Concept Pages

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Laying Track @ Griffin Jct

Coming along slow but sure. The wye is in.
#10R on the tail.
#6R on the East end of the Wye and a
#8L at the West end of the Wye.

Crossings at the double track mains will be handlaid.

After a practice run on a piece of scrap lauan I'll complete the crossings on the module.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Roadbed installation on Griffin Jct

Lauan roadbed installation has been completed on Griffin Jct.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Basement Modular - Fall 2011 Iteration

I have been working on the development of the modular/permanent layout. Here's the latest iteration. The modules are pretty easy to see. Along the walls there is a two level shelf layout. The module rail height is 48". The two shelves are at 45" and 59" respectively. Access to the upper level is via the helix in the utility room at the upper right.
The interior of the loop will only be accessible via the wye when ops sessions are conducted and there will be no ability to go completely around the inside loop. The fiddle yard will be at the end of the lower shelf level and inside a closet below a set of stairs.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Almost ready for the waffle bottom !

Just finished gluing in the middle ribs. Be ready for the waffle this evening ! Less than a week. Have 3 more of these to
Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Friday, September 23, 2011

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The DF&P Corporate Office Car "Karen Lea"

While waiting for the glue to dry on the module I headed to the crew lounge/workshop to work on a passenger car project for the Dover-Foxcroft & Portland. A work-in-progress photo of the DF&P varnish - "Karen Lea"  The car was purchased from the New Haven RR and is in the process of being re-lettered for the DF&P.

Progress on the 2ft inside 90deg curve

Daily progress on the module is limited to gluing in additional peices of the modular structure. Sequence follows the same process as always - frontiers (ends) are glued on, short 'ribs, then outside rails, inside rails and 'long' ribs.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Mike's Modules: manufacturing more !

This next module I'm building is one of the four 2ft inside 90deg curves I'll need for the basement layout plan.

I had Home Depot rip two 4x8 panels to 37-1/32 inches wide on their panel saw and laid out the module on the 'factory' edge.

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Scenery material experimentation

Been working on scenery this week and had been for some time accumulating Pot Toppers after reading about their use in the Railroad Line Forum.

Pot Toppers at Railroad Line Forums

I had used the green grassy side in a couple of locations but had not used the brown/purple tinged reverse side. A couple of nights ago I decided to experiment with the reverse side of a pot topper.

The forest floor is rarely a carpet of green grass but rather an accumulation of dead vegetation, leaves, etc. I thought the reverse side with a bit of doctoring could represent this forest floor nicely. Here is my first attempt at doing so.

Up on legs

I passed up an opportunity to see The Lion King in 3D this afternoon to work on cutting the tubing and installing the caster inserts/casters to get Griffin Jct up on its legs.  I installed a 5th (card table style) leg on this module to prevent the module from tipping.  To extend the legs I used 7/8" tubing which is a slip fit inside the 1" tubing that is used on the banquet table legs and the card table leg tubing. There are other options which I will have to consider soon unless I come across additional scrap tubing to use. I have been extending legs up to this point using the tubing from a backyard canopy that got wrecked in a windstorm a few years back when we still lived in Rincon GA. I have moved twice since then and have been carting that tubing around since 2007. Finally using it up. Can[t think of a better way to recycle it than make use of it by building a S&SS of NC module ! 

Installed the legs on Griffin Jct module

Have the extensions to install and a few more gusset blocks to glue in on the bottom waffle. I make the gusset blocks from dimensional lumber. Scrap pallets made of 3/4" softwood can be ripped on the table saw into a strip having a triangular shape and cut into 3/4" to 1-1/2" pieces to use as reinforcement at the glued joints.

Friday, September 2, 2011

More progress

Waffle bottom all cut out. Some cleanup and I'll get it glued on tomorrow some time.
Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Griffin Jct ready for the waffle bottom

Might have on legs and ready for track by the time I leave for Ken-fest. 7 days and a wake up !

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Almost ready for the waffle bottom

It won't be ready for Kenfest but perhaps the NRVMRR in Nov.

The challenge will be all the diamonds.

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Another view

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Outside rail in place

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Laid out and frontiers and ribs are glued in place

On to the next module

The next module to be built is a 6ft straight module combined with a 2 ft inside curve.
Modules built to S&SSofNC specs are designed to fit together on a 2ft 'grid'.
This grid is referenced off the front edge of the module closest to the double track mainline.

So for example a four foot 'inside' curve has a 48" radius on the edge of the module closest to the 8/10 mains.  The 'inside' refers to the fact that the radius of the outside edge of the module is less than the radius of the 8" main. The radius of the 8" main on an inside 4ft is 48" + 6" = 56"  

An outside four foot curve then has a radius greater than the 8" main so - the outside radius is 48" and the radius of the 8" main is 40".

Friday, August 19, 2011

Waffle bottom test fit

All cut out - the waffle bottom will be glued and clamped in place. This will significantly add to the long thin module's rigidity and torsional flexing

Ready for the waffle bottom

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Free-mo module design

A member of the Southeast Georgia (SEGA) Free-mo group proposed a module design that was interesting to me so I thought I would play around with a waffle frame design for the proposed module in XTrkCAD.  Here are a few images of the final design showing the waffle layout, the top surface with track and the underlying module rails to show how the track is supported and the dimensions of the top surface.



Unlike S&SS of NC waffle frames which are 4 inches high, this module, to be Free-mo Compliant, would need to be built with 6"x24" endplates.

8ft Mainline mini-module

Starting on an 8ft Mainline mini-module to parallel the 8ft branchline yard modules in the basement plan.
Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Bill of Materials for an 8ft module

A recent discussion on the S&SSofNC group prompted me to develop a BOM for a 30" x 96" straight module

2 sheets  48" x 96" 5.2mm lauan underlayment plywood required - nominally $10.00 each at the big box stores.
May substitute higher grade 1/4" plywood if desired

Cutting list:  cut two 30" x 96" pieces... one from each 4'x8' sheet
Cut 3-1/2" x 96" ribs/rails material out of the remaining 18 x 96 pieces - yields ten pieces
four pieces are needs for the rails - 2 outside and 2 inside rails
remaining pieces may be cut to length (nominally 9" and 12") to provide materials for the ribs

2 - 3.5" x 30" good grade (marine) void free 3/4 plywood - a 2' x 4' Handi panel yields 6 pieces
4 - 1" OD x 1-3/4" steel or aluminum tube - note that banquet table legs are constructed on 1" tube. I routinely cut a 1-3/4" piece off of each leg and extend the banquet table legs with tubing that either slides inside or outside the 1" tubing. An appropriate size dowel or broom handle may also be used.

If you have sufficient woodworking/cabinet making skills it is possible to build an acceptable module right out of the gate that you won't have to trash. A number of S&SSofNC people have done it. One must be meticulous with regard to dimensions, squareness, flatness. A good saw and accurate, disciplined setup procedures go a long way towards success.

Friday, July 8, 2011

July Basement Modular Plan update

Have done some tweaking of the modular plan. Realized that the 54" I allowed for aisle space Upper LH corner on the plan the purpose of which is to get furniture in and out of the crew lounge is not required. I can simple removed the curved modules at the end of the layout to get a full 60" of clearance so I have made a few adjustments adding a couple of feet to the overall length.

The outside 4ft twins are up on their little legs

The mother module still needs to give these babies a good licking off yet. Once the casters are on and they grow trackage and pins they'll be running round with the other baby modules.

Seriously tho' I still have to install caster inserts and caster wheels on the four legs on each modules. I have saved the casters from several old office chairs which have a ring grip 7/16" diameter stem.  A caster insert for these will go in the ends of each of the banquet table leg extensions. The wooden folding legs will use a 'tap-in' caster insert that requires a 3/8" diameter hole to be drilled in the end of the legs. A bit of JB weld will help keep these from falling off the end of the leg.  Stay tuned ........
Mike S in Aiken SC

Monday, June 27, 2011

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

update

Michael J Sherbak II
Aiken SC

Thursday, May 5, 2011

New Modules

Continuing to build new modules and have a revised plan for the basement that is a bit more workable

This is the current state of a 4ft Outside 90 deg module.


Most S&SSof NC modules I have seen are built with the inside curved surface.
The modules I am building as you will note on the plan below are built with the inside edge as a chord between the frontiers. I choose to build the module in this manner to provide more surface area for scenery.

Revised plan as of 01-May. Some additional modifications are in the not to distant future for the trackplan as this set up is intended to be a point to point with a yard onlong the lower wall of the plan.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Modules in the carriers

A view of a combination of 8 lf of modules in the transport carriers

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2ft modules for flipping the 8/10 and the 21 and back.
 I built the wyes from ME code 83 rail on a paper template I downloaded from handlaidtrack.com  Karen had given me a couple of filing jigs for #8 and #6 points/froogs and so I used a #6 wye for these two modules.


While not usable on the main line in a show set up these modules will enable adding operating interest to the branchlines and at a Glen-fest or Ken-fest type set up.

I really built them for the home modular layout to enable the ability to have a point to point layout suited to TT&TO or Track Warrant operations.