but I see that bdennis has really added a bunch of extra PCB Ties.

Once the turnouts were sorted out I made a fixture to ensure that the tracks entered the module at a consistent 10* angle and spacing back from the front edge.  This will be key as the plan is to eventually make this the top level of a staging elevator.  Each staging track below will need to line up almost exactly.

Then I epoxied in some PCB ties at the module ends and then my daughter and I laid some ME Code 55 Flex around the main arc of the module.  I laid in some PCB Ties at the grade crossing to make it possible to install the guard rails into the road.

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[Steveruger45]

Very cool stuff Sir and such a lovely daughter too.
I have to see this staging elevator to the end result as i have something similar In mind.