Change of Plans

Four days of the whole Locomotive Engineer thing I do took me away from the Toledo branch for a bit.  Long enough to re-think the whole East end of Toledo...  Studying the station map, and satellite photos brought me to the conclusion that the chip dump needed to be the full 180 degrees from the yard office and plywood plant in order to look right.  Compression is a must when building a model railroad, but things were just too bunched up.  Wrapping the chip dump around to the outside of the helix area gives me a more accurate track layout, along with being able to slide Standard Oil, the House track and Georgia Pacific Plywood to the left.  This will also lengthen the siding and back tracks as well.  I am going to attempt to add in the boat dock that is between the plywood plant and Guy Roberts Lumber, another signature Toledo scene.

The curves will be a little tight, but I would rather sacrifice radius for a more accurate track layout.  Scenery will trick the eye into thinking the curves are a little broader.  And no, I will not be using that funky unitrack...

And a milestone was made tonight, the final pieces of sub roadbed have been cut!  Depot Slough now runs the correct direction and I gained about 16" of space for the town's track layout.

Next step will be working the risers for the helix and upper level as there are minimal risers that are only clamped in place at the moment.  Cork and track will be installed on the lower level and helix before I bolt down the upper level.  I might go ahead and re-vamp the left side of the staging yard to straighten it out some and ease up some of the curvature.

Fitting the Pieces Together

Setting in the mill at Wrens. 

Planing out the track work.  I have a digital copy of the 1960 station map, along with SPINS maps and good old Google Earth to work with.  I made a sketch of the station map, due to the size and detail of the station map, printing on standard letter paper was not feasible.  Plans are to have it printed poster size at some point.  I set some cars out on the layout to visualize the track layout while I was plotting it onto the plywood.

Adventures in Bending Masonite

Finishing the installation of the remaining backdrop.  The hardboard was secured at the section joint, then the old wet, bend, wet, bend trick was used to get the hardboard wrapped around the left side of the layout.  Once in the position desired, the hardboard was secured.  I brought it far around to keep the scene contained, hoping it will really drag your eyes into the scene.

Fitting the helix back into position.

And the rest of the upper level sub roadbed.

Stretching Things Out

After starting to piece together the rest of the upper level, I decided to give myself some more room to work with.

To make room for switches and leads, 9.5" was added to the center section.

Closeup of the section joint, two 1/2" dowel plugs and two 1/4" carriage bolts to align and clamp the sections together.  The dowel will be covered on both sides with the braces for the cantilever supports.

Cantilever's Are Awesome

With the left side kinda figured out, I hung my attention over the center section of the layout and rose a plan to mount the staging yard and Toledo.  I measured, drew up a plan and cut hardboard templates for cantilever style risers.  Then traced and cut the risers out of plywood.

Using this method also allows me to have good solid butt plates for the section joints.  I secured the risers in place in the back(will secure the front later) and test fit the roadbed.  The last shot shows the progress of the whole railroad.

Spirilius Maximus

Work was started on the left side of the layout.  With no real plan in place, I cut a piece of plywood to fit and went from there.  Testing radius and turnout locations for the staging yard, then figuring out how to climb 6 inches to the top.

A helix of some sort would be necessary and I decided to go with the spiral variety to utilize one piece of wood and save construction work.  1 3/4 turn on a 3% grade..  I know, sounds like a lot, but the spiral will only be used for continuous running and not part of operations.

More Work on the Grade

Gaps were finalized for the bridges I plan to add.  The roadbed was aligned and leveled.  Risers were marked and cut to sit flush with the bottom of the bench work.

Starting at the staging yard joint, I clamped risers and did final leveling and secured the roadbed, working down from the top at the same time.

 I took this opportunity to run the bus wires for this section of the railroad as well.