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Just purchased 16 sheets of sanded 1/2 inch plywood today. (Ouch!) Delivery Tuesday!
Just purchased 16 sheets of sanded 1/2 inch plywood today. (Ouch!) Delivery Tuesday!
I was shocked that a year ago 1/4” plywood was almost $40 a sheet at Home Depot. I don’t even want to know what you paid for 1/2” at today’s price
I was shocked that a year ago 1/4” plywood was almost $40 a sheet at Home Depot. I don’t even want to know what you paid for 1/2” at today’s price
I’ll tell you. I paid about $43 a sheet with “free” delivery.
Northern Pacific history enthusiast
I was shocked that a year ago 1/4” plywood was almost $40 a sheet at Home Depot. I don’t even want to know what you paid for 1/2” at today’s price
The price of wood is very unpredictable. A project I completed last summer came in 40% cheaper than my estimate, a month later prices were back up again.
Doing some old school DC wiring
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Hello
Well organized, did some of that myself this weekend. The layout I'm building will have 2 reverse loops. The first one is finished and train-tested.
The track used, curves are ridged, I lay out the route, & screw mount it. Come back pull it all up, tape & paint it.
Go back with the roadbed, as it dries, solder drops to every section. Reinstall the track, wire & train test. The models I see on your layout have me thinking I'm seeing N scale.
I removed my N scale last July and started on this one. I also see you're a Santa Fe fan like myself. I have some pretty nice cabooses, well detailed you could be interested in. Also, have just about every GHQ vehicle ever sold.
Just saying
example

Pep
4 more feet to go!
Got some prices on plywood yesterday. Good Lord! Expensive!! It’s gonna be a while until that project happens.
View attachment 213120View attachment 213121
Hello
Not one to nick-pick, however from experience .............. finish the ceiling. I had open rafters & hated it, thought it would never bother me.
I left the I beam & duct exposed, keeping an industrial flavor to the room
Just saying Pep
Not going to worry about the ceiling. Maybe I’ll do a drop ceiling someday, maybe.
Plywood is definitely expensive. I'm not sure what it's going for, but have you looked into something like OSB?
Yes I did. If I were going to use foam, then I might have used it. Foam is stupid expensive too!
That's why I used plywood with cork roadbed instead of foam. I feel like I saved myself a lot of money that way.
I think I can call it finished. At least for now. The last thing I did after this photos was to attach the far left platform and freight room to the rest of the structure. I had to do this on the layout to get everything lined up properly before the glue set.
Now I'm waiting for 55 conifers to show up and a platform extension that will be placed on the right.
That's why I used plywood with cork roadbed instead of foam. I feel like I saved myself a lot of money that way.
Exactly!
Been laying track like a mad man!
(was going to insert a "crazy man" gif here, but after looking at a few examples with Gary Busey and William DeFoe in my Google search, I felt a little scared, and dirty...)
With spring in the air and summer time employment ramping up, I won't have a ton of time to spend on the layout. I'd like to have trains running so I can play when the mood strikes me.

Now it's really finished. New platform built, new parking lot, and plenty of trees. Schwarzburg even repaved a short stretch of road to the station to get the bumps out.
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Unless the forecast changes...nothing this weekend

.
I'm working on benchwork and do the cutting outside, the weather has not cooperated much since I started this in February (perhaps unsurprisingly).
On the up side, the layout's coffers aren't too bad since I've been putting the money I would have spent aside until a nice weekend


Northern Pacific history enthusiast
Building roads and foundations...
Upper left side of the layout is where the action is, staging on the right. The lift out section rests on the floor when I am not running trains, a good reason to keep the floor clean!
Dave LASM
Layout to-do list for weekend and next week - get 2nd 2'x 4' benchwork module assembled and leveled, and get backdrop done.
Dug into the scrap bin again and came up with some tanks for the pulp mill.
The white pumps are spare bits from Walthers spine cars I think.

Since 9/2022 I’ve done nothing on my transload facility. This morning I pulled up 30” of the track work from the right of the pit to start the rebuild of the facility.
I have replaced the wood ties with Central Valley tie strips.
The 1-2-3 blocks and soda cans are weighing down the tie strips while the glue dries
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