The Teardown and Rebuilt of the Whistle Stop RR AND the Train Room its in

[KB02]

Fairly productive weekend. A late afternoon Saturday run to the Big Box store and my plans changed slightly. I had designed my modules with the thought of using 6" wide strips of 3/4" plywood for the frame bodies and topping it with 1/2" ply, then 2" foam. I had even thought that I would splurge for the really nice maple or birch plywood. When I saw the prices, though, I figured I really didn't need modules designed to handle the apocalypse weighing in at higher weight then myself. 1/2" regular ply for the sides and 1/4" topper seemed a much better (and cheaper) way to go. Still stuck with the 2" foam despite an insane cost of $60 a sheet!! When I got home, my trailer looked like this:

Spent the better part of Sunday morning whittling the pile down to size, and then my basement looked like this:

I just had that wall cleaned up, too.

With a little assistance from my little helper, the first module was up:

My helper immediately starting in on the landscaping because, well, six year olds.

poke, poke, poke...

End of the day:

I had planned on some cross bracing for rigidity, and probably should still do that, but they are amazingly stable, so we'll see. Some of them will also have storage shelves built in underneath. That's one of those when-I-get-around-to-it kind of projects, but as I get the pool table cleaned up, I think I may have to get around to it sooner rather than later.

More to come. More whittling to do.

 

[KB02]

Busy day at work. Needed some down-time in the basement and...

"...One of these thing is not like the others..."

 

[Rico]

Busy day at work. Needed some down-time in the basement and...
"...One of these thing is not like the others..."

My guess is you either stopped for a cold one (or two) or the B&B boys are about to get busy?

 

[Marlin338MX]

Looking good, and making good progress. Looking forward to watching this layout take shape.

 

[KB02]

Got some more modules built this weekend. Started in the corners:

(second one was mid-build, I swear...)

Then I added some backdrop boards:

Got things set up and, after all my careful measurements and planning and forethought into the process, you might notice a small gap:

That gap is not 48" wide, as I had planned. No. It is 47 1/4" wide.
Well, a small adjustment later...

And it all fits:

According to my SCARM planning, my corners should still have enough room, but paper and practice often are not the same. We'll see when I lay track.

I added some basic backdrop to a couple of the modules to see how it would look. There won't be permanent. I'd like to get some of Trackside Scenery's backdrops, but they are pricey. So we'll have to see.

AND... the B&B boys say that this temp bridge should hold until they can build a permanent one. Again... we'll see.

 

[KB02]

Another busy weekend in the basement. The last of the modules has been built!

This includes my mutant module, which is, essentially, a variant on John Allen's timesaver puzzle.

This is actually something that was given to me in Shelf-Layout style that I had incorporated into my previous layout. I liked it, so figured I would keep it.

The bulk of today has been spent in re-positioning all my lights and putting the valances back in place. Due to the auto light adjustment of my iPhone, these picture do not do it justice, but it brings the room down from a You-have-now-seen-God brightness to a nice, focused light just on the modules.

One last thing to build and that is the turn-around area. Again, I've got some plans for that to re-incorporate parts of my old layout, but a bit more lumber is needed - but not much. Just about everything you've seen to this point has been built from 2 sheets of 1/2" ply, 2 sheets of 1/4" ply, 10 2x4's and two sheets of 4x8', 2" foam. A few pieces of leftover scraps, too, but not a ton.

Pretty soon, I'll start planning out modules and laying track once again.