Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - Printable Version

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Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 05-24-2009

As you guys might have noticed, progress on my layout has been glacially slow lately. I've needed the time to screw up my courage to take down what I have done and and start over again in a better way.

What I had done initially was to be so eager to get going that I had put up a couple of shelf brackets, and then put two L-girder across all the shelf brackets, and then glued styrofoam (the blue kind) directly to the L-girders. I didn't even put any joists (cross members) across the two L-beams before gluing the styrofoam to the L-girders , and what I ended up with for the first half of my layout looked like this:

[Image: old_bench.jpg]

[Image: corner01.jpg]

When I extended the layout to the last two walls, I at least put in joists - but I still had way too many joists, and I had the foam glued directly to the joists.

[Image: DSCN3477.JPG]

I over time discovered that I had made a bad error of judgement here. It was hard to work on wiring and turnout control mechanisms (since I had to work upside down under the bench, in the space between the layout shelf and the storage shelves below the layout, and it was hard to fasten a fascia well to the first part of the layout (the part missing the joists).

After a re-evaluation, I finally have decided that I don't want to keep trying overcome the effects of bad initial bench work planning.

I want to make the baseboard of the layout as a set of hollow sections, so I could take out one and one section to work on it comfortably in good light conditions, both for the initial work, and for later maintenance, changes and additions (e.g. when I get to adding lights to buildings and suchlike).

So today I finally made the leap, and it took merely an hour and a half to disassemble most of my layout down to a level where I can start rebuilding it in a better way.

Rough idea about how to build the sections so as many as possible has a fairly standard length easy to handle for a single person (40-46" long, 15-24" deep) and not too many turnouts will need to be located across the section boundaries:

[Image: warehouse52b.jpg]

I am hoping to pick up the plywood I need to make sectional baseboard units during the next week, and start rebuilding next weekend.

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - Ralph - 05-24-2009

Hi Stein!

I'd wager a lot of us here have found significant flaws in our plans that led to a partial or total dismantling and reassembling of our layouts. 35
I commend you for taking care of problems now instead of later. I ended up tearing half my layout a few years ago after i couldn't tolerate a duck-under that was part of the plan. OK...now its time to forge ahead!!! Thumbsup
Ralph

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - upnick - 05-24-2009

Great progress Stein Thumbsup love the big buildings ... i know what you mean about the under board problems next time i may go for Kato points with the motors built in makes it a lot easier to set up Big Grin though one lesson i learnt with the N scale layout is make the boards managable if you move 4ft is a good length for the boards.

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 05-30-2009

Well, I have lugged in my plywood and started rebuilding my layout. Nothing much to show yet - just pieces of plywood cut to size, but here is my latest plan, with the cutting diagram overlaid - I decided I might as well introduce some elevations while I was redoing things:

Plan:
[Image: warehouse53.jpg]

Cutting diagram:
[Image: warehouse53_sections.jpg]

Plan w/cutting diagram overlaid:
[Image: warehouse53_overlay.jpg]

Just waiting for the clock to get enough so I can start cutting again without giving all my sleeping neighbors a heart attack :-)

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - MasonJar - 05-31-2009

Excellent rework. Thumbsup

One of the guys in the local round robin reworked his On30 layout in the same way - creating a sectional layout for the reasons you state. He is much happier now that he can take sections to the workbench, turn them over for wiring, or just work on scenery in better light with better access... Big Grin

Andrew

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - ocalicreek - 05-31-2009

Cheers You are indeed to be commended for the courage to start again. Just keep that excellent plan you spent so long working on! Great idea to introduce some elevation changes. I'm really looking forward to the progress and I hope you are happy with the result!

Galen

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 06-01-2009

Hi guys --

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement - it took me a while to nerve myself to tear down stuff and start over.

I haven't done as much as I had hoped this weekend - it is unseasonably hot for Norway at the moment - and we don't have air conditioning in most private homes over here :-)

Still - I have made a start on cutting to size the top of the first 5 (of 8) sections and checking clearances.

Checking the module boundary in the corner by the chimney, where the yard lead will drop down to the yard:
[Image: DSCN5349.jpg]

Looking at the same scene from the opposite direction (from the yard throat towards the main):
[Image: DSCN5341.jpg]

Looking all along the yard towards the yard throat:
[Image: DSCN5345.jpg]

Tail end of the yard, with the main between the yard and the freight house in the background:
[Image: DSCN5340.jpg]

Main passing to the side of the freight house:
[Image: DSCN5342.jpg]

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - Trucklover - 06-01-2009

Progress is looking good Stein, cant wait to see some tracks laid down in that section Misngth Thumbsup

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - ocalicreek - 06-01-2009

Did I see that right? 5 % incline?

Galen

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 06-01-2009

ocalicreek Wrote:Did I see that right? 5 % incline?

Galen

No, the three inclines are all about 1.5%. Little bit steeper in the middle, little bit gentler at the ends.

[Image: warehouse53_overlay.jpg]

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - ocalicreek - 06-01-2009

Ah the difference a decimal point makes! 35

The shelf system you are using...are you developing your own system or basing it off a published technique? I began to use something similar in my previous garage under the timesaver. The benefit for me was the strength the double slotted channels and strong brackets offered for holding up large quantities of magazines (Trains, Railfan, MR, RMC, etc.)

I may be turning once again to something similar in my current situation, only without the need to make shelving below the layout; rather, adding it above the layout for storage and support of lighting. Still scheming and planning, though.

Galen

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 06-18-2009

ocalicreek Wrote:The shelf system you are using...are you developing your own system or basing it off a published technique? I began to use something similar in my previous garage under the timesaver. The benefit for me was the strength the double slotted channels and strong brackets offered for holding up large quantities of magazines (Trains, Railfan, MR, RMC, etc.)

Sorry about the slow reply - I somehow managed to miss your reply. My shelf system is kinda a weird mix, and wildly overbuilt.

Brackets are standard double slotted channels with fairly long (18" ?) brackets. But for some reason I started adding L-girders made from 1x2" pieces of wood across those brackets (ie along the wall) to distribute weight.

My actual modules are made (in the style Ian Rice recommends) from hollow "platforms" made of 1/4" plywood (with 1/2" plywood for the top of the hollow platforms), sitting on top of those L-brackets. I could have rested these hollow platforms directly on the brackets (without the L-girders in between), but I figured that since I alredy had the L-girders up, I didn't feel like taking them down and taking down the shelves above and below the layout to relocate the double slotted channels and shelf brackets to the boundary points between my sections.

Not so sure if that made any sense - it is a hot day here in Minnesota today (for a Norwegian on vacation).

I won't be able to do much with the layout for the next three weeks, until we get back home. But at least I picked up four nice 40' boxcars that will fit neatly into my theme and era today - two different road numbers for the MST&L and two different road numbers for the Omaha road. Looks nice and feels nicely weighted - am looking forward to getting them home and putting them on the layout :-)

[Image: cmo01.jpg]

[Image: mstl01.jpg]

Grin,
Stein, getting ready to go up north in Minnesota to catch some Walleye

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 07-23-2009

Well, I'm back from my vacation in Minnesota. And I couldn't leave well enough alone - I started fiddling with the track plan again, instead of pressing on with the building. So no progress on the building in the two weeks since I came back.

But I think my track plan is actually improved, so it probably was worth it. This is what I have now - thanks to a lot of advice from fellow modelers over in the trains.com forums.

Edit: minor barge terminal tweak, moved bridge to lift-out instead.

[Image: warehouse61.jpg]

Time to get building (this weekend), so I can get some tracks down and start moving trains :-)

Smile,
Stein

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - foulrift - 07-24-2009

OUTSTANDING!!
Bob

Re: Stein's Minneapolis Warehouse district 1957 (HO) - steinjr - 07-24-2009

foulrift Wrote:OUTSTANDING!!
Bob

Thanks, Bob. Now I just gotta get going on the building tomorrow.

Grin,
Stein