Pacific South Eastern Railway

[Wiredup]

Long 9 hour day in the room brings us the most progress since the beginning of November... So take a seat, this will take a while.

*disclaimer* *all pictures were taken using a fisheye lens, so while they are distorted slightly, they are also showing such a wide angle that you can see more of the room than normal*

To start it off, I decided to build my Union Station I got for xmas... yes, I finally cracked it open!





The station went together really really well! infact I was so hyped that I finished it I decided to take out my unfinished Modern Coaling tower... all I needed to do was put the walkways/ladders/misc detail parts on it... Unfortunately I ended up breaking those lil supports for the railings and walkways that it's now impossible to finish the model properly.

Next... I started to complete the benchwork for the rest of the lower level of the railroad. In fact, this was going to be a test of what I learned last time building the first part of the layout... Budget has dictated to me that I only had $40 to spend on benchwork, and another $40 on actual layout stuff (to be expanded on later!) $40 bought me:
(3) 1 inch thick sheets of extruded pink foam sized 2x8
(10) 2x2x8 spruce dimension lumber
(2) 1x3x8 spruce dimension lumber
(1) box of 2x6 wood screws - 100 pieces

Last time... the terminal section was constructed of 4 sheets of foam, 8 2x2x8's, and 4 of the 1x3x8's. So the attempt was the finish my benchwork using pretty close to the same amount of material that I used for the main terminal! I had some leftovers, enough to make one pair of legs... and since I 'lowered' the terminal 4 inches, I was able to regain almost all the 1x3x8's I used on the first part of the bench... I cut these 1x3x8's into 2 foot sections for use as the lattice for my layout. the 2x2x8's provide the legs and long braces for the bench...

My plan worked! And I didn't even use the 1x3x8's I bought today!

pics of the benchwork!:






Reviewing the benchwork.... I've realized that even though I didn't go as crazy with the cross braces (in fact...there are none this time around!) the benchwork is actually sturdier and can handle more weight! My only issues was...that my new plan calls for the terminal to be higher than the rest of the layout, by about 9 inches. The drawback to this is that I never considered now low the rest of the bench would be...especially infront of the door to get in! It's a dangerously low 3 foot clearance to get into the room. Being 25 and slightly nimble it's not bad for me or my wife of similar age/build. But my dad (who plans to operate with me) is going to have a royal pain getting in and out... oops!


I think started laying the foam base for the layout and planning out the risers/track for the West section of the layout (the west wall is the wall the door is on). Heres the pic of that!



Once I was happy with placement of the initial risers, it was time to putty up and star laying some track! I ran outa store bought sculptamold and tried making my own home made stuff from flower/water according to directions I found online... didn't work so well. But here's pics anyways!





Finally, I started making the tunnel for my branchline...





And a couple of pics to end the post!