It has been a long stressful winter and spring as we dealt
with the aftermath of discovery of a water leak in our house at the beginning
of January. The leaks were caused
by flooring staples penetrating radiant heat tubing (intended to heat the tile
on our main floor). Four years
later and a thermal cycle (no heat) allowed the punctures to reveal
themselves. I reported the start of
this process back in January:
The railroad has been covered by screwed-down hardboard for
the past four months. The railroad
had to serve as a work platform during that time. House reconstruction (flooring restoration, drywall
replacement, trim—deferred, and paint) finally got underway in April. We finally took action for ourselves
with paint as we realized it was the key item remaining that kept us from
returning to normal house functions.
The trim will get installed in a while, but is not critical to returning
our lives to normal.
Here I am applying paint to the ceiling over Oakridge. A large patch of ceiling was removed
for both leak repair and inspection.
Three new inspection hatches have been left in the ceiling, one of which
is just over my left shoulder in this photo.
Two primary leak sites were discovered. The subsequent inspection effort
exposed more of the ceiling such that four stations on the railroad were
impacted by the construction effort.
The first was over the Oakridge engine terminal. Subsequent inspection led from Oakridge
across the aisle to an area over Cascade Summit. The second leak site was over the RR-West end of
Springfield. The subsequent tubing
inspection led to a long opening that extended from the back wall of the house
to the main house beam over the Eugene Depot area. This last area
disturbed the mounting of my NCE radio base station.
NCE radio base station dangling
from the ceiling.
The ceiling has been restored as far as it will be, with
three inspection hatches left open for now. Eventually they will be covered. They are located over aisles, so the hatch cover mounting
should not impact the railroad.
Radio base station remounted and
Eugene uncovered.
The final step of uncovering the railroad was at Oakridge
where it all began. In the rush to
provide a work platform, I had screwed down many small scraps of hardboard over
the Oakridge track. Uncovering
this area required many more screws to be pulled out than other areas. At least it is done now.
Oakridge uncovered.
I now turn to a period of inspection and repair. I also found I have some spray foam
insulation (used under the house main floor) to dig out that fell between those
scraps covering Oakridge.
Sigh.