At the beginning of the month of August, I got stuck with how to wire the LED panels for both the 4 Bluepoint manual turnout controllers and the two panels (one on each side of the peninsula) that I needed for the 2 Tortoise turnout controllers. With the help of several MRH subscribers pointing me in the right direction, I was able to get that task completed as shown in my previous blog posting.  This posting will show progress made on the construction of the support structure for the main level of my layout.

Construction of the Main Level Support Structure

The ATSF Paradigm Division is a freelanced prototype layout.  Other than Union Station and Paradigm, the city names are based upon my children’s names with the prototype name in parenthesis. For reference, the combined main level and third level track plan along with the functional map of the layout are shown below.

The main level support structure is shown in the following pictures.  The first shows the 16” wide section on the left side below the window and a portion of the 48” wide cantilevered section on the peninsula above the staging level.

The second picture shows a close-up of the left side of the structure above the staging level while under construction.  Please note that each cross piece has been pre-drilled for running wire.

The third picture shows a close-up of the right side of the structure above the staging level.  In this picture you can see some of the vertical 2x4 legs that make up the spine of the structure from the back wall to within 18” of the end of the 18’ 6” long peninsula.  The cantilevered section is supported both by the 2x4 spine plus the 2x4 ledger boards that connect from one end of the peninsula to the other on both sides as shown in the second picture.

Use of Track Design Software on a Mac Computer

A few months ago, I had mentioned that I found a reasonably priced track design software (< $40) that actually runs on a Mac called RailModeller.  Yes, I know that free is cheaper but I could not figure out how to get the popular track design software packages (either free or demo versions) to document the two double-track oval helixes that I had already built.  The only one that was able to use to document the helixes was the one that I bought. The competing free and demo versions were evaluated while running my Mac Pro as a pure PC running Windows 7 64 bit and not in a Windows emulator so it was a true test in my book. I spent a month or so finalizing the documentation of the staging level and the design of the main and third levels using the associated Peco track and turnout templates contained in the design program.  After completing the design, it was printed out consuming 2 full reams of paper.  Each page was set to have 8 witness marks (2 per side) so that the pages could be properly aligned while taping them together.  The video below shows the results of the first phase of laying out the design on the main level support structure. Everything fits so far.  

This is the first time that I have ever used this method of design as I normally would use poster board with track center lines and scanned track and turnout templates taped down.  In fact, I used that method when designing the staging level.

Finally, I plan on using the design printout to help finalize the wiring for the main level as well as allocating areas for scenic items such as rivers, creeks, hills, etc. 

More to come next month.

My YouTube channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6FVqBH1WfyZSAx6-AM5doQ