I have an always open tab for my forum posts. When I went in tonight to add today and yesterday's work, I found that I hadn't finished Friday's post and it timed out. I'll include that content with this one.
I finalized the framing for the entry structure, had it checked by Buzick and made some changes. I then printed it out in scale to make working patterns AND make a mockup to test the fit on the site. It DOES FIT, but I pity the poor semi driver who'd have to get a truck near it for loading and unloading. I toyed with the idea to move the fire house to the other side of the street and find a new place for the Gravely Building (sell it???). I moved it graphically in Corel PhotoPaint, and found that it wouldn't fit the space. So I'm left with the rick house going where it was originally supposed to.
Here's the final design for the front details. I found out that the stair well is NOT encased in a concrete firewall. Instead, it's just fire-rated sheetrock. So I fixed the drawing to reflect this. The stairs have small landings, but there's no floors to speak of. There's a lot of blocking in the walls to support the landings and framing in the elevator shaft proper. The awning is support on structural steel. Front windows don't start until the 3rd floor.
Here's the detail of the entry area.
I mocked up the front gluing the scaled drawings onto some scrap Bristol Board and took as series of pics with different positions.
I think this is the best position. The only way to really view the neat entry hall area will be from the far left back corner next to the bridges, but it will be viewable.
This doesn't work because the trains could clip that pointing corner near the curve.
I actually started construction on the exterior walls. I'm using the same method as I did with the bridges and the Tie Hackers project: model airplane pin-the-parts-to-the-plans. I covered the plans with some think polyfilm so the glue doesn't stick. The header pieces are scale 2 X 10, the studs are 2 X 6s. The floor joist ledges are 4 X 8s. I'm using Aleen's and occasional thin CA if it needs it. To cut all the studs for this phase I used the Chopper with my extendable depth stop.
I then added the upper level floor joist ledge to stabilize this part. The next batch of longer studs I cut with the mini-chop saw with another of my custom depth stops. I was able to cut them in a gang of 8 so it didn't take long to cut the 40 pieces I needed.
I glued these studs in place.
And lastly, I glued in the lower floor joist ledge.
Up next are the blocking and window headers. I will then cut the jack studs for around the windows. No work tomorrow. We're going to breakfast and a movie with our daughter.
I also made a new movie. Grandson #1 suggested setting the iPhone sideways on a flat car and taking a movie as if you were a passenger on said train. The iPhone 12 has a magnetic surface on its back to hold it to the MagSafe charger. I added some high powered magnets scavenged from old SoniCare toothbrush heads. I CA'd the magnets onto a Simpson Strong-Tie angle plate and duct-taped this to a nice Lionel full-scale flatcar.
This video showed up a track problem that I had on the high-line. Occasionally, my Santa Fes would derail somewhere and wouldn't actually get off the track until down at the bottom of the grade. I placed the flat car in front of the lead engine and it's kind of light, even with my iPhone hanging on it. You'll see in the video that the car derails on the high-line coming out of the long "S-curve". It vibrates like crazy and then re-rails itself either on the bridge (since the track has guard rails) or when it hits the Ross switch adjacent to the town.
The camera hit the floor twice. The first is when the train makes the first full circle. I took the curve coming off the grade too fast and the magnets let go that were holding the phone. I used some more duct tape to hold the phone more securely and ran around three more times. Each time the car derailed at exactly the same spot and re-railed itself until it didn't. The last time, the car derailed more completely and the camera was again tossed on the floor. You can see the hand of god coming down to rescue the phone. My phone has a glass protector screen which cracked, but the real screen did not. I replaced the protection screen today and all is good.
It was a good proof of concept and made an interesting video. I found the spot on the track causing all the trouble. It's an exposed rail joiner pin that creates a pretty good "bump" when the trains hit it. I'll repair it by filling the space with solder so it won't cause trouble any longer. I was unaware that the train was actually not tracking. The video really showed it.