Getting back to the book

Test cover (Green border because)

If you're a regular reader here you'll notice I'm cutting back a bit on posts, and will continue do so for a little while longer. I'm spending as much time as I can on the E. L. Moore ebook. I've been getting over a shoulder and neck injury which put a damper on my enthusiasm for big projects, but I'm more-or-less back in the saddle, so I'm dusting off the files and trying to catch up on lost time.

Anyway, that's the plan, mixed metaphors and all.

Optical Construction

Corrected* illustration that accompanied Dance's article

Optical Construction: A method of angling a layout's tablework to create the illusion of steeply graded track work.

Usage: Bob used optical construction in his layout's mountainous area so that he wasn't limited to using only his most powerful locomotives in that region.

Source: Sherman Dance described the concept in an article called Scenic Railroad Building that appeared in the February 1950 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

First, Mr. Dance describes the problem:

Building mountains, producing cuts and the like is not a big engineering problem. Real mountain scenery can easily be modeled, and without having steep grades. The entire scenery is laid out by construction of optical illusions - optical illusions of platform construction. Generally, the modeler will erect a platform that is level and on to which the mountains are made to rise from the platform. The result is, of course, steep grades over which only the largest motive power can be used and with a light train. Optically, it is done otherwise.

He then discusses using an optical illusion to solve the problem:

Optical construction calls for a platform that is anything but level - high where you want it and low any place that will fit the general plan of things. The mountainous area (let us say the North end) can be constructed on the low side of the platform. To the South end, the terrain is supposed to represent fairly level ground and this is erected on the high end of the platform. The trackage, on the other hand, is about level between these points - optical illusion of construction.

No example dimensions or implementation photographs accompanied the article to judge the effectiveness of this proposed method.

*The illustration shown in the source material shows the North and South ends of the layout section labelled opposite to the description in the article. In the article's illustration, South should be North, and North should be South. The illustration has been corrected for the dictionary.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 1st ed.,1959.

From the days when the OTrain was a good thing

Maybe when an RFP goes out for a new LRT system there needs to be a section specifying musical requirements. 

Starting to paint the Jigger

After a pause in construction I've decided to restart by painting the body shell.

I haven't been able to determine what colours the real Jigger was painted, so after some thought, I decided to use colours reminiscent of the ones Ottawa's streetcars used in the 1940s and 1950s, which appear to be well documented in colour photos.

Yellow and an orangey red dominate. For those I chose Tamyia Flat Yellow acrylic, XF-3, and Golden's SoFlat Cadmium Red Light. The Cadmium Red Light seems about right, although the Tamyia Flat Yellow is a little cheerier than the yellow on the prototype. The brown is Tamyia Linoleum Deck Brown acrylic, XF-79. I haven't decided on final colours for the roof, steps, or bumpers. All these paints are being applied with brushes.

Well, painting is maybe half-way done, which likely means it's really only a quarter done, and I see many areas for correction already, so ....

Layout stand, version 2

Two birds examine the remains of version 1 of the Loonar Module layout stand

Not all experiments are successful, although most are educational. My first attempt at a lightweight, portable, eye-level stand for the Loonar Module sure wasn't successful, but education did happen.

There were a few problems, but the one that sealed its fate was its smell. I used some ancient leftover black paint I had in the basement to paint it. After months of outgassing and attempts at smell remediation, it continued to have a strong paint smell no matter what was done. The only salvageable parts were the unpainted wheels.

In case you're interested, the other problems were that it needed to be shortened by 2" to 3" to properly accommodate the height of an average woman instead of being specifically designed to my eye-level when standing, and the wheels were too industrial for general domestic use. 

Version 2 minutes after final assembly. EyeChair in background

I didn't have enough leftover wood around the house to build another standing eye-level prototype (I'm trying to use up stuff around here as much as possible), but I did have enough for one at sitting eye-level*. And this time I looked up the standard eye-level for an average woman while seated, 46", to use as the dimension to design this thing around. The components were sized so that rolling stock on the track would be placed 46" above the floor. This is a tad too short for me, but I can  lower my chair or slouch a bit :-)

This height allows me to place the stand with the layout on top kitty-corner to both my desk and drafting table in the studio and be able to get an eye-level view whenever I want. Spoiler alert: this is working out quite well. The layout's calming to look at, and repeated viewing helps me figure out what should be added or removed. 

That's version 2 up there on the right. Like version 1, this one lacks diagonals for proper torsion and shear strength, so it's not up for rough handling. It turns out I have some leftover metal diagonal struts from an old, discarded Ikea shelf that are just the right length that I'll install once I've decided on what, if any, shelves to include. 

This one is going to remain unpainted until the spring, and only be painted if I can find some low or no odour paint. On the other hand, once I settle on a final design, I'd like to build a proper final version from some decent wood and components that are better looking and more generally house friendly.

One last thing. To make the controller easy to find and move around with the stand I screwed a cup hook into bottom of the stand's plywood top and glued a matching one to the bottom of the controller with J-B Weld epoxy.

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*Digressions

You might be wondering why I've got lots of wood sticks lying around? They're the scraps and leftovers from making various types and sizes of backyard squirrel cages. They're not for keeping squirrels in, but keeping them out; out and away from plants and herbs they find irresistibly delicious. These cages get used for lots of things ranging from protecting potted plants while they get some rare fall sun to springtime service in the planting beds keeping young seedlings from being devoured. We're overrun with ravaging squirrels and there's not much that can be done to keep them out of the backyard, but there's plenty that can be done to keep them out of the salad bar. And doing so produces timber for squirrelly model train layouts :-)