Layout construction scrapbook 2

{The basic box frame has a centre beam - as shown in the photo- and a shorter one perpendicular to it that is shown in some later photos. Again, the frame isn't warped as it appears in the photo. It's a distortion of the lens.}

{On the bottom I attached a piece of 1/2 inch particle board to improve rigidity and help keep the frame straight and true. However, it increases the weight of the board a lot. In a later post I plan to give a weight breakdown of the whole board, and show some areas where improvements can be made in future builds - live and learn :-) }

{I attached the hardboard substrate to the pine frame with 3/4 inch screws. Also, a number of holes were drilled into the frame for snaking wires through.}

{Almost all the substrate boards are attached.}

Layout construction scrapbook

{I was totally old-school in layout planning. No fancy CAD programs, just laying out track on the back patio trying out ideas that seemed good.}

A few pictures from the construction of the layout board.

{After a while my back kept suggesting that I should work on the layout plans on the deck where I wouldn't have to bend over as much :-) I also worked on fixing the deck this past summer and it was partially finished when I took this picture.}

{That's the main frame leaning against the wall. It's made from 1x3 pine - as straight as I could find at the local home reno store.}

{The substrate is made from 1/4 inch hardboard. I used 4, 2x4 foot pieces mainly because they would fit in my car and a whole 4x8 sheet wouldn't.}

{This is an initial test fit of the frame and substrate pieces to make sure things were shaping up properly. The frame doesn't actually have a weird warp in it, my garage floor is far from level!}

Lost Ocean Line?

I’m trying to shield this little project from creeping ‘job-ism’ with milestones and deadlines and such, so I’ve been mellowing out a bit on it and have instead been thinking about a name for the railroad. In the spirit of names like Gorre & Daphetid, and Enskale & Hoentee, my current candidate is Lost Ocean Line, or LOL for short. Ok. I’ll meditate on that for awhile :-)

Painted, tracked and powered

[I worked on these tasks in the backyard since the weather was good. This picture shows the track just before I set to gluing it down. The board itself was spray painted with a variety of Krylon Latex colours. The track is mainly Atlas. The circular arc switch is a Peco item that was on sale at the local hobby store a few months back - I'm fascinated with curved switches so I bought it and figured I'd work it in somehow.]

As the title says, I finished painting the board (mainly to get rid of the pink foam colour), glued down the track, and installed the DCC system. The next task is cleaning up the workshop and getting ready for the next steps.

[This picture was taken just after taking a couple of laps of a test run of the DCC system. I bought a simple MRC Prodigy Express system. Works well.]

The Pendon Museum via YouTube

While I was in the process of putting together yesterday's post about the Madder Valley RR, I came across these other two excellent videos of the model railways at the Pendon Museum - the home of the Madder Valley RR - in England. The first has a little more footage of the Madder Valley along with a highly enjoyable B&W film shot by the narrator in the '60s(?). It also goes into other layouts at the museum, but that mainly is the focus of part 2. The layouts of Pendon are odes to English village life in the 1930s. There's great stuff here and hopefully one day I'll have the opportunity to see them in person.