Stay True

Plan your work and work your plan. Patience is a virtue. A good friend of mine is so fond of saying "Overcome your infantile need for instantaneous gratification".

Or..... play with trains and don't post proof on MRH that you did it! 

L Braces

Why didn't you build grid first then mount to wall would have ended the need for all of the angle braces. Nice work will be watching for more updates.

Angle Brace Approach

Hi Art

I did consider building the grids first as you suggested, but decided on angle braces instead.

Partially because I think they give more strength than screws into end grain, but I also found it easier to "build in place". The room (like most I guess) is not square in any direction so my sequence of work was:

• Wall battens up first - get them absolutely level
• Backdrop coving formers added in corners
• 3mm MDF backdrops applied to walls (easy access with only wall battens in the way)
• Outer grid battens up next, spanning wall battens and tied with angle braces
• Then cross braces inserted (carefully placed to avoid interfering with turnouts (did I say I love XtrkCad?).

It's not obvious in the pictures, but one side of the room has an ascending grade all the way across and I managed this by aligning  straight wall battens with an angled front brace. This would have been difficult using a pre-assembled grid. 

Rob

Staying True to the Plan

Rob, I have a different take on your question re what to do next. After the landing at Normandy, Ike was asked if all that time/energy spent on planning the assault was worthwhile.  It had been the most massive strategic planning effort in recorded history up to that point in time, and of course the plan itself was all shot to hell (pun intended) within minutes after the first American forces hit the beach.  Ike's answer (paraphrased):  "The plan itself was nothing; planning meant everything."

Application to Model Railroading:  It's great (maybe even necessary) to have a plan in mind as you set out to build your railroad, but the reality of doing it will create LOTS of changes along the way, and you need to go with the flow and embrace the journey.  Ultimately, who cares what you do next, as long as you don't get so far ahead of plan that you have to go back and do a lot of rework?  One thing I like about this hobby is that there are always DOZENS of things I could do next, and I can choose what to work on depending on my mood, the time available, or some (mostly artificial) deadline I've set for myself.  Often, I find myself heading down to the train room intending to get some specific task done, only to find an hour or three later that I never even got started on that because something else caught my eye.  As long as I make a wee bit of progress in some direction, I'm happy. 

So far, the only BIG mistakes I've made were (1) to wait until all the tables were in place and most of the track plus a few structures put down BEFORE I decided to paint a backdrop strip on the walls, and (2) to work some sanded tile grout in and around several turnouts in the Winter Harbor terminal area BEFORE I realized I had to juice all the frogs, both leading to rework problems.  Oh well, big deal.

Hey, it's your hobby and your little world abuilding.  The rules for what to do next are totally up to you.  Ooh, there's the god complex again!  

Sandy  http://www.sandysacerr.com 

Well done

Amazing! Outstanding work, Like your progress a lot. Excellent workmanship

For The Record

For the record, I opted to do nothing for a while, other than visit the Railroad Room occasionally and think............

If in doubt (and nothing spoiling) then wait until the way is clear,

Then I reverted to type (35 years of Information Systems  project managing kicked in) and carried on with the plan

Valances are pretty much in:

Rob

Cornhill & Atherton

1930s Freelance Steam