Friday and Friday night I finished some plantings I am doing around the
mailbox. The wonderful weather we enjoyed during the convention made way for
heat and humidity making the outdoor work hot and sweaty. Over the week, I did
complete my crossing and it works well. I have not wired that area of the
layout so to check the travel of cars going through it, I used inspiration from
Bob N and tied a piece of string to the coupler of a box car and pulled a few
of them through the crossing to make sure it was smooth.
Thursday, the pines and prairies group visited Ben the brass bender, some of us
had not seen the latest trackwork additions to his layout, he was running the
wheels off of three different trains while we discussed his many options for
the next project he takes on. Like so many of us, his "dream" of what the
layout should be has been altered slightly as he visits more layouts and
develops other ideas. His layout is great now and has wonderful potential for
many new scenes and features.
I received a note from Steve Doyle saying he is back from his extended trip to
erotic places and is anxious to get into the basement for some real fun. With
Labor Day being just around the corner, model railroading season is about ready
to gear up.
The next feature for me to install is a couple of turnouts off the crossing I
made and then complete Pine River. I have hit a psychological roadblock
though. Pine River is the area I have used as my drop off point, standing
workbench and junk gathering spot for 30 years. If I put railroad in there, my
universe will be out of balance. I mentioned this to Ben and he pointed out
that the "fly over" trackwork he put in did the same and I know the Chicago
yard will do the same for Steve. I have always wondered what happens to all
the junk that accumulates in these spots when these spots don't exist any more?
Finally some thoughts about the layout questions. In our area, Jeff Otto has
built one of the largest and most outstanding operational layouts I have ever
seen. He cut homosote into strips, I think 4 inches wide and splines them on
edge it to create his subroadbed and roadbed. These splines get wider when he
needs passing sidings or yards, they form wonderful curves he even has grade
changes. Over the 6 years the layout has been up, his trackwork has been
flawless. Were I to start from scratch, i would give this serious thought.
Once you get past cutting a bizzilion sheets of homosote into splines and the
the dust out of your system, it works well.
Most of the layouts in the PPSSW are build on plywood subroadbed (we like 3/4
inch for strength) with homosote and also sometimes cork on top for teh
roadbed. Don't shortchange yourself on the structure of the benchwork or
subroadbed. A couple of bucks spent on making things strong and stable are a
good investment if the layout will be around for a while.
Ken Zieska
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