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

[GaryHinshaw]

Has anybody played with the Apple/Philips Hue Lighting System for effects lighting? It's fairly new (last December), and at $60 per bulb its moderately pricey, but if bright enough (600 lumens, or ~60W-equivalent each) it might be the solution I'm seeking. Reviewers so far are loving the bulbs and hating the software, but there's a developer API for it and 3rd-party apps are coming online now to address the shortcomings.

Eric220 showed me something like this on his PRR Transcon (it sounds like the same setup).  You might want to compare notes with him.

I'm not much for lighting effects, but I am a big fan of lumens.  I currently have ~56,000 lumens in my 10x20' room (20 T8 fluorescent bulbs at a height of 8').  While it is very bright and even room lighting, I actually wouldn't mind even more light when I'm watching trains.  Your room is about 8 times larger than mine, so I'm guessing your pike could easily accommodate ~500K lumens if you go with uniform illumination.  That's over 800 of these bulbs! 

How are you thinking of positioning these lights?  Up close spot lights; more general room illumination?

-gfh

[C855B]

Spots of some form. The plan at the moment is tracks suspended from the ceiling to ~9 ft., using bullet or similar reflector heads to direct the outputs. My original plan had roughly 60 Philips GU10 LED mini-spots on gimbal heads, also in 600 lumens, and they are very bright as focused light sources. I'm not necessarily going to pull the trigger on these conventional-form-factor Hue bulbs until getting a better idea of the release of different bulb types. If they do Hue spots with similar performance to their whites I'll be all over 'em.

I will also probably go back to my plan of wiring the tracks for two circuits. The Halo/Lowes hardware allows a mod for separate wiring of each side, so I could, say, have a circuit of general white spots for less cost and more illumination, and then the other circuit for effects. I'm actually excited that I can probably eliminate the whole stage lighting thing, because that was getting overly-complicated and expensive in its own right.

[C855B]

It has been a few weeks since the last report. Not too much news, primarily more progress on sub-projects for the building previously mentioned. The warmer weather is energizing us, and every work session results in something "done" on the endless checklist.

HVAC trunk and distribution for the layout room went up last Thursday. Equipment is scheduled to be delivered this week; I ran the electrical for it a couple of weeks ago and just need the equipment in place to terminate the runs. Speaking of HVAC, we moved the heaters out of the studio a couple of days ago and I pulled their wiring out of the fusebox. They were in the way. It's really nice to not constantly be tripping over them.

A small section of 14' studwall went up last week as part of framing the studio area expansion. This is our first visualization of the layout space as defined by new construction, not to mention the work ahead of us for the remainder of the walls. I'll try to remember to get some pictures tomorrow and post.

A big milestone yesterday was moving support joists in the way of fully opening the layout room in the "front" half of the building.  It was also in the way of completing the sheetrock in the studio. Once we get the grid support joists between the trusses - this week hopefully - the mezzanine over the east half of the layout space can be demolished and the 2x12's recovered for the deck, catwalk, and stairs, plus the mezzanine expansion over the workshop area.

I wish I could report more headway on the track plan, but I seem to be dealing with a mental block on the Wasatch Canyon ("Curvo") area. It's not that I don't know what I want, but, rather, it's the making it work as a scene as the track climbs out of Grant Tower. Challenge is the featured flyover wants to hide in the back of the scene, and solutions to "face" the flyover to make it visible results in awkward and too-sharp curves. I'll work it out.

[C855B]

Funny, yet not funny. From wjbdradio.com:

All Three Drivers Hurt in Chain Reaction Crash in Centralia


Emergency officials at scene of three vehicle chain reaction crash at McCord and Airport Roads in Centralia late Wednesday morning. Photo by Tim Ferguson.

All three drivers were injured in a chain reaction collision on McCord Street at the Airport Road late Wednesday morning. 

Centralia Police say an eastbound pickup truck on McCord driven by 57-year-old Vance Koenegstin of Washington Street in Dix crashed into a van forcing it into the vehicle stopped in front of her.  The van was driven by 35-year-old Heather Benson of Keenes. Benson's vehicle was forced into a car driven by 47-year-old Beth Moore of East Oglesby in Salem.   

All three drivers were taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Centralia for treatment.  Koenegstin was ticketed for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident. 

The crash occurred at 11:22 Wednesday morning.

The at-fault driver is my HVAC installer. The big tan box on the back of the red truck is the air handler on its way to my layout building. Vance was a little late getting here yesterday; he was examined and immediately discharged, and is OK.

[DKS]

Seriously. I laid it out with the MTL Z sectional library for fit - which came out great ("Victorville Cement", above) - but execution will need an N-scale solution for tie size and spacing. Something which keeps me from having to lay stick-by-stick will save beaucoup time, and your inspired idea came along at the right stage in planning. Tip o' the hat!

Mike, you'll be glad to know this project is going forward. Initially there will be "flex" track sections (~8" each) and #4 left and right switches. Eventually I will add #6 switches and possibly a wye and/or a crossing. Anything specific you might need that I can put on the development list?

[C855B]

Thanks for the update, David. I don't need anything special... flex and #4's will do the trick.

But you're doing Code 30 rail, right? 

[DKS]

Thanks for the update, David. I don't need anything special... flex and #4's will do the trick.

But you're doing Code 30 rail, right? 

Um... right.

You do recall, it's actually Code 0 rail? It's just ties, made for Code 40 rail, which drops right into the slots.

[C855B]

Oh yes, I know. Tie forms only. I only wanted to tweak you about Code 30 because of prior conversations about the specter of producing it.

[DKS]

Consider me tweaked! 

[C855B]

Latest track planning:



Building features and backdrops are suppressed in this drawing. Most of the difference from previous versions is continuation of lines to the "east". Green River is fleshed-out. Liberties had to be taken with station order on the easternmost leg because Cheyenne will occupy all of that lobe at the bottom right. This puts Gibbon and Cozad RR west of Cheyenne... oh, well.

Still wrestling with how to fit the refinery at Sinclair given that everything is converging there to start the triple-track run through Nebraska and make the transition to the upper deck. Since I'm already resigned to scrambling station order, Sinclair will probably best fit in the bottom right. The empty space on the extreme right is for the climb out of Cheyenne to the upper deck branchline which runs the entire length of the north wall. Grade for the deck transition looks like it will be around 2%.

AnyRail's inventory tells me we have 1200' feet of flex at this point. Dat's a lotta track!

[C855B]

A banner day: the new HVAC system came online this afternoon. I threw the guys a curve by having them install a Nest thermostat. It was fun to watch them scratch their heads for a while.   But the heat heats, the AC cools, and the meter spins like a son-of-a-gun, so we're golden.

Drywall for the ceiling in the studio area is going up sort of slow. A rented drywall hoist is making the job less stressful, but it doesn't lift the screw gun for me so we can only work until the shoulders give out - 28+ screws per sheet is not trivial. We figure to have the panels done by Sunday, and then I get to crack the whip over Robyn for the mud and paint, which she will not let me do for some reason . Once painted I can install light fixtures and put up the trackwall, and do the finish work.

Phonsie started teardown of the mezzanine area over the layout room today. Following NARmike's idea for steel studs to support the gridwork, the joist brackets are up and the studs should be delivered next week. At the current work pace I figure wall extensions for the high walls in the layout room to be going up 2nd or 3rd week of May, but that work sequence may be scrambled because we need to first recover a couple of of the 2x12x22' floor joists from the mezzanine to do the ledger board for the observation deck.

With the weather improving time will need to be spent outside with the pressure washer and paint gun. Lots'n'lots to do, IOW, but progress is nonetheless being made.

[C855B]

Construction progress. Robyn mudding the ceiling in the studio:



I have a couple of small sheets with difficult trims to put up, and then she can finish the mud and paint.

Main A/C trunk with the momentarily unterminated flex for the layout area:



The progress removing the mezzanine floor made me realize that I might have to reprioritize subprojects again. We are at the point where materials storage is interfering with construction. Removing the 2x12's from the mezzanine to clear the ceiling above the layout room will create yet another pile of large materials we keep tripping over. These 2x12's are destined for floor joists under the relocated mezzanine at the opposite end of the building. To put these in place means we have to demolish the workshop ceiling and build new stairs now, plus frame the floor supports. I was originally going to not mess with this area until layout construction was started, but noooooooooo...

The fun never ends.

[Philip H]

Mike,
I see you married a woman who can drywall - as did I.  They are true rare gems, and you are to be congratulated.

As to reprioritizing - you've never worked as a contractor have you?

[basementcalling]

Latest track planning:


AnyRail's inventory tells me we have 1200' feet of flex at this point. Dat's a lotta track!

No wonder. What an awesome concept. That it's UP doesn't hurt.

If I saw Anyrail tell me I had 1200 of anything, I would blow a circuit or two myself.

[C855B]

No wonder. What an awesome concept. That it's UP doesn't hurt. ...

Thanks! Yeah, pretty ambitious... no... extremely ambitious.

More progress to report, and a couple of setbacks, but one problem can be used to make lemonade.

The change of priorities is going full-bore. Phonsie moved the toolroom stash and removed most of the drywall in the workshop area yesterday. Once the workshop area ceiling comes down (I have one last circuit to move), we can start on the new stairs and get the mezzanine extension going. That way the 2x12s currently over the layout area can be moved once and not twice. The stairs are proving to be an engineering challenge - I did not allow enough room for "run" and as a consequence am having to tweak the landings to get it to fit.

Today we have a little bit of concrete work on the agenda; the forms are already in place and I just need to mix and pour (and screed, and smooth, and fix mistakes ).

First setback is budget - the HVAC contractor's bill arrived yesterday. Not a surprise, not at all - under the quote, as matter of fact - but writing the check is still going to be painful. I'm mentally tabulating the remaining big ticket subprojects (grid ceiling, insulation, lighting) and all I can do is cringe.

Second setback is weird. Anybody following earlier in the thread might recall the issue we had with the neighbor over our dumpster. Well, dumpster problems have become a recurring theme. If it's not somebody dumping yard waste (illegal here to dump in general garbage pickup), it's dumpster divers rummaging through stuff and making a mess. We locked it a long while back, but this weekend was the last straw, when we missed catching - by two minutes - one of the regular dumpster divers breaking the lid hinge to go through the trash. We saw him in time to run after him and exchange words, but because we did not have hard evidence that he was the one who broke the hinge (which, gee, was OK 30 minutes earlier), we didn't feel we were in a position to waste the police's time for a property damage complaint as it was our word against his. Anyway, I threw a couple bucks' hardware at the hinge to repair it.

The lemonade in this deal comes with the now-renewed incentive to get the video surveillance system going, which means you guys get your railcam. I just (as in 10 minutes ago) won an eBay for a professional IP video processor of the same type I use in my job. It has four video channels, three I can use around the building, and one will be dedicated to the railcam. I need to shop for a reasonable camera with optical zoom and get the internet drop to the building, and there you have it. I figure 2-3 weeks, mostly because I need the Charter drop to be in an area where access isn't constructed yet.