A House for San Berdoo ... but first, The Garage

[Gary S]

Woohoo biL!

I'm loving the little garage so far. Excellent technique and work so far. I like the technique on the roof, and you can bet I'll be making use of that. I'm glad you're getting involved in the club, and I am sure those guys will appreciate having your fine work on the layout.

And biL, I may be fast, but my work isn't anywhere near the exactness of your stuff. Your precise surgical procedures make me feel I am bashing stuff together with a 22 ounce carpenter's hammer!

[Sumpter250]

No, I can’t work as fast as Gary does … absolutely no way!

Bil, I know how difficult it is to get my "lard" up out of the recliner these days, so I kind of have to

" Your precise surgical procedures make me feel I am bashing stuff together with a 22 ounce carpenter's hammer! "

Gary, I can't think of a better use for a 22 ounce carpenter's hammer.......especially the way you "use it"

[P5se Camelback]

... but my work isn't anywhere near the exactness of your stuff. Your precise surgical procedures make me feel I am bashing stuff together with a 22 ounce carpenter's hammer!

Gary ...
Your work would be as precise as mine had you spent a couple decades building operating product prototypes for actual market beta test to a hand-built tolerance of +/- 0.020" ... one of the reasons I use fine cutting jewelers files on styrene ... habit! (If the design calls for two parts to go together with a snap-fit, then they must be a snap-fit! Period.)

Now ... just to put the shoe on the other foot, I spent the first couple decades in the hobby of model railroading absolutely, totally unable to wire simple DC without short circuits 24/7 ... until I discovered isolated, all-gapped power-routed frogs (discovered due to a desire to hand lay turnouts when I got to them ... in place ... no jigs!) I looked on in amazement at your DCC power supply rack cabinet when I first got here and thought to myself ... "There's no way in Hell that'll ever happen in this house!"

The incredible organization of the controlled wire routing was the only thing I thought I might be able to pull off! (My name is on a patent dealing with controlled wire routing and a routing trough system for inside a mainframe computer -- I can't abide a wiring rat's nest ... it make me absolutely insane ... a combination of ADD, and OCD, I guess.) I can build stuff 'cuz I can see it ... but I can't see liitle pluses and minuses running back and forth (or whatever they do) inside a piece of skinny copper wire ... it just doen't compute in my head. More power to you, Gary! (Pun intended!)

And now there's DCC ... Good Lord! I'm lost in the ozone again!

We all have skills ... some in this area, some in that area ... we share them with each other and we all grow in the hobby. That is what makes it so that even when I lose patience with those who are so seemingly "easily offended" by things not "P.C.," and tell myself I'm going to walk away, I can't stay away more that two or three days ... I need my "fix," I require that daily involvement in the great camaraderie here and the unbeliveable cross-pollination of ideas that is the stuff that makes this the Best of the Best when it comes to Model Railroad Forums on the web!

Hands down ... this place is TOP SHELF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am incredibly priviledged to be permitted to be a part of it!

[cn nutbar]

biL---Another star has risen ---take a well deseved bow

[e-paw]

Very nice job their Bil. A Reading guy building a Santa Fe prototype is something I feel that the anthracite gods would forgive. After all,I used a Cheyenne coal dock for my engine terminal in eastern PA. and have not been struck by lightning yet.

[Steve]

Excellent "blow by blow" ! ....and I am also getting an education in tool usage

Keep up the excellent work!

[Gary S]

biL, it is obvious that you came from a background where things had to be very precise and attention to detail was at a premium. Me, as an electrician, we work on "good enough" and "hurry up" and then move on to the next one. Don't take that wrong, I'm not saying it is shoddy work, because it isn't - it is done correctly and safely - technically, it is perfect - but what I am saying is that for appearances, we work on "pleasing to the eye" rather than "correct down to the thousandth". So, even in modeling, we are products of our environment!

As for PC, you haven't said a single thing ever that offended me. I too am guilty of making a political comment every now and then, even though I know that this is a model railroad forum, and I really should sit on my hands until the desire to post political comments passes. I'm glad you are here, because you bring alot to the forum. Hey, there will be bumps in the road every so often, but that's just life.

Now, back to modeling! Looking forward to the next garage installment!

[dwight77]

Hi All:
I am in Bil's model railroad club...Scale Rails of Southwest Florida ( <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.scalerails.org/">www.scalerails.org/</a><!-- w --> ) but I am an N Scaler. Every year between Janaury and April, we hold weekly clinics, open to the public, on model railroading topics from electronics, to scenery, to locomotive maintainence, to model construction.
I sure hope Bil, and I will nag him for sure, is making a separate copy of his documentation of this house construction, so that he will be able to conduct a clinic next year.
And to think, Bil was not sure he wanted to be involved in a club.....just look back at some of his posts. He has quickly becoming a very positive contributor to our club not only with the house construction but also with operating sessions that we are now conducting.
Clubs are a give and take situation, and as long as someone gives and takes....it is a win win situation for everyone. Bil is a great example of giving and taking.
dwight77

[P5se Camelback]

OH, PSHAW, Dwight!

You make me blush!

And yes, I develop all my postings as Word documents as my typing skills are atrocious, typos abound and the forum "times out" on me before I've finished all the corrections!!

[P5se Camelback]

Well, after all that work (including now-obviously forgotten geometry and algebra,) I have discovered that the roof that I built for this garage has way too much overhang at the eaves! If it were only a couple of scale inches on each side I wouldn't worry about it, but the overhang measures in FEET!

This house and garage will be about 2 1/2 feet back from the aisle, near the backdrop. It will be one of a dozen or so houses representing a neighborhood next to the Santa Fe's San Bernadino Depot. These new houses (and their garages) will replace a group of "stand-in" structures currently occupying the neighborhood. (Look to the left of the Depot ... you can just see the edge of the neighborhood with a couple of the "stand-ins.")



So, I guess I have a nice hip roof for a slightly larger garage for some other house down the street! In the meantime, after I finish the house that I am building on a "sister thread," I will have to build another roof for this garage ... but this next time I'll have my math wiz daughter figure out the dimensions for me!

[Mr Fixit]

Bil

Great project mate, but for crying out loud that roof is way over engineered. You could stand on it and it wouldnt break.

I have somewhere my Hancocks roofing book which solves all the geo problems with the rafters and hip lengths etc.

Let me know if you need a consultation. All that is needed is the roof pitch and the half span.

BTW bought myself a groovy nibbler today, watch out styrene.

Mark

[P5se Camelback]

... Great project mate, but for crying out loud that roof is way over engineered. You could stand on it and it wouldnt break. I have somewhere my Hancocks roofing book which solves all the geo problems with the rafters and hip lengths etc. Let me know if you need a consultation. All that is needed is the roof pitch and the half span.

Yeah, I know. I have a tendency to over-engineer things. I'm an industrial designer ... I know the theory and the principles behind it all, but I let the engineers fine tune the engineering math part. I do what I must do to know that my design won't fail due to poor understanding of the engineering principles! Yep! That sucker is sturdy! I could probably get away with using 0.040" or 0.060" styrene sheet for the walls, too, but the 0.080" stuff allows for the molded windows to sit in their fenestrations as prototype masonry units would and look right.

Actually, all dimensions on the roof worked out as they should have ... I just made the fatal error in the very beginning :oops: ... I allowed for roof overhang beyond the soffit trim in my figuring of the soffit and then cut the base for the whole width and length, ending up with double the soffit and more overall roof overhang than I should have! :oops: It was my "non-thinking" at the very beginning that screwed me in the end :oops: (no pun intended) and I attribute it all to "being out of practice" ... too many years of not having to "think" since I retired ... but that's all changed now!

BTW bought myself a groovy nibbler today, watch out styrene.
Mark

Oh, you're gonna have fun! A nibbler is a great tool!

:mrgreen:

[Mr Fixit]

I can relate to the non thinking part now my Dad has retired. Sometimes I just and occasionally at his thinking sometimes. Dont get me wrong he is a very smart bloke who got himself through Melbourne University on an Engineering Scholarship, but some days.

Your nibbler appears to be the squeeze type whereas mine are more like a long pair of pliers.

Mark

[MasonJar]

I don't know if you've seen Michael Moore's movie "Canadian Bacon", but there's a great line from the John Candy character:

"There's a time to think and a time to act. And this, gentlemen, is no time to think."



Andrew

[P5se Camelback]

No, I have not seen it ... nor will I.

I'd rather spend what little discretionary money I have on model railroading ...

... and a little fine Irish Whiskey to sip on while I try to concentrate on what I'm building.

I'll start posting photos of the house build, now that it's underway, later on tonight.

I have to organize the images and upload them to photobucket first ...
... then I can begin to assemble the thread. 8-)