Plan for Southern Pacific El Centro Branch 1982

[chuck geiger]

Dude good to hear from you...good ideas - I will build that darn thing one of these days.
I dismantled what I had and hauled the sections to Arizona in a U-Haul with my stuff.
Dumb-a$$, I is...I ended up pitching them after taking everything off them. I was picking
Scenic Express tufts off and putting them back on the mat. For 37.00 you bet. I only
had a studio apartment - Don't know what I was thinking.

[Wlal13again]

Sure thing, sent you a PM

[chuck geiger]

Really...
Just build the Carolina Central.  Drop the outer interchange track for another siding/storage track on the 'back' of the layout.  Route the sidings in a way that better represents the US Gypsum prototype and go to town.  While your own designs pack in a lot of interest, the curves are incredibly tight and you are representing the available space rectangle more as a 4x8 than the reality of a door.  You won't get a lot of scenery outside the tracks even with a 36" door.  Better to adjust your expectations before construction begins.  Never a bad idea to use masking tape on the floor with some sectional curves in hand to bring reality around.  Sad to see 'The San Juaquin Valley' go uncompleted, but that is the nature of life/layouts...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Much better.

Go to home depot tomorrow and get going!

[chuck geiger]

Thanks Ed, Everything is in storage totes at my daughters house. Going over
Sunday to sort through it all. Maybe next weekend. I have everything, just
need door and foam. What do you support the door on?

[Wlal13again]

I used a set of folding banquet table legs from Home Depot. $29.50. I like it Chuck, go forth and build...

[chuck geiger]

What is the height Rich? - Kind of low...

Waddell Mfg. Folding Banquet Table Legs
Model # 2775     Internet/Catalog # 100048820     
Store SKU# 767727   
$16.99/EA Each

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I use two cheap book shelves from Ikea, facing in, and a black drape across the front.

[davefoxx]

What is the height Rich? - Kind of low...

Chuck,

I followed the suggestion in the Carolina Central articles in MR (and subsequently, the book, N Scale Model Railroading) and extended the folding legs with 1" electrical conduit.  I inserted a wooden dowel in the end of the conduit and drilled and tapped for tee-nuts, which accept a screw for leveling.  You can somewhat see the legs in the following picture:


Hope this helps,
Dave Foxx

[TiVoPrince]

Get
some 2x2 masonite/luan squares to laminate to the bottom side of the door.  Gives you more 'meat' to screw the leg assemblies to.  Height is not too much a big deal as you can raise up now or later using pipes slipped over the banquet table legs like suggested in the last post...

Thinking you may want to consider another look at the desert side switching design.  It does not look all that long term interesting, and may warrant a few 'tweaks' to liven it up a bit...

[chuck geiger]

Dave, that's right you built the same layout and it looks awesome, yard ext there?

[Wlal13again]

What is the height Rich? - Kind of low...

Waddell Mfg. Folding Banquet Table Legs
Model # 2775     Internet/Catalog # 100048820    
Store SKU# 767727    
$16.99/EA Each

I forgot that part, I glued 4 1x4`s to the bottom of the door to anchor the legs to.  then slid 3/4 inch dowels cut to 19 inches into the table legs, it`s a nice tight fit, then I drilled through each leg and into the dowels, and put a small woodscrew in to secure it. Then I used 3/8 T nuts with eye bolts in the bottom of each leg so I could adjust the height, I prefer the eye bolts, you can put  ascrewdriver in them and easily turn them to get your height like Ntrak. With the eye bolts, dowels, legs, 1x4`s, door, foam I have 52 inches at the top of the layout

[davefoxx]

Dave, that's right you built the same layout and it looks awesome, yard ext there?

Chuck,

Thanks, Chuck.  Yes, I added a staging yard to the layout, and, boy, does it improve operations and significantly add to the rolling stock capacity that the layout can handle.  If you have room, I highly recommend doing the same.  In fact, you can see in a recent thread that Dave Vollmer is adding a separate staging yard to his door layout.  In my case, I used a 12" wide hollow core door for the yard.


Dave Foxx

[chuck geiger]

Really...
Just build the Carolina Central.  Drop the outer interchange track for another siding/storage track on the 'back' of the layout.  Route the sidings in a way that better represents the US Gypsum prototype and go to town.  While your own designs pack in a lot of interest, the curves are incredibly tight and you are representing the available space rectangle more as a 4x8 than the reality of a door.  You won't get a lot of scenery outside the tracks even with a 36" door.  Better to adjust your expectations before construction begins.  Never a bad idea to use masking tape on the floor with some sectional curves in hand to bring reality around.  Sad to see 'The San Juaquin Valley' go uncompleted, but that is the nature of life/layouts...

The planned return of the TIVO DESIGNED SJ/SP West Side Line....We might be back - 6-12' outbuilding on my patio, will it work....

[TiVoPrince]

Chuck
check your PM for some questions...