Work on the layout has progressed tremendously over the weekend. Small but crucial tasks made it possible to get the benchwork in place and firmly attached to the stone wall. I now have an almost complete shelf all around the room.
If you have followed the building saga of Monk Subdivision, you know the
original benchwork was independent from the stone wall and self supported by a
pair of legs and braces. This arrangement had several pitfalls, the more severe
being its flimsy nature. It was 16 feet long and wobbling a lot. Another issue was
the legs and braces that took a lot of space while providing very little
stability. So, this time, steel shelf brackets were mounted on 2x4 attached on
the stone wall with concrete screws. I thought it would be a nightmare to drill
that wall made of rubble, but it worked very nice and in about 3 hours, all the
benchwork was back in place.
Finding the
real alignment on such an imperfect wall was the big challenge, not the work itself.
After some pondering, we decided to install the already assembled benchwork in
place, in the right alignment and mounted on temporary legs. Using a long aluminium
straightedge, we made sure it was perfectly aligned. 2 x 4s were screwed on the
benchwork, then shims were installed to fit the uneven wall. Everything was solidly
fixed, painted and brackets installed.
The result
is a surprisingly strong and stable shelf. The ergonomics are also much better
than the original installation. I may have been set back by a year and a half,
but honestly, it pays off. I also decided to make the backdrop 24” high for
better photography. Armagh is the main focal point and I prefer a scene that surrounds
you.
The next steps
will be to close the little 24” long gap in the benchwork, then install the MDF
backdrop and paint it. At this point, I will be ready to reinstall the original
splines I had carefully cut and stored. Having carefully disassembled the original
layout helped to save a lot of rebuilding time. If everything goes well, I could
be able to glue the roadbed, install track and do a temporary wiring job in the
next few weeks. Without pressure, I would like to be able to run trains around
the room by the end of June, which is my main goal with that project.
Benchwork back in place, except the little gap at left
As you have
probably observed, I changed my mindset to progress instead of perfection. Good
track work, good benchwork, step by step implementation, possibility to go back
and improve. I was originally stalled by wanting every steps to be finalized
and perfect before moving forward. It doesn’t work. I still don’t know how I
will address the staging area turnout issues and crossover, but I know I can still
use it as long as 1 track is functional. Others will follow later when and if
they are required. Wiring will be minimal then improved according to my
empirical needs and not my list of “nice to have”. At the end of the day, a
moving train on a loop beats an uncompleted exciting vision. That said, I make
sure each steps I do will ensure I can improve and implement more things in the
future. In that sense, I'm really glad to have streamlined that projects to a single track mainline with a passing track. It takes out of the window so much hassle, misery and complexity.
As an example,
I will start with Peco turnouts with their spring-loaded throw bars. Sure, the
holes will be drilled and the frog wire solder at installation. But Tortoise, complex
wiring and signals will come later, when the basics stuff is in place and
troubleshooted. I guess getting older makes me more impatient to run my trains,
yet more pragmatic in what I can achieve.
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