Shaun,

Your video works flawlessly here. Very nice layout. Can't wait to see it all come together, scenery etc. Haven't started mine yet but very soon will be building benchwork. I like your swing bridge staging, great idea for the space you have. Will it hold up a train? When you swung it into place on your video it looked like is sagged a couple of inches. Might be a good idea to add some diagonal bracing. I would hate to hear of a whole train dumped on the floor.

For the bridge, if you let it just hang on its own (not attached to layout or in the stored position), it will sag some due to the length.  But when it's in position it's pretty sturdy. You just have to hold the end up a little to counter the sag when swinging out.  I've been contemplating looking into adding a diagonal brace, but just haven't gotten around to it yet since for now "it works", heh. Probably once I get more layout trackwork done and can actually run a train between levels, I'll fix it up some.

I added some sides to prevent things from tipping off the sides as well while in motion, or you when accidentlly knock yourself into the bridge while ducking under it to enter the room. :-)

Good presentation, I like your electrical panel easy to get to. I'am attemping to up load video myself using Blip.TV but I'am having some problems I'll just have to keep digging. Anyway good job keep them comming.

Looks good. I thought the video presentation was a very effective way to provide a tour. I think that layout is going to be a lot of fun to operate.

I have actually been keeping an eye on the consolidated dairy auctions as a possible brewery for a future layout project. Its very similar to a few breweries in Portsmouth, NH in the 20s. I will be interested to see how it looks on your layout when you get around to building it!

I liked the electronics box. The RJ11 is an interesting way to run to turnouts. Why would you run power to the switch through that? I would think you would use contracts on the motor to drive the frog polarity.

Chris

Chris,

Power is running from the wiring panel to a tortoise switch machine, not the actual turnout itself.  I'll eventually go back and hookup the turnout frog power directly to the tortoise to it can be controlled that way.

There's 4 wires total in each cable.  2 are for the switch machine itself, and 2 are for a momentary switch.  Each push of the switch toggles the turnout position. This gives me DCC control of the turnout on the computer for future automated use, or locally right at the turnout.

I bought that consolidate diary kit months ago and I still don't know when I'll actually get around to building it, heh.

So you either have the DCC pair or the local panel pair live at any given time?

Chris

Both are live at the same time.  You can dial in a switch # on a DCC throttle and throw the switch, then immediately hit the button on the fascia and it'll close the switch.

Nolatron:

Very nice looking layout.  I noticed your are using shelving brackets for your benchwork.  Can you go into a little detail on how you put that together?  Are you using plywood for a base?

Thanks.

John

WF TX

Sure thing.

When desiging the layout I knew I wanted it be wall mounted and off the ground so I can use the space underneath for "office" stuff (shelves, desks, etc..).  I came across another layout in my googling where the guy used shelf standards and brackets, so I was sold on the idea.

I used all Knape & Vogt Heavy Duty Shelf Standards and 12.5" Heavy Duty Brackets. I purchased these from a dealer on Amazon.com. These brackets are mounted to studs every 16" and according to the specs should be able to hold about 200 pounds with no issues.

My original plan was for a single level layout with staging underneath. I used a single 16.5" standard.

But that didn't really work out. So I expanded to a double-deck, and bought an additional 16.5" standard and mounted it underneath the existing standard, and more brackets for the new lower level.

I then needed a way to secure my plywood (I think it's 5/8") top without worryinh about screws poking up through the plywood  (You screw up from the bottom of the bracket.S o I came up with securing a 2x2 piece of wood to each bracket.  I screwed the brace on the bracket, and then the plywood top is screwed to the brace.  Made it very easy. It shifted my layout heights up 2", but that wasn't to big of a concern. The braces were simpyl 2x2 wood stakes bought at Ace Hardware with point chopped off.

I then drilled some holes into each brace for wiring. Here's a view once the plywood top was attached and the main bus ran. I drilled an additional hole near the front for more wiring.  I'm about to add on more in a few as the cable bundles are getting a bit big. :)

You can see there's a little overhang on the brace, that's what I then used for mounting my lighting.

I used that little overhand to screw in the light clips where needed. 

For backdrop, I cut a then piece of plywood into the apporiate size for each level, and liquid nail glued one to each bracket. 

I then used Aluminum Flashing (or trim coil) from Lowes for the backdrop itself, unrolling the sheet for on lone continuoes backdrop.

I glued and stapled the flashing in some spots the backdrop to each wood backing brace. 

I then trimed the coil so the brackets would sit seemlessly witin the backdrop.

I then gave the backdrop a coat of kilz and then two coats of Skyline colored paint from Ace.

I also painted all the brackets and braces and tops so they would blend in.

Very nice work, Shaun ... and thanks for posting the photos. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!