Preparing for Main Line construction

Now that we have completed Weigh Scales and come up to the Narrows, we have to start building the main line in the center of the back of the room so we can then store all the boxes and other debris under the layout that we have stashed in the front of the basement. We cannot continue up the branch until we can access the wall that is shown as covered with boxes in the third picture.

After I washed (read scrubbed) and waxed the floor, I covered it with paper in order to both protect it and then allow me to design the framing once I cut out the sub-roadbed for the track. You can see how shiny the floor was before I covered it with the construction paper.

I have used 3rdPlanit as a CAD tool to design the main line and try to fit it into the irregular shape of the room. Ed Rappe, shown in one of the first pictures laying the paper, was my instructor as he has become quite expert in its use as he used it extensively in designing he fantastic PRR layout that he has under construction about 5 blocks from my house. We work together every week on a rotating basis, with John Roberts also in the rotation.

The next series of photos you see will begin construction of the main line.

Weigh Scales Completed

After some hard work, we get the turnouts down and the trackwork completed. You can see the short passing siding where the scale track will be. It is front of the vacuum brush on the second photo. The yellow plastic templete next to the brush is close to where John Roberts will place the scratchbuilt block station and weigh station that he will build. I have to complete the drawings that I am making based on a series of photos that I have. I got them from books as well as from a very kind friend who works on the short line railroad that operates in that area.

In the last two photos you can see the first freight train coming into Weigh Scales. It also gives a good shot of the ;ayout of the yard which wraps around the turn in the room and goes about 15 feet up the rear wall.

Well, still having problems getting photos in order, you see Rich and John Roberts, another O Scaler who lives close by, working to lay the homasote for the yard. Then looking back, you see that I paint the homasote flat black to simulate cinders when I ballast, so no light colors show if anything pops off. I have then laid turnout templates to figure out the yard configuration. It came out pretty good, somewhat closely following the PRR trackplan, albeit with some compression in numbers of tracks. I use white pencil to lay the center lines.

Well,

I am still working on getting the photos in order but here are the Narrows. You can see that the benchwork was made to match the reverse curve of the track. Then you can see the raising of the subroadbed and addition of the other scenic elements. In what should be the final photo you see the river in the foreground, the PRR track, then PA Highway 61 and then up on what will be a hill, the subroadbed of the Reading. I will be using S gauge track for that so as to have some scenic compression giving a sense of distance. We have to stop construction here as I now have to start building the main line in the center of the room after I lay the track in Weigh Scales.

Well, we have crossed the creek and now are entering Weigh Scales. We will have a small coal gathering yard and a combination block office and scale house here. The yard will have three tracks. It will also include a long passing siding, a short passing siding for the scale track, and a team track and single track engine servicing area as helpers were added or taken off here. We have hung about 45 linear feet of benchwork off the wall.

In the second photo you can see that we turn to the right at the far end as we go into the Narrows. We need to include PA Highway 61 and the Reading Railroad in that scene. In teh foreground will be Shamokin Creek. We then will turn in an S curve and proceed up tp Shamokin, past the Glen Burne Colliery. More on that later.

As we have now crossed over on our way to Weigh Scales, we have to build our bench work at a higher elevation and hang it off the exterior wall. We have to adjust our construction approach as the wall is precast concrete. Pat Mitchell, a friend up in Maryland, told us how he is doing it on his Proto 48 layout and we adapted his method for our application. You can see Rich Feller working on the subroadbed. He is a great friend and carpenter and he is responsible for most of the work here. We dropped a support bolted to the wall and then nailed a stub to the side. Later he put a cross member in place, using a string line to be sure they were straight. Over his shoulder you can see the completed Weigh Scales benchwork. You can see the level we used to be sure we were okay. Also the paper diagram on the floor was used to size the cross members and locate where we wanted to hang them. We are coming up on the Narrows and once we reach there, we will have to stop work on the branch and go back to working on the main line plus complete filling in the branch up to Weigh Scales.

Bridging a doorway

Well, we now have to get past a doorway as we leave Paxinos heading East. Next stop is Weigh Scales but first we have to create a duck under as we jump from one wall to another. I made an assembly that can be removed in the case that the refrigerator in that small room has to be replaced. It has a false bottom to allow me to run some wires under the riverbed. First we made the road bed out of plywood to be sure everything was on a consistent grade(2%). Then we cut out the center section and placed the bridge piers there. Mistake number one was forgetting that the deck girder requires piers to go up to the level of the track. So, we will have to make some future adjustments. I will show the completed bridge installation in a future post.