A few years ago I saved the slats from an old, cheap bed that my daughter wasn’t going to use any more. I knew I’d find a use for them eventually and sure enough, we needed quite a few risers. In fact the slats were very good quality fir, much nicer than the 1x2 furring strips we’d used for the rest of the benchwork.

Maybe it’s just the mild climate here, but I’ve never had any problem with sagging roadbed when I’ve used a glued-together sandwich of Homosote and plywood over 16” spacing between risers. Even when I’ve used ½” plywood it always felt plenty stable, even overkill.

So for light weight and ease of handling, I decided to risk being scolded by wiser and more experienced modelers and used ¼” plywood on this layout. I admit that I’m nervous about having to eat crow, but so far I’m not seeing a problem.

Just received an email from the PNR of NMRA.org:

"Carstens Closing

I have received information from a well respected member of the model railroad publishing field that Carstens, Inc is closing business this week. This brings to the end the publication of Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine, one of the oldest general publications in the hobby field.

The hobby will miss the information published in RMC and the overall support of our hobby from Carstens.

The actual math behind the cubic spirals of railroad curves is not normally a part of the middle school curriculum and I have no intention of drilling kids into proficiency with them. On the contrary. But I do try to illuminate the mathematical aspects of their everyday experiences and help them see how those connect to fields like engineering, economics, music, or whatever.