Getting organized ...

As the dismantling continues, the "refuse" pile is getting larger.

 In order to keep from being totally buried, I am getting organized.

First, I'm saving all the drywall screws so I can give them away. I have found a local modeler who wants as much of the layout lumber and screws as he can carry away, so that's good.

Given that Siskiyou Line 2 (SL2) will use completely different benchwork materials and fastening methods for speed of assembly and to keep things lightweight, I have no use for most of the lumber or drywall screws from SL1, so they need to go.

It's either the dumpster or passing them on to another modeler who can use them. I'm happy to say a local modeler has come forward and will be the beneficiary of SL1 benchwork materials.

But to keep things from turning into a total mess, I'm using inexpensive food containers to organize and store the screws. I'm labeling each container and sorting the screws as to size. This should make it very easy for the fellow who gets these next! 

 I'm also organizing other left-overs I want to keep such as cup hooks, terminal strip blocks, cable clamps, auto tail light bulbs, and binder clips. I picked up small 5-drawer storage bins and am labeling the drawers for each kind of thing I'm saving. Once these bins have been filled, I will put them on roll-away carts to make it easy to move the stash around as needed.

I'm expecting once it's all said and done, I'll have several of these multi-drawer bins full of pieces-parts I want to keep. 

One general philsophy here is to make sure the storage always ends up on wheels. To do that I'm using roll-away carts with shelves to hold these bins-with-shelves having all the small stuff, and I'm using larger bins put on appliance dollies with wheels for the larger stuff.

By having everything on wheels, moving all this stored stuff around as needed becomes as simple as rolling it from here to there. 

When it comes time to actually move, I won't have to pack up anything, either. Just roll it all up the driveway into the moving van!

Drywall screws

Hi Joe,

Hope the guy who invented drywall screws is retired and has a good day!!!  Pulled drywall screws out of the old fluorescent lighting system in the layout room today and smiled.

Enjoy!

Nick

Great idea, Joe!

You're much more organized than I when it comes to dismanting, although I too kept the drywall screws from when I dismantled my OO scale Ettinsmoor layout last year. I just tossed the terminal blocks, old wire and other detritus n a box for later sorting.

'Course, we were packing up the house for a move, so that probably had something to do with my laissez faire approach.

Years and years ago, an author in Railroad Model Craftsman commented on dismantling his old layout in preparation for a new one. He noted that some of the wood screws had been used for the previous three or four layouts, and because of that they almost felt like old friends. 

Progress

Joe,

Have you completely finished the staging room area and have moved to other sections or are you still there? You mentioned earlier about keeping the Coos Bay Branch section intact for the time being. Will you get to a point where you will start on the first TOMA section before you finish dismantling the entire layout?

Tim

This Is How It Should Be Done!

I'm impressed by the thinking that has gone into this operation, and pleased that in one form or another, the equipment will find its way into the next layout - or someone else's.

Progress ...

Great questions!

First, all the wiring has been removed in the staging area, and 1/4th of the track/roadbed has been removed. Next blog post I will talk about that.

Yes, I am keeping the Coos Bay branch from Myrtle Point to Tenmile Creek intact for a while until I get enough new TOMA SL2 modules up that I can run across about 4 modules with staging on each end. I'm expecting that to be at least a year.

Plans are to completely gut and refinish the staging room first and turn that into a workshop space for building TOMA modules. I don't expect a lot of the main layout room to be dismantled yet, but I want to build one TOMA module as an experiment to see how well my TOMA module concept is going to work.

Ironically, I got contacted by a videographer who is shooting a video documentary about southern Oregon and he discovered my layout on the web. He wants to come shoot some video of my layout next week for his documentary. Fortunately, the main layout room is still pretty much intact, but I told him he needs to *hurry* because I do plan to work my way out from staging into the main layout room next.

I was about to remove some of the Tenmile Creek tunnel area because that extends into the staging space, and I was also about to remove some of the trackage on the east end of Cottage Grove - both of those are in the main layout space.

Off-Topic Question.

Dear Joe,

I'd like to ask, is there any maximum gradient for a line going downhill? I'm mainly thinking of the operating conditions, cars derailing and the like, but since the trains dont' have to go up hill (and won't be seen) what is the sharpest decline in your experience?

Gem

That's really getting out there

That's really getting out there ... most of the time the problem with downhill is worm gear cogging such that the loco will continually buck due to the grade. Performance will be really bad when this happens.

The answer then is: it depends. You need to mock it up and test with your locos to find out. My guess is 6-7% will be the limit before performance totally sucks. But that's only a guess - mock up and test to be sure.

Those, screws

can be used for lots of other things around the house so i'd keep em all :> ) ........DaveB

Thanks!

Hi, Joe.

I wasn't imagining anything over 5% myself - but I know that 3% is a severe grade for any model loco when going uphill. And yes, I will be testing exhaustively; my current layout has been pulled apart because the initial tests gave me several results which are now being put into the design.

To be quite honest, I don't have the experience to know what might work, so testing - and asking stupid questions - is the only way forward. It's slow, but at least it means there's a chance it'll work.

Max Grades reply to Gemma

We use a 6 % grade on the logging branch line of our HO scale layout. Joe is correct in that we do get some bucking coming downhill with some locomotives (just the Bachman Shays) the Climax's and Heislers are all ok as well as the brass shays. All of the small Diesels MP15's are just fine as well. On the main lines we have a 3% grade in several locations going through the mountains and everything is just fine for both heavy steam and Diesel equipment with heavy loads. You should be fine with what you are proposing. Good luck.

Grade

I was given a HO scale, 12' x 12' U-shape layout many years ago.  It had between 5-6% grades. The locos did OK going up but some would buck badly going down, as Joe stated due to the worms.  Solution was to remove excessive play at either end of the worm with washers.  The same with the gears side-to-side play.  They run OK after that.

Ed

Bringing this back on track...

With Michael Rose well underway on his new layout, I need to ask...

How goes the project Joe?

Will be posting an update this weekend

Once the May issue gets released (expecting this Friday evening), then I will be posting an update this weekend on my blog. Don't expect nearly the same level of progress as Michael, he's a house afire ...

haha!

Lol. Yes he is!