Logging Locos, Logging Track Plan, Logging Mill, Mainline Pick-up

[railandsail]

Foam Deck Under Logging Scene, Change in Plans

I spent the last few days thinking about this 'deck plan' for my logging scene. I went back and forth with the idea of constructing the deck of foam or plywood, what thicknesses of either, what strength I needed from either material if I cut a hole in it for my logging pond, etc, etc. I was having a little trouble 'visualizing' the combinations of varying elevations of the helix accessing tracks, the pond and sawmill, that steel beam across the room, the possible coal mine over the dbl crossover, etc

I finally decided to cut the 'basic deck piece' out of the 1/2” plywood sheet I already had,..and it was already primed. It had a little bit of warp-age from having set around for long periods of time before I inherited it and primed it. But that would not really present many problems as it was going to be bolted down to two long metal beams, spaced only 2 feet apart, and stretching across the room. Plus what would it matter if it did a little warping as that are of the logging scene would have some uneven terrain.

So I hand sketched out some semi-circular cut outs that would form the ends of the 2 aisles, and moved the piece out to my carport work table.

 


Took it back inside and put it up on those metal beams that would support it

 


Now I need to fill in the two rectangular pieces to either side of the 4x8 sheet. AMAZINGLY I am able to salvage those two pieces out of the semi-circular pieces I had cut out for the aisle reliefs. It couldn't have worked out better if I had carefully measured for such an outcome,...which I had not.

 

 
 
Now I have laid my temp paper pattern for my trackplan down onto the deck piece, and will proceed with some rough mocking up on track elevations/turnout fittings, etc.

 



The elevations and ground terrain will be built of foam.
The sawmill will likely be raised up some, so I may not have to 'dig a pit' (cut out some plywood) for the pond, but rather just build the logging pond on the plywood surface itself??