June 3rd, 2011
Happy day!
Got an email from a good friend and fellow model railroader David Bedard. This guy does some pretty fantastic modelling, and after a brief stint in HO scale, went back to N scale. Still does some great decoder installations and full of other modelling goodness.
But that’s not why I’m writing about him tonight. No, tonight, I’m writing to say he found my Fast-Tracks #8 turnout assembly fixture! I’m needing it for at least 5 turnouts on the layout, two of which are needed much sooner than later. I’ve been almost literally turning my house and garage upside down trying to find this plate of aluminum without success and thinking I’ve lost it.
No, he had it, loaned to him quite some time ago when he wanted to borrow it for building some HO scale turnouts. He spent around 3 hours trying to find the point-form tool which I already had.
So, Michaelea and I went on a trip to NW Calgary to pay him, his wife and two daughters a visit. I got my assembly fixture, a couple others (#5 and #7 turnout assembly fixtures and point-form tools) which I wasn’t expecting, but grateful to have nonetheless, and Michaelea got to spend some time with young kids and Samantha. We also had a great time shooting the breeze and he showed off a #12 N scale turnout built with code 40 rail. Wow…Talk about tiny!
January 5, 2011
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
So it’s been a little while since I last posted an update, but can say there’s been only a slight amount of progress towards the basement, due to family visiting and spending time with people who want to spend time with me. Life does have to spend some time out of the basement at some point y’know!
Anyhow, a few updates with photos and links to follow:
I’ve got the workbench area painted, and have been building a few code 83 turnouts (2 #6 regular and 1 #6 wye so far) for use within the wye leading to the workbench track. I’ve also taken advantage of PWRS’s sale on Atlas Code 83 flextrack and ordered a fair amount of it for use within the staging yard and helix. Should be showing up sometime reasonably soon. I’ll get the staging yard trackage done first most likely, though time will tell exactly how well that plan goes!
Cam and I also went to acquire several sheets of 3/4″ G1S plywood and had the helpful folks at Home Depot do the bulk of the cutting of the sheets into strips useful as “shelf brackets” of sorts for the trackage along the peninsula. We also got a few pieces cut for the staging yard and the major flat spots like Parksville. Several hours worth of debating, planning, etc. have led to a near final decision to build a 1 turn helix at the end of the peninsula to lengthen the run between Bryn and the Parksville industrial area (namely, the team track and National Silicates). A fair amount of 3D thinking to make sure that one decision doesn’t sink the chances elsewhere along the line.
Lastly, I spent a fair amount of time in both CadRail and Illustrator coming up with a plan to have “Goodship Lollipop” help us with building the helicies and corner segments. So for those not in the know (which would be everyone except Cam, Michaelea and myself), Goodship Lollipop is a company which owns two computer controlled cutting/routing tables. Basically, save me the pain and frustration of having to cut perfectly perpendicular corners on curved segments to build the helix pieces. Was a little expensive, but likely a lot less fustrating and less than doing them on a laser cutter. Thanks to Timothy Horton for giving me the inspiration to have a computer help me out with those bits. Onto the Bolt Supply House to get the ready rod and associated hardware to get the helix into a more 3 dimensional shape!
Cheers!
-
- Here is my workbench, working on making turnouts
-
- This is how I laid out the 26″ radius pieces onto a 4×8′ sheet of plywood
-
- This is how I laid out the 30″ radius pieces onto a 4×8′ sheet of plywood
Recent Comments