Waukesha Sub Divison Update: Backscenes and Upper Deck Supports

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As I said in my pevious post materials are low on the ground here at the moment, there are plenty of wee jobs to be getting done but there are not enough materials to actually finish anything. Therefore this is a post about drilling a hole so thats your hint to run give up reading the rest of this update.

The Plan

To support my backscenes and upper deck I need to use something, there are also challenges in so much as this is a modular layout it may have to come apart to move to a new room in the future. So we need to bear that in mind. we also don’t want to damage the walls of the room and don’t want anything to thick or heavy making the layout smaller.

Shelf layout folks have for a long time used twin slot shelving to mount their layouts and the same theory can be used to make a double deck modular layout. Of course we need to be mindful or the weight we are adding above deck one. By adding the short section of twin slot u channel we are adding a lever and anyone that has used a prybar to rip open a pallet will know the pros and in this case cons of doing that. Whatever force is applied to the uprights will be trying to rip apart the bottom module, so care is needed.

Backscenes & Upper Decks

The back scenes will be 3mm MDF i am still not sure on if these will be painted or photos but as I am planning on a winter scene for the layout then I think all options are open. Otherwise I would be reccomending photo backscenes all day long. Whats important here though is weight and well there won’t be much acting on the support from the backscene.

The upper deck will only be 120mm wide and cut from 15mm OSB this is heavy but its strong and won’t need any other supports underneath that means we can have that rail height only 250mm above our lower deck and have the backscene 228mm (9inches) high below it. Again not much weight. I may add a lighting deck to form a shadow box at the very top of the upright and so long as nothing is placed on here I think we will be fine. Also using metal uprights means I can use magnetic tape to have an easily removeable backscene without needing to dismantal the layout.

Where to Start

Well as always material is in short supply here in Orkney and I could only get 11 636mm uprights. I have used Elfa uprights for a number of years and these can be purchased in the UK from Iornmongrey Direct. It doesn’t really matter where you get your materials from but its important to stick with the same brand. Not all twin slot is created equal and pretty much no two brands play nicely together. Elfa is great for model railroaders because they do brackets from 120mm up to over 500mm which is really a very wide shelf layout. Also being 2mm thick steal they are strong and support a huge 55kg per bracket.

As we only have 11 of these I am also going to start with those in the most awkward place on the layout to access above the workshop area. This will involve dismantling part of the layout but once done there shouldn’t be a reason to repeat doing this for any future jobs as the magnetic tape will hold the backscene in place.

Workshop area

Out of the box each upright has three holes for screws 290mm apart. Thats grand for on a wall but for me that would mean only one screw per upright and thats a little much I think. So its time to get to drilling a hole. How much you’ve been looking forward to a blog post on drilling a hole, well here it is.

With a punch mark where you want the hole to be, tuse a hammer hit it only once and avoid your fingers!!
The punch hole will help the drill bit to seat in the metal and cut where you want it to.
I am using 3.5mm screws so we want to end up with a 4mm hole. I could just run through with a 4mm bit but its alot easier to run a pilot first half the size of the eventual hole. This is less stress on the drill and the bit
Then flip the upright over and run through with a 4mm bit this is nice and easy as you have already done most of the work with your first hole.
A coulple of quick strokes with the file to remove any sharp edges and on to the next one.
A nice 4mm hole, don’t worry about the damage this will be up against the module when we are finished so this side won’t be seen.

Right we have 11 of these now just enough to do along that back wall above the workbenchs, now I need to find an extra pair of hands to dismantle the layout.

Till tomorrow 🙂

Waukesha Sub update: Cutting Sub Roadbed

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The postie hasn’t brought everything I had hoped to have in stock for this weekends work but we did have a few deliveries. One of those items was some XPS foam. UK modelers know how difficult it is to get this material in the UK let alone here in Orkney. There are some suppliers in southern England but its not available locally in Northern Scotland.

Over the Christmas period I found some XPS foam available from Amazon. Its only available in 6-10-20mm thickness and 1220x600mm boards. So useful for N maybe but probably not the 50mm thickness sought by large scales. You can buy it here

So obviously we need to cut each board down to to 300mm width. The boards were marked down the center and then cut with a hot knife. My number 2 assistant supervised this job.

When cutting foam make sure the area is well ventilated as you are effectively melting plastic, so there are some toxic fumes. Of course you could use a normal knife but its alot quicker and easier to use a hot knife.

Once the boards were cut down some had to be trimmed to fit my 1600 and 1200mm MDF models they will be glued to. I used a hot wire cutter for this and a straight edge it makes a much neater cut that the hot knife but it can only cut within 100mm of the edge of each board.

I think its looking quite smart in here now. There is a long way to go and plenty of electrical wiring to fit so these are not getting glued down just yet. Having them cut and fitted though does mean I can mark out for the roadbed, whilst I wait for more materials to arrive.

The layout is small by some standards but being N scale there is alot of material needed to complete the layout and the current shipping delays and shortages of some key components such as Code 55 track likely mean that progress on the waukesha sub will be quite sporadic.

We may even end up doing scenery with no track down if some doesn’t become available soon.

Well next job is to fit some backscene and deck two supports to the area above the workshop so we don’t need to get to that area again. Fitting those will mean the layout comes apart so watch out for that in tomorrow’s update.

Home Office Layout: Removeable staging track Part 1

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Ripon Cement in the home office the entrance to staging is off the left hand end of the layout

Ripon Cement has to have a staging track extending off scene in order for the operator to run around the layout and access the spur to the cement plant itself with more than just the locomotive.

There is space at the left hand end of the layout for a staging track, however we have to cross the doorway. The door into the room opens inwards and so a staging track across the doorway is needed but the door will have to be open. The next challenge is that I can’t trash the door!!!

Ok so lets get the door open and measure, well we have 82cm between the end of the layout and the door. You’d think I had planned this eh! as thats a locomotive and about 3 cars which is the perfect max length of train for the two industries on this layout. There are 3 car spots and 2 off spots on the layout so if at capacity and you bring that upto 8 cars plus a locomotive things can get very busy really quickly. Of course every train doesn’t serve every industry so most trains are going to be smaller than this.

Layout Designer Iain Rice, designed a over door staging track for a vertical switching layout on Ikea bookshelves. Just like the home office layout which will at some point be re-united with its other cousins to form the industrial branchline I had at my previous home. however, for now we only need to concern ourselves with a single track that can be removed quickly and easily with minimal damage to the layout or door.

Right ok! first we need at least a plank to hold the track. This needs to be strong but lightweight, remember we don’t want to construct a monster support and strain the layout or door. You always have some stuff hanging around from other projects right, well I had some Balsa wood. Three lengths of 25mmx6mmx914mm and some 100mmx6mmx914 so that would make a really nice solid support for the length of flex. It wouldn’t be too deep either so when in place would just be a nod under to get out of the room.

I cut two of the smaller strips and the wide strip down to 81cm in length. Using Deluxe Materials Speed Bond I just glued these together and added cross pieces at each end and in the centre giving 4 in total. I squared up the little box and made sure it stayed in place with small clamps. Flipped it over and added some weight while it glued. Its called speed bond for a reason after only an hour this was solid enough for paint.

Ah thats the easy part done then. Now for the door support. Fortunatley when the baseboards arrived for the Waukesha Sub just before Christmas they came with a bit of packaging that held the screws and bolts for assemble of they modules. Whilst this was just scrap MDF nailed together to form a box with a centre divider, it was perfect for my plank to fit into. So it was quickly deconstructed it and the centre divider was adjusted to hold the plank at the perfect height when hung over the door. A wee bit of glue and 2 mins with the nail gun and we had a nice support with 100mm sides that would prevent anyone knocking the plank off its support and turning my loco & rolling stock back into kits.

For the hook to hold it over the door I attached a piece of 2×1 to the top of the box and using some metal strips I secured another piece of 2×1 to the rear that would touch the door on the otherside. At this point glue and nails isn’t going to cut it so this whole section was attached to the box with 3.5x30mm screws and some glue, every little helps right?

Plank and bracket ready for test fitting

Perfect now lets get this in place and see if it works.

With the plank in place I could measure where I would need to add the 2×1 support on the layout end in order to hold the other end of the plank when in place.

Looking great eh! I added a couple of screws to the top of the 2×1 to hold the plank in alignement and prevent it from being pushed off if hit. To remove it you have to lift vertical so care will be needed when you are nodding under the layout.

All that was left to do in the part 1 was paint. For this i decided to use Chalk board paint. It is a one coat and done deal, so super quick but is really thick when it applies. It dries quickly but I left if overnight to dry, in our next installment of the switching plank we’ll be adding the track and some wires with removeable connectors so we can start doing some operations.

yeah that really is just one coat of the treacle, sorry chalkboard paint on to the Balsa.

Till next time 🙂

Home Office Switching Layout

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Rippon Cement, has been my layout to take to train shows for the past few years. Its a HO switching layout built by Chris Gilbert orignially as Florida Springs. It has a page on my website here if you want to see more information. https://gordy.uk/my-layouts/rippon-cement/

As the benchwork is now in place for the Waukesha Sub Division, my work benches have re-located below that layout. Freeing up the room that was my workshop to become my home office. Its quite a small room about 1775mm x 2800mm and currently has a desk for my paid job and my personal desk so quite a squeeze but its big enough for me and Dabber. His dog bed just slides beneath which ever desk I am not working at.

Its a squeeze in there but at 170cm high Rippon Cement clears the monitors of my personal computer.

As the whole train room is filled with the Waukesha Sub there was no room for Rippon Cement and if you look in some images of my benchwork posts its leaning on its end looking very sorry for itself. It had also sustained some damage during its move up to Orkney so I didn’t realy want to risk anymore. So what to do. Well as I am 183cm tall I knew a layout at eye level for me is about 170cm above the deck. A quick check with the tape measure showed that Ripon Cement would fit along the wall with the door into the room and at that height would clear my 4 monitors of my personal comupter and when I am not working from home – Covid cannot last forever!!

I can mount the other two levels of the multi deck switcher here at more sensible heights but for now I can at least run some trains when I get the urge whilst the Waukesha sub is under construction. Next to be overcome was lights, power and somewhere to store the stock when not in use on the layout. Ah well a quick replacement LED strip fixed the lights damaged during the last train show outing.I also found a spare but perfectly sized piece of oak worktop from the constrution of our house that I turned into a shelf fitted tightly below the layout at 160cm high. Remember I have to sit under this thing without knocking myself out!

You can just see the narrow stock shelf hiding here below the layout.

So layout up, power and lighting sorted. But erm Houston we have a problem there is no where for the trains to run so that will be the next project, Utilising the office door to support one end and the end of the layout to support the other. Its something Iain Rice suggested to do in one of his small track plan books. I’ll share how well that works out in another post.

In the meantime enjoy a few arty shots taken with my smart phone on Rippon Cement.I guess that train is ready to leave so I best crack on with giving it some place to go to.

Every layout needs a skirt!!

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The waukesha sub may well be very young at this point. In fact less than a month old, however, its not hidden away in the basement its in a room on the main level of our home.

Just like the Zoom zone when working from home (keeping the area seen behind you when on webcam video). The layout area needs to be kept clean incase the door to the layout room is open.

There are many ways to finish the underside of your layout, some people add bookshelves, some clad in T&G and some make a layout skirt.

In the long term my layout will have a skirt mounted on shower curtain clips running on PVC pipe but this won’t be added just yet. A temporary solution is needed, so let us meet the very affordable roll of black cotton. Attached with push pins, the black fabric hides the materials stored for future phases of layout construction and keeps the layout room tidy.

Hopefully by the time you read this post, the nice postie has brought me more supplies so we progress with layout construction. So stay tuned.

Wiring between modules

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The waukesha sub is built in 1200mm or 1600mm by 300mm modules that can all come apart. You know just in case.

Whilst I waited for more materials, all I had in stock that I could get done was fit connecting wires. These are for LEDs and are rated at 300v at 3A which is plenty for the DCC Bus that will have boosters and cut outs on each module. They have locating pins to ensure polarity and screw together so shouldn’t work loose.

Just a quick job each one goes into a screw terminal, the DCC bus wires will go into the other side of each terminal.

Tip: its always tempting to get the benchwork top on and start working things out but adding in wiring looms now when you can get to them without climbing under your layout is a must. So don’t rush and get the foundations in first, just like building a house.

Wisconsin Southern Progress

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The first part of my layout that I started with was the WSOR northern sub. There were a few reasons for this not least that I could get it started whilst I waited for materials for the waukesha sub and that it was small enough to get up and running quickly.

So far deck 1&2 have track installed and are operating ready for the final deck and scenery to commence.

The lower deck is Oshkosh WI with the yard on the left and then the industrial areas going away from that point to the end of the lower level.

The other visible deck is the middle deck and represents Fisk WI and Pickett WI between Oshkosh and Ripon.

The final deck above what can be seen today will represent Horicon Yard the divison point for the Northern WSOR Division. Trains here will be made up to serve the Oshkosh sub and also to run onto the Waukesha Sub Divison part of the layout to serve places south. There is room to add the Markesan Sub Divison at a later date above the Horicon Yard making this part of the layout 4 decks.

Waukesha Sub Divison Benchwork Gallery

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The Benchwork for the lower deck of the Waukesha Sub is constructed from MDF frames mounted on 2×1 legs. It sits approx 55″ from the floor.

Its so high for two reasons, first I wanted my workbenches below and secondly at 6ft tall I dont want to destroy my back working on the railroad.

Above the MDF frame will be added 20mm of foam topped with Cork and foam road bed. The legs will be hidden by a curtain of black fabric and finished with Plywood fascias after the scenery is constructed.

The Waukesha Sub Division in N Scale Lives!

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Having now moved into our new home in March 2020, construction of my new layout commenced in July of 2020. The construction of the Northern Divison of the Wisconsin Southern came first and there are now two levels of trackwork down with turnout motors and block detection. The third and final level of that section of the layout will be installed in 2021. That will connect to the Waukesha Sub Division deck 1, the construction of which started over the Christmas New Year Period of 2020/2021.

The Prototype

The Waukesha Sub Division is part of the Canadian National Railway (CN) in South Eastern Wisconsin. The route is over 150 miles long starting in Chicago and ending in Fond-Du-Lac Wisconsin. It sees over 40 trains per day, incorporates the steepest grade in Wisconsin, Byron Hill. Byron Hill is a 0.9% Grade south of Fond-Du-Lac that was double tracked following the take over of the Wisconsin Central (WC) by CN.

It also incoporates a section of trackage rights for the Wisconsin Southern (WSOR) a WATCO owned shortline in South Eastern Wisconsin. This gives the WSOR acces to its Northern and Southern Division. There is a daily transfer run in both directions to connect these two divisions. The trackage rights extends from Slinger WI at milepost 122.6 and runs south to Grand Avenue, Waukesha at milepost 97.2.

There is a further interchange with the WSOR at Ackerville WI which also allows the CN to access their trackage around Milwaukee exercising their trackage rights over the WSOR Milwaukee Sub Division.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_Subdivision

What are we modelling?

With the inclusion of the Northern Sub Division of the WSOR in the same layout room as the Waukesha Sub Divison it makes sense that we include part of the sub divison with WSOR trackage rights.

Deck one will include Ackerville, Rugby Junction and Waukesha Yard. Waukesha yard will be on scene staging, however hidden staging may be added at a later date.

Trains from the WSOR will arrive on the Wauksha sub behind the Helix between Deck 1 & 2 at Ackerville. This allows trains to run over a removeable section from the WSOR Northern Sub Division yard at Horicon. The Milwaukee Sub Division of the WSOR will be included as far as Rugby Junction.

Waukesha will have a 7 track staging yard with a loco servicing facility. None of these exisited in real life. the yard at Waukesha being 5 tracks and in modern times the yard is gone and just one spur in front of the old depot remains. However this is staging and will enable us to change consists on trains and also add pushers for deck 2. Just beyond the southern end of the Waukesha Yard is Grand Avenue. The WSOR trains will take the Grand Avenue junction and will connect onto the Milwaukee Sub at Rugby Junction. Effectively reversing all WSOR trains to return to Horicon. The Milwaukee Sub division will come under the WSOR dispatcher who is also in control of the whole of the Northern WSOR Division including Horicon Yard and the Oshkosh Sub Division.

Deck 2 will be accessed from a Helix hidden inside the penisula, which could be the home of future hidden staging. Deck 2 is a very simple track plan that represents a section of Byron Hill. Whilst the deck will not be on a grade trains will leave Waukesha and need to navigate the Helix from Deck 1 to 2. Pushers will be used as per the prototype, but as the route is double tracked it will be easy for meets etc and may be broken into blocks to enable the Dispatcher to have multiple Northbound trains but the pushers will always be a choke on Southbound trains with the exception of the local which doesn’t use pushers.

Track Plans

Deck 1 Waukesha to Ackerville

Deck 2 Byron Hill

Wisconsin Southern Northern Division

The Wisconsin Southern Sub Division is in the lower left hand corner of the layout room. It is lower than the CN Waukesha Sub so that shortern operators can use it. The track is also KATO unitrack so its pretty indestructable for younger paws. Deck 1 & 2 are installed but the Horicon Yard is to be added and connected to the CN Waukesha Sub Division. Note deck 3 of the WSOR is at the same height about the ground as deck 1 of the CN Waukesha Sub.

I added a small video to Youtube of the sub baseboard construction for the Waukesha Sub Division it can be found here:

NMRAx: Digital Opportunities to grow the hobby

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NMRAx: Digital Opportunities to grow the hobby, by Gordy Robinson

Personally, I have never been so engaged and busy with my hobby than I have in 2020.  With lockdowns and stay in place orders beginning to take effect across the globe the world as we knew it has changed.  A popular manufacturer recently said that the past 6 months have felt like the Christmas rush and the virtual & physical shelves of hobby stores have been emptied quicker than the toilet paper aisle at the grocery store. 

However Model Railroaders enjoy one of the few hobbies you can do when locked in your home, suddenly finding the time to catch up on all those projects we had been putting off.  As members of the NMRA we know how important it is for us to socialise and share our knowhow with each other.  Unless you are lucky enough to live with a family of model railroaders it’s still simply impossible to meet face to face indoors without restrictions.

So, it has been encouraging to see the digital transformation that has changed how we interact in the workplace and at home, hands up who actually spoke so frequently with none local model railroaders or distant friends and family before March?  Nevermind doing that on Zoom or some other virtual medium.

Just as in our “real lives” the NMRA has seen a growing number of Regions and Divisions move their events online.  In fact the new catch phrases of the world and the NMRA truly are “can you see my screen yet?” and “I can hear you, can you hear me?”.  Just like when we do anything for the first time, we have all picked up some skills I think 6 months ago we might have said were beyond us.

Although those in the LSR were fortunate enough to hold their 2020 Regional Convention, a number of local and national NMRA conventions elsewhere have been cancelled due to the impact of the pandemic, so I decided it was time to launch NMRAx.  The program was conceived a few years ago following the Orlando 2017 NMRA convention.  Being primarily designed to support the digital transformation of the organisation at local and national levels.  A small team of NMRA members including Speed from the LSR, Brad & Martyn from the Australasian Region and myself, Gordy Robinson from the British Region have provided a number of virtual conventions to replace those lost throughout the spring and early summer. 

These events were streamed live to Facebook and YouTube with the videos available after the event for on-demand viewing.  Over 200 hours of clinics, layout tours and live Q&As with MMR®s have been added to the NMRA YouTube channel since April 2020.  We have also had members of the LSR provide clinics to these events and I’d like to thank all of those who have given their time to the project and I hope their participation encourages more of you to have a go in future.  Highlights of this program being the week long GatewayX during what would have been National Convention week in St Louis and SERx which feature 3 simultaneous live streams over an 8 hour period replacing the South Eastern Regions cancelled 2020 convention. 

All NMRAx events have been free and open to all including non-members, not one cent of NMRA money has been spent to provide these events either. With regions globally showing an increase in membership despite the loss of so many recruitment opportunities this year has really shown the success of NMRAx and moving local meetings online.  NMRAx will continue but now on a less frequent basis as we adjust to a new normal in our lives, however the team are committed to monthly content with longer events taking place once per quarter.  The team are also actively in discussions with NMRA Regions and Divisions to support digitising other face-2-face events that would have taken place in 2020.