It looks great with the backdrop behind it, George!!
6 foot I haven't seen, that's cool. Total span 12 feet?
15" Steubenville approach span
84" Main span
24" West Virginia approach span
15" West Virginia approach span
12.5" Stone arch
George
Updated 7/25/2018:
There are a lot of things in motion at the moment.
- I am in the process of shellacking the remaining wood components (sheets and 2 x 2's) still to be installed.
- The remainder of the masonite divider will be installed along with 1 table surface.
- I have placed the order for the rest of the lumber to be used in bench work construction. It should arrive on Friday.
- I am preparing the garage to receive this lumber and shellac it.
- The corrected sections of the backdrop are scheduled to be printed and arrive here early next week.
- I am going to take down the backdrop sections currently on the train room walls and store them in the workshop (to protect them from a certain bad cat
). The new backdrop sections will go there as well. - Wall preparation (for backdrop installation) will begin sometime next week or the week after.
- Finally, the approach spans for the bridge should be in my possession by Saturday.
Things are moving! 
George
Lots on the list, George!
Mark Boyce posted:Lots on the list, George!
That's me! Making lists is my second hobby. 
George
Updated 7/27/2018:
My lumber order arrived today.
That's it for now!
George
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That's one item on the list!! 
Nice lumber load George. Are you getting any help hauling stuff in with building and such?
Dave, George was hoping he and I could work together helping each other. It's a great idea, as we live about 45 minutes apart, but so far I have only made it down once to see his then empty train room. I've been too tied up with helping elderly relatives and taking care of my parents' empty house and 4 acres. Ugh! I put a halt to my slow layout progress when happily my wife gave me a larger room to work with. Too bad I don't have time now! LOL
Updated 8/2/2018:
A kid's issue consumed Monday and Tuesday (getting them moved into a new apartment). Yesterday was spent recovering and treating aches and pains from places I didn't know I had muscles.
While I was gone on Tuesday, my wonderful supportive wife moved all the 2x2's (all 513 linear feet of them) from the garage to the humidity controlled basement. 
Today, I marked all of them with their lengths, which will be used to assemble the bench work ribbing.
Also, the corrected sections of backdrop arrived today. Tomorrow I will inspect them.
More when I know it.
George
Updated 8/3/2018:
It's been a busy morning. With my wife's help, I got the last two sections of masonite backdrop divider in place.
And I did have the help of Motor Inspector Samantha.
More when I know it.
George
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Well I'm glad to see Samantha is on the job at such a critical time! I hope she gave her approval! My wife volunteers to help me position and hold bulky items as well! I'm glad you have a helpful wife as well!! It was a pleasure to meet her last year.
Mark Boyce posted:Dave, George was hoping he and I could work together helping each other. It's a great idea, as we live about 45 minutes apart, but so far I have only made it down once to see his then empty train room. I've been too tied up with helping elderly relatives and taking care of my parents' empty house and 4 acres. Ugh! I put a halt to my slow layout progress when happily my wife gave me a larger room to work with. Too bad I don't have time now! LOL
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, sort of does seem the way of things like that Mark. You get some time to do things and then monkey wrenches come out of the woodwork holding you back. My car has had it's issues cleared up now(exhaust, brakes, wheel bearings) so that was some things that held me up for the April York. Hoping that next April I can make it out there.
Hopefully you'll get sometime to get a hand in.
Looking good George.
Thank you, gentlemen!
George
Updated 8/3/2018 (2):
I have been examining my list of lumber (plywood sheets) and identifying them. In doing so, I noticed that I have a particularly narrow aisle in front of the Ohio River bridge. Here's the original plan.
If I shorten the peninsula holding the City of Weirton by just 1 foot in length, I will pick up a wider aisle to the left and just above.
I think this makes the aisle just below the bridge about 6" bigger. Thoughts?
George
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Wider aisles are good!! For guys our age, even though you and I have been able to keep extra weight off, we aren't as agile as we once were. I think the folks in Weirton will excuse you for claiming some ground by eminent domain!
Yeah, a little more room is always a good thing. Back in my HO teenage days I was barely able to fit against the wall of my brother and me 8x7 layout. There was a lot of ducking to get around and occasionally head bumping(mine). Head bumping I don't mind, but squeezing ain't easy at any age.
Yeah, I'm not sure what triggered the thought, but I think I can do it without really sacrificing much.
George
Updated 8/4/2018:
Nothing exciting to report other than 3.5 sheets of 4' x 8' plywood have received a coat of shellac.
More of the same expected tomorrow.
George
Updated 8/6/2018:
I applied shellac (both sides) to 18 pieces of plywood today. Most of them will go on the layout. A few are remainders that might figure in later.
I have 6 sheets and all the 2x2's left to go.
George
Dumb question...what are you using for shellac and where did you purchase it? Is it something that you have to mix up? Seems like I looked for that years ago and came up short. Just curious here. Memory could have failed me here too?
rtr12 posted:Dumb question...what are you using for shellac and where did you purchase it? Is it something that you have to mix up? Seems like I looked for that years ago and came up short. Just curious here. Memory could have failed me here too?
I am using Zinsser Shellac, which is available from both Lowe's and Home Depot. It comes in amber and clear, but the amber is not available in the gallon can. The quart size is roughly $13.50; gallon is $43.50.
George
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I have not heard anyone mention Shellac in years! It seems everyone uses polyurethane these days. What made you choose Shellac over polyurethane or another product?
Thanks, I guess I have just never noticed that product before, as I frequent both Lowes and HD and usually snoop around the store a bit each time. I think Mark has a good question too, I will be lurking...
Mark Boyce posted:I have not heard anyone mention Shellac in years! It seems everyone uses polyurethane these days. What made you choose Shellac over polyurethane or another product?
Ignorance.
A buddy of mine used it, it looked good, and basically ignorance of the alternatives and their pro's and con's.
George
Works for me!!!!
Updated 8/7/2018:
I applied shellac to the remaining 6 sections of plywood.
I also reinforced the divider by installing a 10’ 2”x4” across the 6 vertical 2”x2”s.
I fastened down the table in front of the divider.
I also applied shellac to a small number of 2x2's in the basement. They are not drying very quickly; I may have to set up a fan to blow across them.
I have been re-thinking the Steubenville area bench work. More later on that.
George
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Updated 8/8/2018:
So far between yesterday and today, my wife and I have applied shellac to 400' of 2"x2"s. About 100' left to go. I'm glad we're close to done with this, because this has to be my least favorite part of the build.
George
You two are really pounding out the work, as my former manager used to say about certain employees. My wife has been helping on the layout too!! She has been going through boxes of our girls stuff from childhood making room in our garage. Maybe I can do some work with wood inside this winter instead of setting up saw horses on the patio after I sweep off 8" of snow like last winter!! 
It is interesting how sawdust and snow mix together when it gets icy!
Mark Boyce posted:You two are really pounding out the work, as my former manager used to say about certain employees.
This is getting old. We have one more push tonight and maybe we can get all the 2 x 2's done. This is easily my least favorite part of the work.
Updated 8/8/2018 (PM):
We didn't get everything done today, but that's enough for 1 day.
George
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Updated 8/9/2018 (AM):
The shellacking is DONE!!!!
And I never would have gotten it done so fast without the wife's assistance.
As soon as these dry, we will remove the backdrops from the wall, store them in the workshop, and then prepare the walls for hanging the backdrop. We are using Zinsser Peel Stop clear binding sealer. I've also got to spackle, sand, and smooth the masonite divider wall.
George
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Looks good! And I have to agree with you, I also like the looks of the shellacked boards. I think that will make your benchwork look really nice as well, when completed. You will have a really nice layout and train room! Your planning ahead is amazing to me as well. I admire folks that can do that! 
I usually do a lot (or most) of my planning as I go or after the fact... 
I think shellac would look good on my Mianne benchwork too, wish I would have thought of it sooner, but too late now. There is another forum member here that stained and finished his Mianne, it looks like fine furniture! I never thought of doing either thing when I got mine and was setting it all up.
Congratulations, George!!
Thank you. I'm glad to be done with that job.
George
Updated 8/9/2018 (PM):
I didn't get to everything I wanted to do today, but I did:
- Move the newly shellacked wood into the workshop.
- Cleaned up the area in preparation for next week's major effort.
- Lay some of the backdrop sections on the floor so that they would uncurl.
That's it for now.
George
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Updated 8/10/2018:
Not a whole lot of forward progress today, but I did manage to spend some time fine-tuning the bench work design for the Steubenville area. It was too humid (we had lots of humidity and rain today) to seal the walls. That will probably happen tomorrow. I did manage to take down all the backdrop sections and store them in the workshop. Then I moved a number of train bins under the Staging Area tables to get them out of the way.
Here's the train room at the moment.
More when I know it.
George
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Updated 8/11/2018:
I got the layout room walls sealed with Zinsser Peel Stop, which I had to buy on-line (store didn't carry it). They make you buy 4 cans of the stuff; I barely used half a can. 
The other 3 cans are going on Craig's List.
It will probably be the same deal for the wallpaper adhesive. 
Anyway, it's done.
I will let it dry for a couple of ours and see if it needs another coat.
More when I know it.
George
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Updated 8/11/2018 (PM):
I decided to start work on the Stone Arch at the eastern (WV) side of the bridge. The prototype arch was definitely part of the 2nd bridge on the site and might even have been constructed for the first bridge over the Ohio at this spot.
I'm thinking of covering the western face of the arch with 1:12 stone blocks (printed paper) from the Brickyard program (set printer to vivid, landscape, best). The paper will go inside the rectangle of the bridge. It seems to match up pretty well with the Chooch #8264 Large Cut Stone Wall sections I'm using to cover the arch.
I turned the stone arch on its end (western face up) and test fit the spacer block, pedestals, bridge feet, and 15” plain (no nipple) bridge section. To make the track on the bridge section level with the stone arch, I will use ¼” Vinylbed roadbed on the arch. The track east of the arch will use 3/8” Vinylbed roadbed.
I used orange paint on the end of a toothpick to mark the holes in stone arch where the bridge section will mate up with it. We will need wood screws with a flathead (Phillips) about 1” long. GarGraves track screws of that length might work very well – we’ll test fit them.
I glued the spacer to the base of the Stone Arch's western side.
More when I know it.
George
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