Tehachapi, BC

[Bendtracker1]

Looks immaculate Gary!
Nice work and Congrats!

[C855B]

Hey, Gary...

Had an inspiration this afternoon:



You recognize the blade. The handle is intended for recip saw blades, but it seems to work fine with saber saw blades, too. With multiple passes it was even good for short straight cuts in 2" foam where it was too much hassle to drag out the power tool.

I was uncomfortable using the disposable utility knives with the snap-off blades. Handle was too small and especially the risk of breaking the blade under force (and driving your hand into the knife ) was more than I thought safe.

[Scottl]

Great idea!

[GaryHinshaw]

Great idea Mike.  Thanks for posting it.  Do you have a part number or link for that handle?

I have been using a snap-off utility knife with a thin somewhat flexible blade and you do have to go easy with it for sure, but the flexibility is a very handy feature.  I wish I could find a longer one-piece blade that was similarly flexible.

-gfh

P.S. I'm jealous of your shop space!   

[C855B]

"Irwin ProTouch Multi-Saw", #2015100. It comes with a couple of blades - a hacksaw blade and a recip blade - but the idea is a clamp screw which holds down almost any sort of thin blade.

I'm jealous of my shop space, too. What you don't see to the right of the picture are four furnaces, four water heaters and a dishwasher recovered from the apartment demolition. I want my space back!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh, that's hot. NOW you post that!

Also, if you're looking for a better utility knife, there's my MOAUT:
http://www.stanleytools.com/en-us/products/hand-tools/knives-blades/multi-tool/25mm-fatmax-snapoff-knife/10-817

I got one of these a few years ago, and I absolutely love it. I'm lost without it.

[wazzou]

I got one of these a few years ago, and I absolutely love it. I'm lost without it.

How long ago did you misplace it?   

[jmarley76]

Similar to the Irwin saw, Lenox makes a folding hand saw that will accept recip saw blades. You can set the blade in several positions. The opposite end of the handle is designed to hold a hack saw blade. I've had mine for several years and it's been great for many different tasks, both hobby related and not. I found it at the local home improvement store for less than $20.

http://www.lenoxtools.com/pages/lenox-tri-fold-saw-folding-jab.aspx

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the additional recommendations guys.  I'll keep them filed away until scenery work recommences.  For the time being, all available hobby bandwidth is once again being devoted to infrastructure, as I have two significant ops session deadlines looming, and they require that I meet two significant milestones:

1) Finish wiring the Bakersfield staging yard.  This task is about 60% complete now.  There is nothing photogenic about it, but it does serve as a constant reminder that building a room-sized layout is a lot of work.

2) Get the lower deck mainline installed to an operable level.  This task represents the fifth and final stage of the overall layout build, and it is now well underway.  (Stage 1 was the upper deck main, stages 2-4 were the three staging yards, so stage 5 means finally getting back to working on the heart of the layout.)  Here is a brief update.

Today I laid out and cut the last pieces of cookie-cutter roadbed for the layout.  Using the CAD plan, I laid out segments on a 4x8 footprint and printed the template full size:



After transferring the plan to plywood, I went to work with the jig saw (it's noisy & messy work!):



(The result looks like some kind of sea creature.)  While I had the pieces out on the patio, I laid out the (highly compressed) segment from Caliente to Bealville (about 18' from left to right):



Even more than the Loop itself, nothing says Tehachapi like relentless curvature.  I can't wait to see trains plying these curves!  Layout photos will follow once the dust settles (literally).  Thanks for looking.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Muy caliente Gary!

[Philip H]

[ednadolski]

nothing says Tehachapi like relentless curvature.

Can't wait to see long strings of double-stackers wrapping themselves along that!   

Ed

[basementcalling]

Gary has the best looking plywood of anyone on TRW.

I had no idea that so much of the ROW along Tehachipi had been paved over however. The overheads on Bing.maps.com are obviously outdated as they don't show so much slate. 

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks guys. 

Muy caliente Gary!

Perfect! 

Exactly the creature I had in mind @Philip H

Wait until you see the benchwork needed to support the above segment over the Bakersfield staging yard... 

[James Costello]

Gary - along the Tunnel 2 to Bealville/Allard curves, do you have any transitions or are they just back to back reverse curves?

Thanks