Turkey Hollow Railroad - under construction - 12/3/21 update

Great craftsmanship.

@Scotie posted:

Beautiful and well thought out bench work. Given your skill level there learning the other aspects needed to complete the layout shouldn't be too difficult. Scenery (unlike bench work) can easily be ripped out, reworked and etc until your satisfied.

Will be following with great pleasure.

Thank you for your kind words. I decided to use a cookie cutter approach on the front bench hoping to give myself maximum flexibility with scenery. There's going to be a lot of card board weave there.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

You can tell there's a real carpenter at work with this layout, very nice benchwork!  The lift bridge is quite impressive considering the complexity of getting something like that working smoothly.  I had to tinker with my Mianne lift-bridge kit to get it operating smoothly!  If I had to build it, I'd be stuck on that step to this day!

Thanks John.  There's no doubt I benefited from our conversations on my lift table thread about how your lift works, especially concerning the cable. I'm not sure my lift is as smooth as a Mianne all of the way through the travel. Very smooth going up. There is a bit of a lurch to side opposite the winch when it starts down as the weight seems to shift. But it all smooths out again for the last 18" or so until seated.

Thank you Dave!

@turkey_hollow_rr posted:

Thanks John.  There's no doubt I benefited from our conversations on my lift table thread about how your lift works, especially concerning the cable. I'm not sure my lift is as smooth as a Mianne all of the way through the travel. Very smooth going up. There is a bit of a lurch to side opposite the winch when it starts down as the weight seems to shift. But it all smooths out again for the last 18" or so until seated.

News flash, the Mianne lift bridge doesn't go perfectly smoothly down, there is some wobble on the way down when it starts.  It smooths out about halfway down, and by the time it gets to table level, it's perfectly aligned.  I attribute that to the fact that with the slides extended, there simply isn't lateral support.  Since it doesn't affect it's functionality, I never chased the last bit of wobble.

@turkey_hollow_rr posted:

It's arctic birch plywood that I rip down from 5' x  5' sheet. ...

Just so that nobody goes crazy looking for arctic birch, you meant "Baltic" birch plywood, correct?

@Mallard4468 posted:

Just so that nobody goes crazy looking for arctic birch, you meant "Baltic" birch plywood, correct?

Nope, this is arctic birch cabinet grade plywood, made in Russia. You will get patches in all but one outside layer. Baltic birch, at least what I have used, is furniture grade. Absolutely no patches and very uniform layers.

Freshly ripped arctic birch. Very stable stuff.

@turkey_hollow_rr posted:

Nope, this is arctic birch cabinet grade plywood, made in Russia. You will get patches in all but one outside layer. Baltic birch, at least what I have used, is furniture grade. Absolutely no patches and very uniform layers.

Freshly ripped arctic birch. Very stable stuff.

One question, as an experienced woodworker who has used baltic birch but had not heard of arctic...

Where did you source it?  (I did a search for arctic birch, and all of the results were for baltic birch.)

Thanks.

I get it locally where I buy hardwoods, highland hardwoods dot com. I can't source good baltic birch locally.

Hopefully, I bought my last two sheets of 3/4" today. When I started this thread a few months ago it was 69.95/sheet. Today, 89.95/sheet. I get 16, 3 1/2 x 60 boards per sheet so it costs me $1.12/foot vs maybe $1.06 for pine but there are no knots or twists.

@turkey_hollow_rr posted:

I get it locally where I buy hardwoods, highland hardwoods dot com. I can't source good baltic birch locally.

Thanks.  Highland is a great place - never been there, but have ordered from them.  Unfortunately, 500+ miles is a long way to drive for plywood, and I can't imagine what the shipping cost would be...  (Oops, I think it's a different Highland, but it's still hundreds of miles away.)

Rockler usually stocks baltic birch, if you have a local store.

@Mallard4468 posted:

Rockler usually stocks baltic birch, if you have a local store.

I do, visited them today for another box of pocket screws. That's where I've gotten smaller pieces of the baltic ply for serving trays and some general use table tops. Edge it with some hardwood and sand it for finish. Looks great and a lot faster and easier than glue ups.

Just caught up on your build Dan. Very nice work. Solid structure is the key to smooth running trains so the extra money spent now is worth it. Plywood is much more stable than dimensional lumber.

I used pocket screws for the first time a couple of years ago on a wainscotting project in my house. Don't know why I waited so long..... Made assembly much easier and cleaner, I used 1 x clear pine over sheetrock.

Can't wait to see trains running.

Bob

In my experience, whether it be Arctic or Baltic or Russian or Northern...almost does not matter.    The goal is to get plywood from a slow growth cold climate forest which yields a dense stable wood.

One product you never want to use for a train platform is Pine anything.  No guarantee on how bad it will warp.

The best value in plywood for a layout in this market is a 3/4"  (23/32") Birch called "Shop Grade".  It has plugged veneer but perfectly solid core.  Paint grade.

There is a some what popular HD product called "Sandy Ply" which is pure Russian Roulette.  OK for a dog house or your in-laws but a real gamble for your RR.

IMO, the best value in 3/4" sheet goods is Advantech manufactured panels.  Period.

@RSJB18 posted:

Just caught up on your build Dan. Very nice work. Solid structure is the key to smooth running trains so the extra money spent now is worth it. Plywood is much more stable than dimensional lumber.

I used pocket screws for the first time a couple of years ago on a wainscotting project in my house. Don't know why I waited so long..... Made assembly much easier and cleaner, I used 1 x clear pine over sheetrock.

Can't wait to see trains running.

Bob

Bob, that wainscotting looks great! And thank you.

@Tom Tee posted:

In my experience, whether it be Arctic or Baltic or Russian or Northern...almost does not matter.    The goal is to get plywood from a slow growth cold climate forest which yields a dense stable wood.

One product you never want to use for a train platform is Pine anything.  No guarantee on how bad it will warp.

The best value in plywood for a layout in this market is a 3/4"  (23/32") Birch called "Shop Grade".  It has plugged veneer but perfectly solid core.  Paint grade.

There is a some what popular HD product called "Sandy Ply" which is pure Russian Roulette.  OK for a dog house or your in-laws but a real gamble for your RR.

IMO, the best value in 3/4" sheet goods is Advantech manufactured panels.  Period.

I know what you mean about that sanded ply. My local Home Depot has that stuff in 2 x 4 cuts and I grabbed one to use for my table saw outfeed. Never again!  Nothing slides on it due to all the splinters raised.   Most of my shop benches and drawers are from shop birch ply. You're right, that's a good alternative and the price around here is still $66/sheet.

BTW, I'm up to high-heeled sneakers. I don't think I'll have to go to platform soles, but we'll see.

Seriously nice carpentry, layout and track plan.   Nice.

This is a great project to watch and follow.  Thanks for sharing your work and obvious high-level of skill.

But, I need to see more pix of wild turkeys.   

@rthomps posted:

Seriously nice carpentry, layout and track plan.   Nice.

This is a great project to watch and follow.  Thanks for sharing your work and obvious high-level of skill.

But, I need to see more pix of wild turkeys.   

Thank you rthomps! The toms were back in the yard a few days ago. They've gone from showing off for the ladies to helping watch what is left of the brood now days.

“I need to see more pix of wild turkeys.“

😁

John

Great looking work!

@Jeff_the_Coaster_Guy posted:

Great looking work!

Thank you! Funny to think it will soon be mostly covered over.

I have run out of Flexxbed but finished laying track on most of the first level. I believe I have enough first level track in place that I can begin framing up the second level.

Here is the west end track on the first level and the start of the transition to the second level. I did get the tracks laid across the lift table but need the roadbed to lay the inner track on the transition.

Sorry, I hit post too soon.

You can see that I have the seams still open on the background. It was necessary to re-hang the sections a few times as they acclimated and stretched over the last couple of months. The section on the short wall still needs a little work.

The front track is mostly re-used Atlas O. All of the curves are GG flex track.

I will need to build a cross over section here for the first level. The second level will also cross here but in the other direction. I'm thinking this is a good place for a drop down for access to the corner where staging tracks will be.

I have changed some of the design by moving more switches out from hidden areas. I also added the capability to run a train in a circle so I can wire up the drops  that are in place now and run my train while I work on the rest.

One of the concepts I picked up in CJ Riley's book Realistic Layouts was to include a reason for a scenic structure to exist. I can easily apply this to my two bridges since I'm not using them for access of any kind and they don't really span anything. So I created the route to Turkey Falls with a 064 switch ( it will be fix straight through) and track not being used. Trains go out but they don't come back.

I updated the AnyRail design to reflect the changes I've made. In addition to re-locating more of the switches, I've increased the transition a bit to reach the upper level which is now going to be another inch higher at 10". The max. grades are still acceptable at 2.6% on the inner path and 2.4% on the outer path. I've added an 072 switch on the right side that will access some staging tracks.

In the end I decide to use some maple hardwood for finishing the homasote edges where the table passes the bench at the four places where track crosses the lift table. This is wood from my scrap bin and has probably been acclimating for over a decade so I'm not worried about any movement. Plus I glued the maple strips to the plywood. Here's one example.

Dan, your work looks great!  The curves you did with Flextrack look perfect from here.  I like your roadbed.  I am thinking I will forgo the cork I have used for over 50 years and used foam on my next, probably last layout.

Thank you, Mark.

The Flexxbed not only helps quiet things down but it is also easy to work with. The track screws hold everything down. I started this build with the road bed and Atlas O track from a test layout I built a few years ago. There are several places where road bed and/or track are made from previously cut pieces so I was not sure how far I would get. It's time to order.

This was my first experience with GG flex and I'm completely sold. Atlas is great track but it is not very forgiving when you try to re-use, once those nubs holding the track start breaking it is almost worthless. I suppose you could glue the rails back down. This is mostly an issue with previously cut flex track and not the sectional pieces. Anyway, I decided the Atlas flex track was mostly in good enough shape to re-use but not for selling.

I used these forms for making the larger curves with GG by clamping the track ties tightly to them. Using this method across the joints actually bends the track pins in the joints a bit and makes for a smooth joint. The forms are for 088 and 080 curves but I sort of pushed them out a little more as I laid the track. They are closer to 089 and 081.

Dan, That is a really good method of curving the GarGraves flex track.  Yes, I can see where the plastic tabs on the Atlas track could break off and cause big trouble.