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

[Specter3]

With your long legs it will be very easy to run a rear line climbing to a higher deck. Another thought is just build a second deck and have a set out on the main level and use the 0-5-0 to place them on the upper deck. You could have a cartridge that moves between levels as well. A friend of mine who was featured in one of the last couple of months n scale magazines has a layout that has two independent sections. One is NS from Charlotte to Washington and the other is the Winston Salem Southbound. They cross each other and that is represented by dead trackage on each layout. I have operated there and when you hear about it, it seems weird, but once you run it,it works great. He doesnt even actively move cars between them. Just sets up prior to sessions and works the setouts during runs. So as strange as it sounds, two independent decks are an option. And it saves you the hassle of connecting them and coming up with a story or prototype spot where that would fit.

[packers#1]

And then there's also SAH's AC&Y Layout here; he's using cassettes to move his trains between levels.
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=19053.0

[C855B]

Double-decking... I'm still scratching on the plan, but it's looking like there is sufficient space shaping up for a nice climb out of an in-context junction point for the branch I want to "model" (paraphrase, really). If the full rise doesn't work in the given distance, the location in the layout plan is enough for a partial helix to jump start it. My motivation for the branchline operation is to have a section of the layout that can sort of be "the land that time forgot". This would be roughly 20 years earlier than the 1965-75 of the main layout - early diesels, maybe a small steamer or two, lower-quadrant semaphores, old-fashioned small wooden depots.

I ran into a big snag with the revising of the track plan, so the new version is not quite ready to show yet. The change in floor level I managed to mostly conceal with one leg of the original benchwork is now fully exposed. The choice at the moment is moving it back and lose an entire 5'x35' leg to too much aisle space, or buy some concrete to change the location of the step-down. I'm leaning towards the latter. Deck plan is fitting in a little better with the new arrangement, with 35-40 sq. ft. additional available for the layout over what was originally planned.

This past week has been wrapping-up a plumbing change in the studio, a bunch of electrical, and beaucoup insulation. Walls are being upgraded from R-4 panels alone or R-11 plus the panels, to a combined R-4 + R-13 + R-18. Ceiling above the studio starts getting R-30 tomorrow, up from R-11. R-38 is the plan above the layout area. It's going to be pretty cozy when we're done. Robyn has been doing all the insulation work so far including taking down the truly nasty old stuff, and is getting to be a real pro at it.

Making big headway on electrical. Outlets came alive in the studio last night, new bathroom light/fan was finished earlier in the week, and J-boxes for the LED downlights in the studio are in and wired, with one light installed, the rest waiting for insulation and drywall. I've been yanking out old wiring like a madman - down to the last four circuits in the old breaker panel, and there's quite a pile of scrapped Romex growing in the recycling area. Next on this list is the switch panel next to the front door, controlling several lighting areas. I moved this up in the timeline to put the current front area lights on the new distribution and get the old breaker box out and done with.

Haven't heard from our contractor since Christmas, when the crew finished the façade. Understandable - it snowed three times since for 12" total, and we're just starting to see bare ground today. They've got a bit more roof work to do, and they're certainly not going to do it with ice on the metal! It'll be in the 40's next week, so we expect big things including the second new window in the studio, and progress on the roll-up and man doors in the back.

Some of our community contacts have forwarded compliments about the appearance changes, "Who's working on the old AA building? It sure is a huge improvement, whatever they're doing with it." Good.

[packers#1]

The land that time forgot? Nice idea 
Sounds like some good progress.
I snagged the pics of the rail park. Turns out, upon actually inspecting the rail park, they don't have a bench, just a huge sign, a couple of street lights, grass, and an indention in the street to allow parking. If you still want the pics, could you please PM me an email address to send them to?

[C855B]

Thanks for the offer, Sawyer, tho' you're right, it's probably not enough for what we need to present. I took a look at the satellite view and was hoping the gazebo was part of the railfan area, but evidently not. I did run the idea past a well-placed acquaintance, mostly for who to contact with the idea. He referred us to somebody we already knew and have a good working relationship with. Who'd a thunk?

[packers#1]

I understand, you're welcome; good luck with it working out!

[C855B]

OK... here's v3.0 of the track plan. I still have not fleshed-out the industrial areas around Pomona and East Yard, so there is some blank canvas in that area. It just dawned on me that at one time there was a feed lot west of Pomona with a "spur" accessible from both the UP and SP tracks... and the "spur" could be pressed into service as a crossover between the two mains. It would be a fun detail to model. And, hey, it would be a great supplier of raw material for Bandini Mountain.

With all the relocations I haven't completely wrapped my head around the stuff on the Wyoming and Nebraska side of the layout yet, so more blank canvas to resolve. I think we have figured-out that the branchline for the second level will come out of the Cheyenne/Hershey area, corresponding to the loop that runs through Gering, NE. Once I have the connection figured, the second level will go on the plan. It will be about a foot wide along the walls from the southeast corner to the northwest corner, or about 95 running feet.



I am hoping to nail-down the rough track plan - at least the benchwork plan - within the next two or three months. When the grid ceiling goes up I have to get serious about lighting placements, which are somewhat dictated by aisle locations.

Oh... the fat yellow line is my current quandry, the 4" change in floor level, and the trip hazard it creates by being a foot into the aisle. I will let this current plan simmer a bit, and mull whether I want to pour 2' x 50' x 4" of concrete (a little over a cubic yard) to extend the high portion to under the benchwork location, or just build a corresponding bit of decking and call it a day.

[C855B]

Oops ... better get this down while the fleeting clarity is here...

Branchline definitely comes out of that southeast lobe, and takes advantage of a LDE I wanted, the C&S trestle over the UP main in west Cheyenne. That way I get 2-2.5" of climb even before getting to the east wall, and have plenty of room for the connecting wye. The rest of the transition grade can take the entire east wall, worked into the scenery as being on the grassy sand hills north of the main... actually somewhat like the prototype out of Hershey.

Light bulb went on for a solution to the turnaround issues at the west end for the branch. I was going to leave it as stub-ended with a runaround, given that if I attempt a wye in the northwest corner it will have reach problems with the switch and tail track in the corner. I was also thinking a small turntable for operational interest. Solution is to turn the corner and have a loop over Victorville cement. Problem solved, and I might do the turntable anyway.

[C855B]

Update on building work - things are moving along briskly. Old roll-up door has been removed from its hiding place above the workshop ceiling, and the opening for new roll-up loading door is framed and ready for new door arriving in about two weeks. New safety exit is installed in the workshop area. Metal recovered from the façade work has replaced the terrible, mismatched and leaky patch job covering the old roll-up door opening. Much rotten lumber removed from that area and replaced. Gaps in slab under studio area walls got new concrete on Friday; these gaps were holding up new interior framing and insulation work. Ran three new circuits to front, two for lights and one for outlets.

This week is scheduled for a small slab pour in the studio to level the very un-level original concrete, and eliminate a step-up. The south studio windows remain to be framed and installed, and then I can finish the interior framing in the studio. Have J-boxes and conduit to install for studio lighting, but progress there will be put on momentary hold for the new concrete to set.

I have been "auditioning" stage-style lighting for day/night transition effects as well as general layout lighting. I have a RGBA (RGB + amber) "flat PAR can" I'm testing that looks promising; regular RGB did not fare well for twilight simulations. I have a brighter version of this RGBA PAR light set to arrive this week. I'll post shots when I have the three primary test candidates in hand.

[C855B]

Concrete pour in studio area went well. It reminded me why I do not try this as a a DIY project - once that concrete starts coming down the chute, your ducks had better be in a row, and you'd better have a lot of ducks available. My guy and his crew did a great job.

New stage light arrived yesterday, and I setup comparative tests this evening to verify the differences. Here are fronts and backs of the three lights I tested:





From the back, on the right is a RGB "wall wash" bar, the middle a RGBA PAR-can equivalent with high-flux emitters, and the left is a RGBA PAR-equiv with a 10mm LED array. Above the bar light is a consumer-grade LED spot I was using as a baseline and a work light.

The light in the middle is the clear winner. Here are two blues, the small one from the RGBA on the left, the large from the middle high-flux unit:





Here is the "sunset" orange I could not get with RGB:



The light output from the wash bar was indistinguishable in brightness and shape from the "lesser" PAR spot, and the amber on the small PAR was wimpy-wimpy-wimpy. The high-flux PAR with all colors full was almost good enough to be a general white light source, the "almost" was that the white was pinkish. RGBAW lights in this form factor (RGB+amber+white) are still prohibitively expensive, so there are still going to be separate conventional white spots for general layout lighting. But for lighting effects, I think I found something that'll work well.

[C855B]

As reported in Weekend Update, the cold here is hampering progress on the building. The concrete was solid enough to walk on the day after the pour, but it is taking friggin' forever to fully cure, necessary before I start drilling Tapcons in for new stud walls. Electrical is the critical path at the moment, as there are conduit runs needed and old Romex to remove before Robyn and our new helper, Alphonso, can get serious about finishing the insulation in the studio. Since the electrical has to be done with bare fingers for screws and such, I can only tolerate the sub-freezing for about 30 minutes before digits get too numb to handle screws.

Alphonso and I unloaded the 19 sheets of slatwall out of the truck, finally, since I needed the truck emptied to schlep modules for the train show. Roll-up door arrived Thursday, but it's currently residing a block north at the history museum since we didn't have a dock. The crew that does the exterior work should be installing it next week although they will be dodging weather.

[Philip H]

Mike,
I know from experience the pain of doing electrical in a cold space in winter!  The wiring is no fun - but have you got all your boxes and such in place?  I've installed plenty of those in gloves . . . 

[C855B]

Good thought, but nearly all the boxes are already in, in the space we're working on. I've got probably 200-250' of MC cable runs to do, and that means clamps, which means more screws. Plus I have to fiddle around in a live panel to add three circuits, so cold, poorly-gripping fingers are probably a bad idea. Weather prognosticators say we're in for 60° on Monday and Tuesday, so if work doesn't yank my chain too hard it'll be warm enough to make headway.

Disappointment of the week was learning that the great LED downlights from Home Depot I was using everywhere have been discontinued. They're unique because while they're can retrofits, they can also used in a J-box alone (with an extension), saving beaucoup bucks and installation time. Hopefully I have enough for the studio.

[C855B]

It's only fitting that my 1000th post on TRW should be in my own thread.

I could use some input with a building dilemma. Plans for the 45'x45' layout area call for suspended grid ceiling. Unfortunately, the only structure between the roof trusses (15' spacings*) to suspend from is the perlins. That's too much wire, and the result will be unstable. Adding intermediate support joists between the trusses creates its own issues; anything light like, say, a 2x4, is going to sag, even on its side. 2x6's or 2x8's probably will not sag noticeably in the 15' spans, but the accumulated weight of the larger wood is going to be too much to hang from the bottom chord of the trusses. Absolute maximum spacing of the grid attachment points is 4', although Armstrong wants 2' according to their residential application guides (they're gonna get 4').

We don't have to support much weight, and it's evenly distributed, the overriding issue is stability/stiffness. What I am mulling at the moment is to make my own glue-lam I-beams, 2x6 equivalents fabricated from ripped-down 2x4 into 1"x1-1/2" for the flanges, dadoed to accept a 1/4" ply web. Commercially available beams are intended for floor joists (2x8 form factor is the smallest), engineered for much heavier loads and are in themselves too heavy for my application.

Other ideas?

* - I should note for the peanut gallery that these are not standard residential roof trusses. These are made of 4x10s, with a 45' free span. Heavy stuff. This building survived a small tornado two years ago that peeled the roof off the building across the street.

[Zox]

That suspended-ceiling issue sounds like the sort of thing you really want to ask a professional about. I'd check with Armstrong themselves to see if they have any suggestions; I doubt you're the first person with this situation.

If the pros don't have any suggestions, how about doing a catenary-style support? Hang a wire on a parabola between two of the trusses; use stays between that and a lower wire to hold the lower wire horizontal; use that wire as the support to hang the grid from.