Sugarwood Blog

Amidst the chaos currently going on, COVID and the protest in the United States and Canada, here in Vancouver it is turning out to be a semi normal spring. Last Monday it rained, no biggie it is a work day after all, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday bright sunshine warm temperatures. Great days to outside but I have a full-time job, not retired yet. So, no work on my modules during the week. Saturday, rain. Well, Saturday is my wife’s day, so I had never figured I would be working on the modules anyway but Sunday, now that’s my day, great plans hang the French cleat on the wall, build one maybe two modules and hang them and rain. Poo, postponed for another week.

We are model railroaders, you say, are trains are in side, rain means we don’t have to feel guilty about staying indoors. You are correct, and I personally like the rain for just that fact. However, my office/train room does not have the room for me to build the modules in it. I do not have a garage or indoor space to build the modules in. So, I need to build my modules in the back yard, that was the plan for my Sunday. Just another spring weekend in the Pacific Northwest.

That being said I did get some work accomplished this week. I did build the turnouts for the Sugarwood Yard and main line and I hope to complete the two on Sugarwood Siding this week.

This is the right side of the trackplan ( see Trackplans on my website for the current trackplan. ). The grey under the turnouts is the sub-roadbed, 1/8 inch basswood sheets. As can be seen, the #5 turnouts for the entrance to the siding, yard and service/RIP track are built on a 6 inch by 24 inch sheet. The #4 turnouts for the yard ladder are built on a 3 inch by 24 inch sheet. The #5 turnout for the east turnout of Sugarwood Siding ( to the right ) is built on a 3 inch by 9 inch sheet.
#5 turnouts for the entrance to the siding, yard and service/RIP track

#4 turnouts for the yard ladder

#5 turnout for the east turnout of Sugarwood Siding

Now, I probably should explain, I am hand laying my track and I am not using the Fasttrack turnout jigs, though I am using the Fasttrack filing jigs for frogs, points and stock rails. I am doing it the old fashion way and since I will be using 1 inch foam on top of the 3/8 inch plywood train deck, I need a solid ‘ish’ base for my track hence, the 1/8 inch basswood sheets for roadbed. Though I am considering using 1/8 inch birch plywood going forward.

I did manage to get the French cleat on two of the walls so a start.
Before:

After:

So, progress this week, just not in the progress I was hoping for.

Until next week.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.

Several weeks ago I contacted and model railroad friend of mine, who is a woodworker, and asked if he would cut the wood for my layout. He agreed and to day he dropped off the parts today.

So why did I opt to have someone cut the wood for my benchwork? Well, my benchwork is a bit complicated. Let me explain.

Many years ago I ran across Marshall Stull’s Blog article Modular Design for a Shelf Layout and I really like the ‘C’ design. The down side I did not like the waste of wood in the middle of the ‘C’ and I know some of it can be used for other parts but I still did not like it.

My friend suggested Lap Joints and with the angle required because of the roof line in my new space ( see Trackplans on my website.) the three slanted modules along the top needed to have a slanted angle on the vertical support as shown here

While I am confident I could make repeatable cuts on the other three modules I was not so confident on the three slanted modules.

With the arrival of these parts I will begin assembly and hopefully by the end of June 2020 I will have at least the right three or four modules in place.

My plan is to post on this blog each week. Follow along on my journey.

For information about me check out the About page on this blog.