The D&J Railroad -- From Scratch

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model-a said:
Hey D&J don't you need another kid to help on that awesome layout I won't eat much lol looking good my friend.
Click to expand...
The fun meter is usually pegged for guests who operate on it. They get a lot of exercise too in following their trains around the layout. Lots more work yet to be done after the signals are installed.
 
This cold weather is causing havoc with the railroad.
Tonight after doing some work at the repair desk, I put a train of TOFCs into motion so I could have something to stop and watch as it came by. I began work on a turn out when I noticed part of the train was missing. Back were the end of the train was sitting was a sizable rise in the benchwork. The 3/4" plywood had lifted from the 2x4 risers, actually pulling three 3" long drywall type screws out of the 2x4s. I also noticed that the leading trucks on all 4 diesels where cockeyed so I inspected the rails and found several more places where the track was kinked so bad that the 3 axel loco trucks couldn't negotiate the twist.
Needless to say, the evening was spent cutting rail. The raised plywood will have to be cut out and reset, which means pulling up about a foot of mainline.
 
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Yeah, the basement is heated. I keep it at about 68 degrees. I think its the extremely low humidity that's causing it. The cold temps just suck the moisture out of the air. I get a lot of static electricity around the house in the winter. Blue sparks, at least a 1/4" from my finger tips to light switches and plumbing fixtures. The same when I get out of my truck and grab the door to close it. That stuff hurts.
 
Seems strange that you are getting bulges with low humidity, usually the reverse, and plywood being the most dimensionaly stable wood product. Should be shrinking and pulling apart not expanding.
 
This is getting worse each day. I checked the benchwork this morning and found several places where the road bed is humped up to were couplers won't stay lined up. This is just over night.
 
One thing that comes to mind - and I don't know if it could have anything at all to do with what is happening - but in traditional open grid or L-girder construction you have lengths of, say, 1x4 members on edge, 1x4 cross members mounted to them, risers mounted to the cross members and sub-roadbed mounted to the risers. A quick look at your pictures and there doesn't seem to be anything like that in the horizontal direction - mostly the plywood.

Perhaps related?
 
My 4'x6' plywood table top was purchased about a week ago, assembled since then and it's already separating. I even pre-drilled all around!
 


I started work on a few other items last night then went into fixing the benchwork issue mentioned yesterday but I forgot to take pictures of the before problem.
 
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I nailed some of the track down for quick repairs, but with the original install, all of it was glued down. Heck, I can hear this stuff popping loose in the middle of the night.
 
Is it hotter then normal in the room? The rails could be expanding (lengthening) thus causing the buckling. Do you have any gaps in the rails so the can expand/contract without causing problems?
 
I have the house thermostat set at 68.
When I glued the track down, I left a small gap between the rails for expansion.
I recall a study that I read several years ago about the expand rate of track (HO) scale. The expansion of a 3 foot section of Atlas fles was about 1/8" with a 50 degree temp change. The most that the temps have changed in my house has been maybe 20 degrees warmer in the summer time, and that is only a guess. The thing that has changed more is the humidity. I would be inclined to think the humidity may be down around 25 - 30% now, whereas in the summer it is up around 60 - 70%. The wood is certainly the problem here as noted by the screws pulling out of the 2x4. Shrinking or expanding track would not cause that.
 


Hmm...

What time of year was it when you assembled the benchwork? Or perhaps I should ask what do you think the humidity was?
 
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