Input on height between levels

[lock4244]

I've begun construction by building four 18" x 4' modules and have installed three (ran out of legs). These are 44" off the floor, although the furthest may be lowered if I follow through with an idea I have to hide CP's mainline underneath the automobile assembly plant scene and the two yards serving it. Once the final 18" x 4' module is installed I can start grafting on the 2' x 4' modules I built over the summer for the back wall and island.

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A few takeaways thus far... lumber is expensive, foam is expensive, plywood ain't cheap. Finding straight lumber is easy with any length under a foot, otherwise warping is a fact of life (buying premium quality 2x2's is how you get straight legs). The wall isn't straight, either. I'm building this layout in stages... first of which will be around the walls with an island in the 18' x 14' area of the room. Phase two will be to build out to the door, and phase three will be the area past the doorway.

[Scottl]

Awesome!  Great to see construction begin 

I found foam from construction sites and a local guy selling plywood squares (slightly smaller than 4' X 4') from pallets for cheap.  Facebook Marketplace was full of cheap materials, often in car-friendly sizes.

Also, given you are framing things solidly, I would not hesitate to use OSB rather than plywood.   Solid enough and much less expensive.  Maybe the cabinet makers here will sniff down their noses about it, but it worked find on my last layout.

[lock4244]

It is nice to be making some actual progress now 

I should ask my fitters to keep an eye out on jobsites for discarded foam insulation... so much material gets thrown out during cleanup. We actually get boxed crates made of particle board and dimensional lumber whenever we order trimmed dry valves, wet valves, BFP's, and air compressors, too. Probably need to start procuring that material.

Oh, this is solid construction? I thought I was going a little light in that department. When the old man built our home layout in around 1988 or so that thing could support a tank; the finest in overbuilt layout construction. Dollar bought more back then, so he could splurge on lumber and miles of homasote.

Beyond construction materials I also need to start acquiring control equipment since the 40yo MRC TecII transformer or my newer Kato transformer are probably insufficient. All that fun DCC stuff I hear so much about 

[lock4244]

Have nearly completed benchwork for the island, just need to build the bump-out at the near end. The isles on either side if the island are 4' across, however they get pinched down to 3' at the end of the island, which is 6' wide at the near end, and 4' wide thereafter. Will have some nice radius curves here on the double track CN and single track CP mains.

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On the left you can see a sheet of drywall I had to remove to address a leak in a drain pipe. I would advise that blindly following where the drywaller used screws is a good way to replicate his mistakes... he put four into a drain pipe. I did not, however I put three holes in the pipe looking for the wood stud which the drywaller also missed by several inches 

The leak was detected only after the benchwork was complete through there, but after removing only six screws per module, the sections were easily removed.

[Scottl]

Great progress!

[lock4244]

Great progress!

Thanks man... a few hours each night after work is keeping it growing fairly steady.

Have been thinking a lot about how the second level will be supported by the first, and I think I have a workable plan for the island area. It would be too wordy to describe here, so once I get going on that I'll post pics here.

For the balance I'm at a bit of a loss as to how best to support a second level with minimalist type construction, but I have decided that over the yard / auto assembly plant area where the benchwork is 30-36" deep, the upper level will be kept to 12" deep (it'll just be open running though the countryside) but that 12" shelf will be 8-12" out from the wall. I figure that will enable easier access to it while not totally smothering the lower level.

And I need to build a helix that will run from a lower level staging at 28" to the first level at 44" to an upper level at 63 or 64". Though I feel it would be an enjoyable challenge to build, it will be a massive SOB at 60" x 48"... looking to a lightweight type of solution for that.

[John]

Consider those metal L brackets screwed to 2x2or 2x3. 

[lock4244]

Consider those metal L brackets screwed to 2x2or 2x3.

Dad used them liberally on the helix he built in the 80's, was very effective.

[lock4244]

One of the challenges in building a modular double deck layout, at least for me, is working out a way to support the upper level at the island. The island is made up of four 2'x4' modules attached to create a 4'x8' outgrowth from 2'x4' modules along the wall on one end, with an end module at the other that is 6' across to allow large radius curves. In total the island is around 13' from the wall. Since I need to maintain the ability to disassemble the layout with shorter notice than one would prefer, it's a little tricky to come up with solid supports where the modules are back to back while maintaining quick and nasty disassembly. I've been stalled on this for some time now, and between this and a leak in the foundation walls of the room, work has more of less halted.

Tonight while pondering this riddle, a thought occurred... I could suspend the upper level from above. I've not bothered to finish the room beyond what was already there when I bought the house, so there's un-taped drywall on the walls and an open ceiling. Borrowing a page from the sprinkler systems we design and install, it seems pretty straight forward to use some uni-strut, all thread rod, and brackets to mount trapeze hangers to the laminate joists and suspend this part of the upper level. I get that would still need to have an attachment to the lower level to prevent a little swaying, but there's no issue supporting the weight (I'll have one of our designers work out something to carry a load far in excess of what it would actually weigh), but as I type this I think I may have finally solved this problem.

Has anyone seen this used in layout construction before? Seems way too obvious to be a first.

[lock4244]

Earlier view of the island...

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[OldEastRR]

Why is there a 4'x9' notch-out in your foundation? It looks like the rest of it is a basic rectangle.

[lock4244]

Why is there a 4'x9' notch-out in your foundation? It looks like the rest of it is a basic rectangle.

That's where the front porch is... not excavated.