June Progress Report

I hope your summer is going well. June began with more progress on the upper level. As I noted in my last update, I've built a bunch of risers and many of them were attached to the stanchions. With 16' of drywall applied to the upper level, it was time to add more risers and begin custom cuts of the drywall to accommodate the 45-ish degree wall corners.

Before the 45 degree corners could be addressed, I needed to finish getting the risers installed and level. I needed to get the base for the Santa Clara River / Montalvo bridge ready too. 

I had saved a template that I built for the main level's 45 degree corners. I'm glad I didn't toss it out. It's not pretty, but is effective. You'll notice a gap where the two plywood baselines come together. I intentionally did not butt them together as the inside corner is an inner bullnose and the gap allows for that to be drawn. 

On the other side of the template is the side of pain, with the 1 1/4" drywall screws exposed. I use drywall screws a LOT. Fortunately, nobody has been hurt in the process of using it. I'll be dismantling and disposing of the template soon. No need to keep it as both the middle and upper level 45 degree corners have the drywall installed.

The diagram below has the two corners identified. 

With the drywall marked, it was time to cut the corners. I use a metal cutting / hacksaw type of blade in my jigsaw. This provides a clean and smooth cut. Of course for straight lines, I still use the typical score and snap method. 

The first corner was installed in these two pictures. Things fit together nicely. 

To the left is the continuation of the risers. A design change I added is to vary the lengths of the stanchions. In the photo you can see the benchwork tapers toward the wall. 

Next up was to align the risers on the other side of the river bottom in preparation for the other 45 degree piece of drywall. 

The risers are leveled front to back and side to side before they are mounted. The clamps hold everything in place and aid in the installation of the screws attaching risers to the stanchions.

The risers were added on the other side of the window moving further compass north on the railroad. I opted to make special cross members to span the gap  in front of the window. The gap is 54" +/-.  

To the right, the risers have been installed to the next stopping point. The 101 bridge. 

Now I need to figure out how I will represent the railroad bridge going over the 101 freeway. This will be at the corner of the benchwork. 

The design challenge is the angle that the bridge crosses over the freeway. Interestingly, the portals for the bridge are not perpendicular to the span. Rather the parallel spans are off set, causing the portals to be askew.

Below are a couple of pictures I took of the bridge. The design process is underway.

Moving onto the Santa Clara River bottom: I chose to use plywood to fill the spaces between the stanchions. This will provide a solid and stable base for the bridge. I'll be using seven 50' deck girder bridges to span the river bottom. 

Also note the white surface below. We're continually using sheet foam to protect the main level from falling tools, clamps, risers, etc. I'm happy to report that no damage has happened 'yet'. I'm hoping to continue that trend!

To the right is the completed river bottom. Now the drywall can be added on top of the risers on each side of the river bottom.

Below, the drywall is added to each end of the river bottom. This included adding the other 45 degree corner piece of drywall between the river bottom and the window. Now, I can dismantle the corner template.

I was happy with the river bottom setup. I then decided to test fit a bridge section on the piers to check the alignment. 

Well, that was a miss. You can see the homabed roadbed on the right side of the bridge. I missed the height by at least 1" (1:1 inch). 

I also noticed that the pier looks warped. I believe this is from the photo, not the pier. Regardless, I have more piers to print after I make a height modification. I'm still shaking my head on that miss.

Unfortunately, I had an incident with my 3D printer which brought progress to a halt. Months ago, I printed a fixture to hold the build plate while it drained after printing. For those less familiar with 3D printing, the build plate is where the objects are constructed. It gets submersed into the resin as part of the building process. When the build is complete, the remaining resin needs to be drained off of the build plate. I printed the fixture to hold the build plate at an angle over the resin tank, allowing the resin to drain into the tank.

It is kind of hard to tell in the image to the right, but the build plate fixture broke and the build plate with bridge piers attached fell into the resin tank. No worries, I pulled everything out and cleaned it. It looked like I was good to go and ready to print more. I quickly found that wasn't the case. The film (FEP) at the bottom of the tank was damaged and slightly leaking resin. I needed to buy new replacement FEP for the resin tank. 

It turns out my pier design is sharp. When the build plate fell, the pier punctured the FEP at the bottom of the resin tank. The FEP is critical to the printing process and if it leaks, it will result in print issues and possible resin damage to the machine. 

So...I had to order a replacement FEP. Thus, printing was halted. The newly modified piers would have to wait to be printed. 

To the left is the broken part. Lesson learned: while convenient, the part is not durable enough to hold the build plate for an extended period of time. 

I finished the month of June without printing any new piers. The replacement FEP arrived on June 30th.

Work on the railroad continued though. As I noted earlier in the update, I had to make special supports to cross in front of the windows. It is two pieces of plywood glued together as a 'L'. I wanted to ensure the span would be strong and not flexible. I'm happy with the piloted result and am making more parts for the remaining windows. 

Across each window will be 3 spans. While likely over-engineered, I'm willing to use the extra material to ensure I won't have issues. 

All the pieces are custom fit. I create the L and cut them to length. Then add the vertical riser for attaching to the stanchion. 

Once all of the cross members were built and installed, the drywall was added. Another 18' of railroad! 

Once the sub-roadbed (drywall) was ready, I followed my regular process of painting everything gray. This seals the drywall and provides a consistent surface and surface color for laying out the track. I paint the exposed edges of the drywall as well. They gray color will match the ballast making my ballasting work easier. 

It was time to lay out the track plan and pencil in the track lines. I had identified that the critical starting point is the Montalvo bridge over that Santa Clara River. Both sides must match up with the straight line of the bridge. 

Once the lines for the bridge were laid out, I began putting down the main track homabed. There is a slight curve after the short section of straight track coming off of the bridge. 

One challenge is that the main does not run parallel to the wall or fascia, but rather moves from back to front at a slight angle. This will help to break up the flow a bit.

The other challenge is locating reference points. Notice the extended tape measure in the back next to the wall. It was stretched out to 210". The tape measure was used for reference from the 45 degree corner and cross referenced to my track plan in Visio. The tape measure remained in place until the roadbed was complete.

Given that I'm using 0.24" roadbed for the mains, all of my sidings require a full transition strip, at a 1.5% grade, to lower the roadbed from the main to the flat of the benchwork. All the homabed sections must be installed before I can lay track. 

I attach the homabed with the same clear latex caulk that I use to attach the track. Once the homabed is installed and gaps around the turnouts are filled. I then paint the homabed to seal it. I use the same paint that is used on the drywall. 

In the picture on the right, the pencil lines are drawn out for the Oxnard Yard. The industry tracks around the yard are yet to be drawn. They'll be in the July update!

On the other side of the Montalvo bridge, there will be a short section of straight track followed by a large radius curve. I'm using 38" for my ruling radius. Plus, I'm adding easements and super-elevation to the main track curves. 

The other challenge is setting up a center point to anchor the compass. This is used to draw the curve radius. I use the MicroMark compass and really like the tool. It is very effective for connecting the radius to the adjacent straight lines for of the track. However, when drawing curves for inside corners, such as the one to the right, I have to suspend a piece of plywood out into the aisle so I can draw the radius for the curve. I've used this method with good success on both the upper and main levels. It does take patience to be successful. 

I began the first installation of the uncoupling electromagnets.

First up was to remove the track and then the roadbed. Both were removed  carefully so they can be reused. I removed the drywall with a knife. Next was to break out the oscillating tool to cut the benchwork. Of course all the blades I had were too wide for the track width cut. And dull too. Off to Amazon to find and order a blade assortment.  

After receiving the blade assortment, if was quick work cutting the hole in the plywood. The hole wasn't pretty, but functional. I had to cut thru drywall and plywood under it. 

Once the hole was large enough to accept the electromagnet, I placed the roadbed and track temporarily back in place and wired it to the power supply for testing. Before completing installation, I wanted to ensure that the electromagnet worked as hoped for. 

I used needle-nose pliers to hold the connector in an upright position to ensure the wires didn't touch or short.  

And...drumroll...the test was successful. When powered up, the uncoupling was very effective. As noted previously, the electromagnet only requires 14 volts to work effectively. 

I did some additional adjustments to the magnet fixture in order to clean up the alignment (post testing). It became clear that I needed to run the Home Depot to get a pack of shims. What I had on hand (pictured to the right), were only a few shim scraps for testing. 

Once the magnet is shimmed in place, I'll cover the opening with a thin sheet of styrene. Next will be affixing the roadbed strips in place. And then re-place the track and connect feeders. 

Lastly, I did get another 3D printer. This is a FDM printer that prints with filament rather than resin. I'll be using this printer to print my own car card boxes. The initial design for the car card boxes is modular.  I will be able to add as many boxes in a row as needed. All will be connected to each other. I'll post images of the boxes in the next update. 

All car card boxes will be installed on the main level fascia. My current thought is that main level boxes will be gray, upper level boxes will be red, Ventura County Railway boxes will be yellow. A black narrower compartmentalized box will be in the middle to hold coupler picks, etc.  

That's a test print on the printer, not a car card box!

I hope you've enjoyed this update for June. I'll be laying track in July. 

d