FIRST TOWN SITE SUBROADBED PANELS

Upon completion of the first phase of benchwork structure, ¾” plywood panels have been added for subroadbed.  The primary, mostly full sheet, panels for Oakridge and Springfield have been placed, joined and attached to the stringers. 

Oakridge subroadbed with wye in foreground.

Springfield benchwork and primary plywood subroadbed panels.

Gaps have been left that will be filled by roadbed width strips of plywood and bridges.  Three streams must be crossed: 1) Salmon Creek on the RR-west end of Oakridge (crossed by both the mainline and the Pope and Talbot mill lead), 2) the North Fork of the Willamette River at Westfir, and 3) the full Willamette River between Springfield and Eugene. 

Westfir subroadbed panel.  Curve templates are placed where the mainline and one of the Western Lumber spurs will be located.

A design choice has been to keep all of the “valley core” from Eugene to Oakridge on one base level.  The actual railroad climbs almost 1000 feet from Eugene to Oakridge.  The plan for the stream crossings has been to place a plywood panel well below the main subroadbed level to serve as the streambed. 

As I begin implementing this design and construction, I am wrestling with how to scenic the stream areas.  The larger stream areas at Salmon Creek and the full Willamette crossing should have sufficient space to create a believable slope to the stream banks.  The Westfir gap appears too short.  Further, the backdrop treatment in this area needs to be considered.  One idea to help the scenery in this area is to slightly raise the mainline through Westfir.  Introducing a modest track profile hump, centered on the Westfir mainline switch might help the overall scene, but might not have much effect at the stream crossing. The actual bridge is fairly deep, as truss bridges usually are, and still has good clearance above the river.  An option under consideration is to replace the deck truss bridge with a simple girder, perhaps even a through plate girder.  This may become “a bridge too far” so the stream crossing might be eliminated.

As the space for the railroad becomes occupied by benchwork and subroadbed, it is becoming obvious that I will need to add lighting.  This can be seen in the Oakridge and Westfir photos.  Much of this was expected and planned for.  There are light fixture junction boxes intended for connecting track lighting strategically located in the ceiling.  Future construction, notably the backdrop spine weaving through the middle of the valley core, will further impact lighting.  Lighting additions will be considered as the railroad gets built.

BENCHWORK CONSTRUCTION BEGINS

Considerable progress has been made in the past two weeks with the benchwork base for the “valley core” of the HO scale SP Cascade Line.  The table saw help by Dennis R., previously reported, netted a stack of plywood “dimensional lumber” that now has found its way into benchwork.  Legs were attached to the first L-girder which was attached to the central post and a wall in the basement on July 31.

First L-girder mounted to basement wall and post.

A couple of great ideas were gleaned from a visit with Jerry B. and the Corvallis Society of Model Railroaders.  The CSMR currently is in the midst of benchwork construction for their new, second layout in their Adair Village facility.  Jerry suggested rounding over the sharp bottom edges of the L-girders.  My back already appreciates this idea.  It is well worth the modest effort with a router.  Jerry also suggested ripping 2x6 into 2x3 for legs.  Good idea, but my execution with poor lumber choice was reported previously.  Jerry’s good idea for legs that has worked out is the use of lag screws for leg height adjustment.  No matter how “perfect” one’s carpentry, adjustments still are necessary.  Thanks Jerry!

 Inverted L-girder section on left shows bottom edges rounded with a 1/8” round-over router bit.  2x3 leg on right has 3/8 inch lag screw in bottom for height adjustment.

With the first L-girder mounted, it was relatively easier to erect additional L-girders alongside the first the flesh out the base structure for the Eugene Depot and Oakridge yard areas, which are back to back, surrounding the central post in the basement.

Cross bracing has been applied to leg pairs using 1x2 furring strips.  The 1x2 furring is cheap and easily managed by me.  It also comes with rounded edges so I did not have to spend time with the router on it.  With stringers attached on top of the L-girders and cross bracing on the legs below, the benchwork is VERY solid!

Cross bracing.

With the first major spine built for Eugene and Oakridge, base benchwork construction proceeded around to the Springfield lobe.  Stringers are now being attached to this new section. 

Springfield lobe benchwork.

Base benchwork as seen from Westfir corner.

Stringer placement is assisted by the track plan on the floor.  A couple of stringers have been moved a bit to avoid switch machine locations.  This is the beauty of L-girder construction, as it is easy to move a stringer and reattach with a few screws.  The principal alternative of open grid benchwork has its place, but is not so easily modified.

Note that all of the benchwork assembly of the past two weeks has been done by me alone.  Clamps, work jigs and a bit of thought has found solutions where a second set of hands ordinarily would have been used.   The positive aspect of this singular construction is that I have the time to think through construction issues and develop solutions without impacting others.

The next steps are completion of stringer mounting, adding base plates and other structure for the river areas (three are within the general area of this construction), and mounting the ¾” plywood subroadbed.

CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

Actual building of the HO scale SP Cascade Line has begun!  The first step was cutting up plywood into “dimensional” strips for use as L-girder and stringers for the base level of the railroad. 

Plywood is being used for dimensional stability.  Too many folk (local and nationally) have reported problems with solid lumber warping, often well after initial construction.  The alternative of kiln-dried lumber is both expensive and can be unsatisfactory as well.  The initial delivery of K-D lumber to be used for legs was rejected as it had far too many defects (knots and edge of trunk cuts) to serve my intended use.  I hand-selected the replacements.  The lumber industry has changed a great deal from when I was growing up here in timber country—Oregon.  Plywood largely overcomes the warping issue of solid lumber, albeit at the expense of alternative edge joining techniques.  Screws don’t hold as well in the edges of plywood compared to solid lumber.

Plywood loaded into truck prior to becoming “dimensional lumber.”  Underneath the ply are rejected 2x6 intended for legs.

Eleven sheets of seven-ply A-C plywood were cut into “dimensional lumber.”  Most were cut to 3-7/8 inches wide to serve as L-girder webs (vertical piece) and stringers.  Two sheets were cut into 1-7/8 inch strips to serve as the L-girder flange (top cap).  This should be enough to support the base level of the railroad.

July 30, 2012 became a red-letter day.  The first L-girder was assembled!  Construction truly has begun!  The first L-girder will be attached to the central post, on the Eugene side.  It is composed of four 8 feet lengths of 3-7/8 inch wide web and 1-7/8 inch top cap with offset joints.  Glue and screws were used to attach the top cap to the web.  The coarse thread wood screws should be sufficient to hold the top cap in place as the glue sets.

First L-girder resting on stringers. 

L-girder detail

CONSTRUCTION PLANNING

With the completion of full-size track planning, construction planning and materials lists became the focus of activity.  Using the full-size plans drawn on newsprint on the floor, L-girder benchwork was spotted onto those track plans.  A critical part of this process was allocating space for the switch machines.  The following picture shows a section at the railroad west end of Eugene.  One L-girder was drawn with pink highlighter.  A companion L-girder will be mounted on the post, seen in the upper center of the photo.  The stringer locations were outlined in orange, while the space for Tortoise switch machines was outlined in green.  As expected, several stringer locations were adjusted to clear space for the switch machines. 

Eugene RR-West end plan with switch machine locations and benchwork outlines.

The full-size plans were used to estimate track and switch purchases. The track plans were measured for an estimate of track requirements.  The current estimate calls for about 900 feet of Code 83 track and almost 1000 feet of Code 70 track.  The current plan calls for 180 switches, with about half of those planned to be Micro Engineering #6 Code 70 and another ten ME #6 Code 83.  The remainder of the switches will be #8, built using Fast Tracks jigs.

The full-size plans helped illustrate a good opportunity to use manual switch throws rather than Tortoise powered machines.  Blue Point switch mechanisms will be used to provide a switch for switch frog polarity (hot frogs) and an additional contact set that might be used for input to the signal system in several locations.  About 70 switches in Eugene, Springfield and Oakridge will get manual throws.  The rest of the layout requires powered (Tortoise) switch machines as it is in CTC territory.  The reverse loop staging at both ends will get powered switches to facilitate easier control of those switch ladders. 

Another construction preparation task sighted a height reference line around the basement.  A laser level was used to spot the reference line.  This line will be at a nominal 36 inches above the floor at the central post.  This line should remain visible below the benchwork, which should be important in the more open structure area of the mountain climb.  A secondary reference line will be drawn 12” above the prime reference to achieve the 48 inch base level for the layout.  

Laser level setup with prime reference height of 36 inches at the basement center post.  Vertical alignment of the tripod shaft was set with a level.  Tripod base plate also was set with a level.

FULL-SIZE TRACK PLANNING – 3

The previous pair of posts (http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2012/06/full-size-track-planning.html and http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2012/06/full-size-trackplanning-2.html) described the full-size track plans on the main (valley) level.  Plans for Cascade Summit and Crescent Lake wrap up the full-size planning effort. 

The Cascade Summit plan was fairly simple with the main line placed between the RR-Westbound “Hill” siding and the RR-East-bound “Lake” siding.  The short “Beattie Siding” at the RR-East end serves as a pocket for helpers or MOW equipment.  My Cascade Summit is laid out in an “L” shape, with the summit wye, used for turning helpers, coming off the “Hill” siding at the 90 degree bend.  As with the prototype, the wye tail will be placed inside a single-ended tunnel. 

Cascade Summit RR-West end

Cascade Summit RR-East end.

Two sets of crossovers provide for turned helpers reaching the Beattie Siding, ready to proceed RR-East back down the Hill to Oakridge.  The operator and section house “village” will be placed at the RR-east end.  The curve at the RR-East end will send the track through the summit tunnel, into the back “nook” of the basement and back downhill.   The full-size planning effort located this curve a bit closer to the nook wall which will help with the set of three operator pathways that converge in this space.

The Cascade Summit track is located above the operator path for the lower level as it climbs out of Oakridge toward McCredie Springs in the nook.  Think of the planning paper as outlining where the operator path will be in the space on the  main floor level.   A cross section of this arrangement was shown in the Track Plan post and is repeated here

Spaced out from the wall corner to the nook will be the lower level operator path, the steps leading up to the Cascade Summit operator platform, and the operator path around the tail of the Oakridge wye.  As all of this was laid out on the floor, it became clear that a bit more space for these three paths would be useful.  Fortunately, the Oakridge wye could be rearranged with left-hand turnouts instead of right-turnouts.  Doing so added another foot of space at the tight spot—a huge gain.

Revised Oakridge Wye Plan.  Former tail track is indicated by disconnected blue tape line to the left of the new wye location in the upper part of the picture.  The new right leg of the wye is the sharper curve, closer to the center. 

Crescent Lake uses much the same configuration as the Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard (reverse loop) below it.   Differences are the exclusive use of #8 turnouts and the placement of the left leg of the reverse loop closer to the stairwell wall.  With Crecent Lake suspended from the walls and ceiling at over 7 feet from the floor, access will be require the use of step ladders.  Using the more gentle divergence of a #8 turnout is prudent.  Spacing the left leg of the loop closer to the stairwell wall will place use of a ladder closer to the wall—better for operator stability on a step ladder and clearing a path below for lower level operators.

Crescent Lake Track Plan is a partial overlay of the Eugene Arrival/Departure yard below. 

Crescent Lake switch ladders.  Right leg is in the upper portion of the picture.  Half of left leg ladder is near the center of the picture.  Eugene A/D Yard is below (lower portion of picture ) on lighter colored paper.

August 4, 2012, edit: Corrected short siding at Cascade Summit to "Beattie Siding," named in honor of the Assistant Engineer on the Natron Cutoff Construction.

FULL SIZE TRACKPLANNING – 2

Full-size trackplanning, discussed in the previous blog post (http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2012/06/full-size-track-planning.html), fleshed out the design rendered in ¼ inch scale drawings.  Adjustments have been made and opportunities seized as this effort progressed.  Full-size planning has been essential to development of the Eugene design.  Throughout the entire layout design effort, the design of the base yard  (Eugene) has been a challenge.  Most of my best design thoughts have come while working with the full-size space. 

The challenge of Eugene is that that the prototype facilities were massive.  From the depot downtown through city industries out to the Blair Street Yard and into the main freight yard (with hump yard added in the late 1950’s), the Eugene complex stretched for miles.  A space several times the size of my basement would be needed to completely replicate Eugene, even with shortening to the design train length (20 feet) used for the HO-scale SP Cascade Line. 

The solution to the Eugene design dilemma was to concentrate on the design priorities established for the Cascade Line Layout.  In practical terms, this meant designing facilities intended to serve the modeled railroad, not all of Western Oregon, which was served by the historic yard.  This resulted in a classification yard sized for the modeled on-line industry.  Although operation design studies conducted during the layout design process kept tugging me toward including ever more tracks, reality was firmly imposed by the full-size planning effort. 

The Eugene design that emerged features the downtown depot area (flipped relative to the actual geometry) with the seven-track (plus run-around) classification yard located across the mainline from the depot.  The picture of the Eugene depot and classification yard shows the passenger siding, mainline, and two freight sidings on the right.  The classification yard ladder is seen on the left.  Multiple runaround tracks have been provided throughout the Eugene design.  The runarounds should keep the yard functioning in spite of any activity on the mainline.

Eugene Depot and Classification Yard looking RR-East.

The RR-East end of the depot and classification yard shows the multiple tracks coming back together.  The mainline and sidings are on the right, near the wall, while the classification yard ladder is on the left.  At the throat, the left-most track is the yard lead.  The next two tracks represent the mainline.  To the right of the mainline tracks are a group of turnouts not yet connected by track line.  This will be the location of Eugene “city” industry.  The second mainline track, the one with less switches, was added over the past few months as yard operations were thought about.  This track provides a way for trains to enter or depart the reverse loop tracks without going through the main yard throat—provided the outbound (RR-westbound) trains are set up for clockwise operation out of the reverse loop.

RR-East end of Eugene depot and classification yard tracks (lower part of photo).  Main yard throat leads to reverse loop staging serving as the Arrival/Departure yard (top of photo).

The Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard is formed as a reverse loop with twelve tracks.  The A/D Yard serves as staging for the RR-East end of the layout.  Through mainline trains, notably the First Class passenger and priority freight trains, will use the outer tracks with their broad radius curves and long turnouts (#8). 

Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard throat with right hand side ladder.  Left hand ladder access tracks extend off to the lower right.  Engine facility access splits the dpace between the two sides of the reverse loop (Switches without track lines extending).

The full-size planning effort provided the opportunity to use a “pinwheel ladder” for the outer tracks.  These tracks are accessed via turnouts formed around the loop curve.  The back legs of these tracks along the walls are plenty long enough, so they could start necking down via the “pinwheel ladder” much earlier than the inner tracks.  Doing so will save track and narrows the width of the yard at its most exposed curve. 

Eugene Arrival/Departure Yard reverse loop.  Pinwheel ladder used for outer tracks seen in the foreground.

The interior of the reverse loop will house the engine facilities.  The back-left of the loop interior will have the diesel sand and fuel rack.  The roundhouse and turntable will occupy the opposite corner of the loop interior.  Outside the loop will be a pair of tracks for the Oregon Electric (SP&S and BN) interchange.  The opposite end of this track set will house the caboose track.  The gap between the outer and inner loop track ladders provides an opportunity for placing the PFE ice deck.  The prototype Eugene ice deck was located within the yard, near the roundhouse, so having to cross tracks to access the ice deck has historic precedence. 

The Eugene track plan is now “complete.”  The function pieces have all fallen into place.  It is now time to move on to designing the supporting benchwork.  

FULL SIZE TRACK PLANNING

Track planning for the SP Cascade Line has alternated among sketches, scale drawings and full size planning using newsprint and photo-copies of standard turnouts.  Though the concept and schematic of a track layout feature might be outlined in the sketches and scale drawings, full-size planning often leads to the “ultimate” solution, including which direction (left or right) a turnout needs to split.  My experience with track planning has shown that a space “speaks” to the designer at full size in ways not seen in smaller scale representations.  Planning factors for the Cascade Line were kept generous to allow wiggle room for such inspiration.

With a track plan that provided for all major elements as seen in the previous post (http://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2012/06/track-plan.html) and with flooring installed, the time had arrived to lay out the track plan in full size on the floor.  This exercise provided adjustments to trackage that didn’t quite work out as drawn and opportunities to implement enhancements as they “presented themselves” in the actual space.

Laying out the turnback loop for the Salt Creek Trestle revealed a couple of issues.  First, the aisle space between the loop and the next lobe over, the Westfir-Oakridge track, did not lay out as wide as expected by the scale drawing.  A simple adjustment to the Westfir scene reclaimed the desired aisle width.  Second, the Railroad-East (downhill, closer to Oakridge) ends of the Wicopee and Cruzatte sidings nearly overlapped.  Moving both sidings two feet downhill (RR-East) netted four feet of separation, which should help separate crews at these two operating points. 

Revised Salt Creek  Loop

Laying out Oakridge at full size led to an adjustment to the wye.  It did not need to extend as deeply into the “nook” as originally drafted.  The location of the wye and engine facilities needed to be separated from the depot scene.  Chalk one up to post location in the room.  The Oakridge plan retains all tracks present in 1954, albeit with altered geometry.  The model still should operate much as the real railroad did in 1954.

Oakridge Wye.  Bins and boxes are located where Cascade Summit operator platform will be.

Oakridge engine facility in center foreground.  Depot located on the right, beyond the post.

Finally, laying out Springfield at full size revealed the turnback lobe needed to be moved further away from the basement back wall and outside door.  With plenty of space in the aisle (up to eight feet) between Eugene and Springfield, a shift of one foot was laid out.  Upon reflection, another foot adjustment may be implemented.  The full size layout of Springfield also revealed opportunities for additional industry tracks on the “Marcola Branch” tracks looped within the main line turnback lobe.   Other opportunities for industry tracks along the mainline were seized in the full size plan.  The resulting plan should provide lots of work for the Springfield switch crew.

Springfield lobe as seen from near the basement  doors leading outside.