Cutting Masonite

Ken:

Sounds like a fun project!  I also model the era during and immediately after my college years.  I have had pretty good luck cutting Masonite with a circular saw for long straight cuts (like you might use for sections of backdrop).  A table saw would do this well also, if you have someone to give you a hand (moving 4 x 8 sheets by yourself can be a bit of a handful; using the circular saw, you can clamp the Masonite down and just move the saw, which is easier for me!)  For cutting fascia, I would consider the saber saw, since you might want to make contour cuts to match the elevation of your scenery.  For Masonite I have pretty good luck using a fine-tooth blade and a high saw speed to get a clean edge.  Just my suggestions; however you decide to do it, good luck, and show us pictures when you can!

Roger

Shelf / Benchwork Pictures ... I hope

Here are the brackets from below. This is a modification to the wood brackets described by Ian Rice in the "Shelf Layouts book. 

A view of the L-girders on top.

The completed basic shelf.

Roger,

Thanks for the tips. I am leaning toward the circular saw for the reasons you noted.  I has been fun so far! I hope others will give me some feedback on my "shelf". I am hoping the Foam board will hold up for construction. I wanted the shelf to be light and as thin as I thought I could manage.

Ken Glover, Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Masonite for Back Drops

 Attached Picture is Masonite cut and painted for backdrop exactly as you will need for you application.  This is the RIP tracks and Program tracks on the Grande Pacific Model RR.  Tracks run through wall behind monitor and connect with main line this become the ATSF interchange during op secessions. http://www.grandepacificmodelrr.org

Thanks Art!

I think that looks good and makes me feel better about my choices.  I am impressed you did a painted backdrop for your maintenance tracks. I like it. It keeps even these tracks a part of the model world.

Ken Glover 

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Keep the photos coming.

Please keep the photos coming.  I'm going to try a shelf layout using foam and your work looks thorough and good.

Sam Urrate

Thanks Sam!

For the complement and the encouragement.  I would be working on the back drop right now but it rained and I have no place indoors to cut the 4 x 8 sheet of hardboard.  Probably tomorrow.  I have hardboard enough for my backdrop and the fascia.  There will be a cutout in the bottom of the fascia so I can sit at my desk and not hit my head on it.

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

HI Ken Thank you for the

HI Ken

Thank you for the pictures.  When I get to build my shelf layout, I will need to do things very similar to what you are doing.  I will be taking over out son's bedroom, but I will need to leave the furniture in place for when he comes home to visit.  So I will also be building over and around (and maybe through existing furniture). 

Last weekend, I was at our local Lowes and I was appalled at the condition of the lumber.  Everything I looked at was warped and crooked - even the 3/4" plywood.  So I walked over to the shelving section and saw the same uprights and brackets that you are using.  I think they will work just fine.  But, since my layout will have to be over the chest of drawers (48" high),  to save vertical space, I think I will try using the wire rack shelving that goes with the brackets instead of the L-girders.  I think (hope) it and 2" of foam will provide enough support as I intend to keep everything simple and lightweight.  It will be my first layout so is supposed to be a learning experience - right???

I found some 2x8 track plans at: home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling that I am thinking I might adapt.

I'm looking forward to following your progress.  Hopefully I won't be too far behind you.

PS - Also a Dilbert fan.  My kids gave me the same little statue.

Glad you found the pics useful

Jim,

Glad it was helpful. I did get my shelf rails and brackets at Lowes... I didn't really consider using the wire rack shelves. I will be interested in how that works for you. I guess we will have a direct comparison of the two for others to learn from. My desk is 45 inches tall and the top of the foam is at 53 7/8 inches. Would not want it any higher. I think it will be good for operating but construction would be easier if it were a little lower.

I do know what you mean about the condition of the lumber at Lowes. I had to pick through it to find something acceptable. I had to find one good 1x3x8', 4 decent 1x2x8's, and one OK 1x2x8'. I used the construction of the L-girders correct some minor warping by trying to match pieces that would compensate for the warping. They were screwed and glued. It seemed to work out well.

As for Dilbert, I look like him... I used to have curly blond hair (now white/grey), wear glasses and have worked in IT. I have been known to put on a white shirt, find a pocket protector, use pipe cleaners to curl up a red and black stripped tie, and not comb my hair as a costume. 

Thanks again for the comments!

Ken

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

So am I!

Sounds great! I am working on an 8x2 (with a three foot extension on one side) switching layout myself.  I love the small railroads. They are reasonable considering space/money/time investment.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Hummmm....

Mark,

You sound like someone I can ask for advice as I go along...   I hope I can make a cassette type extension on one end or the other to act as staging.  I don't have the ROW for that currently.

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Cassette Location

Ken

Your cassette doesn't have to fit into the end of your shelf.  You could have it fit into the front edge of the layout at an angle up to 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the front edge.  You would only need a short piece of tract - curved or straight- to connect this location to your on-layout tracks.  And it will only stick out into your room for the few minutes while you are getting your train "on stage".  You would just need a way to lock it into the front edge of the layout and then a way to support the free end.  I have seen pictures of where people built their cassettes on mobile carts to roll up to the layout or put legs on them to get the cassette up to layout height. I have seen people model their cassette as a car ferry.   This connection point can also be the location of future expansion if you later want to build a leg down the adjacent leg. 

Just some ideas I have gotten from modelers smarter than me.

Your base looks good.  Hope

Your base looks good.  Hope the rest goes as smoothly!

Link is sick

Jim: tried your link, didn't work. Could you take a look?. TIA.

Link is cured

Sorry about that.  I put it in wrong.  Stein contacted me and said that this is the correct address:

http://home.online.no/~steinjr/trains/modelling/

I just tried it and I think it will work now. I just now had a chance to log in and check/fix it. If it still doesn't work, please let me know and I will keep trying.  Sorry for the hassle.

I admire simplicity and some of these really appealed to me.  I am especially liking the one he calls "Fergus" and some of the U-Shaped versions (11-17) under the Progressive Rails have a lot of expansion possibilities for later, but are a little more complex.

He also sent me these, but I haven't had time yet to look at any of them:

http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/forum/?start=all

http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/forum2/?start=all

http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp124/steinjr_1965/forum3/?start=all

 Btw - I haven't updated the

Btw - I haven't updated the web page Jim linked to in quite a while, so the plans and pictures there are quite old.

The Omaha road layout on that page has since morphed into a Great Northern layout, whose track now looks like this:

And there is a transportable 15" x 8 foot switching layout (heavily inspired by one of Byron Henderson's track plans) built in two 4-foot long sections in our living room, with a track plan that looks like this:

The last three links Jim posted - the ones ending in /forum, /forum2 and /forum3 contains an assortment of track plans and plan fragments from various discussions in online forums.

Feel free to use them in any way you may want - including as examples of how to not do things, if desired 

Sorry about hijacking the thread - but since Jim had mentioned my web page, I figured I would just add this information.

Btw - just curious - which Iain Rice track plan did you base your town on, Ken?

Grin,
 Stein

And I thought it had gone "viral"

Stein,

The track plan I took my town from is "The Small Town on the Prairie" on Page 44 of Iain Rice's book Shelf Layouts for Model Railroads (Kalmbach Books, 2009) ​. Below should be the portion of that plan I'm working from.

It is going to take some modification of the "industries" served to make it work. I have made it a full 2' wide and will move some of the trackwork forward to give me a little more depth in front of the backdrop to attempt to have some "town".

As an update, I cut and test fit the hardboard for my backdrop. For now I will just paint it blue fading to white going down. I may try some clouds later.

I wish the backdrop could be a little taller, but.... I'll make do. The structures are some plastic kits I picked up at an auction. I was really interested in some scenery materials and these came along with. Also got a a Pasche (sp?) Airbrush all for $10. I am using the structure to give me some idea of size and placement. I will probably use other structures. I have some I can use and  will have to find / build others.

The springs on the paper are what I intend to use to fasten the backdrop to the shelf risers per John Whitten's post "Super Easy Backdrop Holders".  See https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/howto-super-easy-backdrop-holders-12188144 for John's great description and photos.

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Great Posts

Ken-

Thanks for another great post.  I'm following your construction with great interest as I want to use a similar construction technique for my future layout.  I think the 1x4 box construction with plywood tops is total overkill and my benchwork weighs a ton!  Shelf brackets and L-girders (if that's even needed IMHO) are the way to go.

thanks so much for a well put together post.  Sorry for the lack of 'substance' in my reply but I know from experience it's nice to know someone is reading, right?

~rich

Thanks Rich!

It is nice to know people are reading my posts. I really appreciate your comments.

I think you may be right about the L-girders being overkill. I was concerned about the ability of foam to stand up to the load that might be placed on it and how brittle it might be. I have never worked with the foam sheets before. I also wanted to have room to run wiring under the "shelf" and not have it under the brackets. I am sure there could be another way to handle the wiring runs, the L-girders are cheep and easy. 

Have you looked at George Booth's Post on "Taking it to the Next Level"?  https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/taking-it-to-the-next-level-12188181

He seems to be using foam directly on shelf brackets (third photo in the second post). You might want to try and contact him and see how that is working and what he is using for bracket spacing.

Thanks again and I'm glad you enjoy the posts.

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Apologies

Ken, and others

My apologies for getting your post off on a tangent.  I realize now that it was about building a shelf and not about track plans.  When I find something to be positive about, sometimes my enthusiasm gets the better of me.  Again, my apologies - it was not my intention to sabotage your post.

Foam is extremely strong per pound, but brittle.

I think the easiest way to strengthen foam without adding too much weight is to laminate 1/8 inch luan door skin material to the bottom of the foam.

No need to apologize..

Jim,

I wasn't upset about your post, just surprised. Actually, I thought the discussion was good and interesting. I intended to bring in my track plan at some point, I just hadn't gotten there yet. It was probably good to prod me into posting it. 

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

P.S. Those posts got this blog on the list of Popular Blog Posts in the June 22 Subscriber Update...lol

Good Idea!

Russ,

I wish I had thought of that... DOH!

Ken Glover

Chief Engineer, Kansas Pacific Railway (once know as the Eastern Division of the UP)

Ken I'm glad to know you

Ken

I'm glad to know you are not offended.

Getting back to work now.

 Looks good.  So how did

Looks good.

So how did you add your runaround - just hooked that uppermost of the two bottom single ended spurs at far right up to the main to the right of the rightmost turnout on the main in the Rice plan?

Smile,
 Stein