Benchwork - Wiring - adding elevations

Hi John, I am sorry I missed the question about height of your upper track. the best advice I can ever got was to measure the height of your tallest car on the track and make your height 1/4" higher then that!

I have some well cars that look tall but found out they are nowhere near as tall as my auto carriers!

And for you guys fallowing I got the ceiling sheet rocked! Taking a couple days off then I will start one the walls!

@Tranquil Hollow RR Shoulders are a little soar, but not as bad as I thought they were going to be, its my bad back that sucks! LOL                                                       

@mike g. posted:

Hi John, I am sorry I missed the question about height of your upper track. the best advice I can ever got was to measure the height of your tallest car on the track and make your height 1/4" higher then that!

I have some well cars that look tall but found out they are nowhere near as tall as my auto carriers!

And for you guys fallowing I got the ceiling sheet rocked! Taking a couple days off then I will start one the walls!

@Tranquil Hollow RR Shoulders are a little soar, but not as bad as I thought they were going to be, its my bad back that sucks! LOL                                                       

That’s a professional looking ceiling Mike. My shoulders hurt just thinking about doing what you accomplished.

Jay

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

That’s a professional looking ceiling Mike. My shoulders hurt just thinking about doing what you accomplished.

Jay

Yours and mine both, Jay!  Back too!

Great work on getting that ceiling up! Looks perfect! And yes my back and neck hurts looking at it too, lol

Thanks for all the good comments on clearance, now my minimum clearance is at 5.75" top of rail to bottom of overhead. I do not have anything that tall but am considering purchasing some scale pieces in the future. If I don't make those purchases, then no harm done.

Working on printing and painting ALL the trestles for the spur and two main lines. The tall trestles take about 14 hours to print, so it is one per day for the higher ones. And the shortest print times are around 7 hours. That does not include the trusses between the vertical supports. But they are coming out good and rather than trying to speed up the print and risk failure, I'm being patient (as best I can lol) and letting the printer do its thing. At least with several printed now I can start to paint those pieces.

Just a works in progress update. Some pics of elevated sections, using 3D printed trestles with trusses for 072 curve going to the lift bridge. The gray is a primer and the redish is rust undercoat which will be salted and sprayed silver, i think... Still some finish/cleanup on the trestle pieces. Was looking to get height and transitions settled for the lift bridge area. btw the trestle pieces will be screwed into the homosote and the blue tape on the rails is masking for spraying the track rustoleum camo earth brown.

John, that is really impressive looking work!!

Thanks Mark, Many mistakes made in the process, and still hoping trains will run smoothly.

WOW John, I am with Mark, those look great! Your becoming quite the Pro with this 3D stuff!

John, Many mistakes on the way goes with the territory!  I certainly make many mistakes in my modeling.

@mike g. posted:

WOW John, I am with Mark, those look great! Your becoming quite the Pro with this 3D stuff!

Thanks for the kind words, although I feel stuck in this mode, making parts annd not building a thing... LOL

@Mark Boyce posted:

John, Many mistakes on the way goes with the territory!  I certainly make many mistakes in my modeling.

Well Mark you are a craftsman for sure, and making mistakes is the University of life. I may never graduate lol

@Aegis21 posted:

Well Mark you are a craftsman for sure, and making mistakes is the University of life. I may never graduate lol

I doubt I will graduate either.  No matter!

Well it finally dawned on me why I didn't get at least one line powered before Christmas, I counted the number of pieces the 3D printer printed for elevated sections of two main lines and a spur. They wound up taking 45 days of printing. Not totally continuous, however if a piece took more than 16 hours, then the next piece did not start till the next day. Then there was the design time, prime coating, rust coating and now salt masking and top coating. The spur is almost finished and I used a sliver final coat with a dark brown rust look. Not sure what color final coating will be for the two mainlines. Thinking either a blue/green (as in a NYC elevated subway green) brown, or a lighter/brighter silver than the spur is painted. One Mainline runs parallel to the spur and the supports will combine once the levels are equal. Any thoughts on colors???

That’s a lot of printing, John!  My vote is for the blue/green from New York since you are familiar with it.

@Aegis21 posted:

Well it finally dawned on me why I didn't get at least one line powered before Christmas, I counted the number of pieces the 3D printer printed for elevated sections of two main lines and a spur. They wound up taking 45 days of printing. Not totally continuous, however if a piece took more than 16 hours, then the next piece did not start till the next day. Then there was the design time, prime coating, rust coating and now salt masking and top coating. The spur is almost finished and I used a sliver final coat with a dark brown rust look. Not sure what color final coating will be for the two mainlines. Thinking either a blue/green (as in a NYC elevated subway green) brown, or a lighter/brighter silver than the spur is painted. One Mainline runs parallel to the spur and the supports will combine once the levels are equal. Any thoughts on colors???

Thank you for supporting your local power company !

@Richie C. posted:

Thank you for supporting your local power company !

Your welcome

Guys....please keep on topic.  Bandwidth is expensive

OK Some progress finally, Elevated lines are working out as far as static visuals are concerned. (didn't run a train on any tracks yet) However the concept is definitely coming together. At this point I have the three elevated tracks started and color scheme/weathering almost complete. The blue green descending track was primed with grey primer, then all painted with a brown/rust color. Next step was to wet areas and sprinkle salt to use as a mask and then given a couple of coats of blue/green color paint. Brushed the salt off and then used pan pastel chalk to age and weather even further. Using many tips and instruction from forum members, it appears to be successful.  Here are some pics of that area, contemplating (wife's suggestion) to use a dark grey for the middle elevated section, so it won't detract from the future buildings. Also id=f anyone has a suggestion on transitioning from the descending elevated line to the "ground level" please let me know.

John, it all looks very good!  I really don't have any suggestions.  Gray is a good suggestion from your wife.  I haven't done anything with elevated track to the table level either. 

Hi John, the elevated section looks great! I think you and your wife make a great team for painting schemes. As for the meet joint from elevated I have seen people cut holes in the bench work to the roadbed would fallow its path naturally, but what I did for my road bet was to take a hand plainer and bevel the underside of the plywood so it would make a nice gradual transition to the main level. I will probably do the same on my next layout.

Mike

Thanks Mark and Mike,

Mike, excellent idea on hand planning the transition from trestle to main level.. I hope my hand planning skills have gotten better with age. They were terrible, always wanted to cut too much too quickly. I never let the plane do the work.

I’ve generally used L girder framing and then the “cookie cutter technique,” in which you cut the subrosdbed to follow the track plan and then use risers which attach to to the joists. This allows you to precisely set the the elevation as you want it to be. But now that I’m in my 70s and about to get disc fusion surgery, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to under the layout the same way, so I may have resort to a flat top layout. Sigh…Time. will tell.
But I can tell you that if you’d can do it  ,

the cookie cutter technique will yield good grade and elevation control and accuracy.

Good luck.  
Rubin

Yes, cookie cutter is normally a great way to go.  Rubin, I’m sorry you need fusion surgery!  I’ve had it and a second back surgery too.  If I build another layout, it will be flat topped for sure!  

Mark,

Your modeling and your intestinal fortitude in the face of medical adversity are constant inspirations to me. Thank you for posting as you do and teaching us all along the t

…The way

Rubin, thank you for the compliment and you're welcome! 

@RubinG posted:

I’ve generally used L girder framing and then the “cookie cutter technique,” in which you cut the subrosdbed to follow the track plan and then use risers which attach to to the joists. This allows you to precisely set the the elevation as you want it to be. But now that I’m in my 70s and about to get disc fusion surgery, I’m not sure that I’ll be able to under the layout the same way, so I may have resort to a flat top layout. Sigh…Time. will tell.
But I can tell you that if you’d can do it  ,

the cookie cutter technique will yield good grade and elevation control and accuracy.

Good luck.  
Rubin

Our prayers are with you Rubin, hoping your surgery goes well and you get pain free. Yes My setup is L-girder done from the excellent advice on this forum. Unfortunately I did not adhere to the 36" maximum reach. I can now clearly see the wisdom in that constraint. Thanks for your input   and again you are in our prayers.

@Mark Boyce posted:

Yes, cookie cutter is normally a great way to go.  Rubin, I’m sorry you need fusion surgery!  I’ve had it and a second back surgery too.  If I build another layout, it will be flat topped for sure!  

Mark, I have no idea how you have accomplished all that you have, and with such detail. Beautiful work for sure and you are an inspiration for me for sure.

Thank you, John!! ☺️

Thank you all for your good wishes. Fortunately, my wife and are first going on a vacation in about three weeks. Then surgery, rehab and surgery #2.

That sounds like a good plan, Rubin!  I wish you and your wife well!!

Thank you John and Mark.
John, don’t feel badly about blowing the “ three foot rule. I followed it and for me that was a mistake. Given my height and, as the doctors say, body habitus, I max out at about 30-32 inches of reach. And that assumes that there is no elevated track in the way. I also haven’t mounted my photo backdrops, even as I am starting to lay track and block access to the wall. Soooo….

Thanks again for all the good wishes.

Rubin

Guys...lets not waste valuable/expensive bandwidth talking about bi-focal glasses...you can contact each other via your profile emails if you want to discuss that kind of topic.

Still working on the trestle tracks, 3d printing two track supports with 4.5" separations. These have been a little challenge for my 3d printer. With the frigid temps, I am getting warpage and lifting of the ends of the vertical supports. I wouldn't mind a little bit, however it destroys the print at the 80-90% completion point!  I am trying a raft to maintain build plate contact, we'll see how that goes... On a brighter note, I did my first cookie cutting of the homosote layer,  for the trestle decline of the main line running through town. Now to do the plywood section and extend both cuts to the next pieces of sub-roadbed.

Well here is my attempt at 3D block wall for bridge abutment. Not sure what color the grout should be on this piece. Thinking white maybe too much contrast and will take away from the aged look I am hoping to achieve.

Please let me know your thoughts on this one. THANKS john

The last picture in the post looks to be the winner in my eyes. Nice coloring with no mortar jumping out at you. Looks totally naturally aged.

Hi John I have to agree with Dave C. The last photo looks the best to me. I think it would look great on your layout!

John, I agree with Dave and Mike

Thanks Dave C, Mike and Mark!

Well it was unanimous decision, the CEO also picked that one. Glad I used a dark grey pla for printing, as that is now the "mortar" joints. Here are some pics with it in place and one mainline connected.