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

2ft 90 curve progress

Mike Sherbak
Aiken SC

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.

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

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.

More progress

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