Lots more cork roadbed laid - probably about 200' now. I found an error in the plywood subroadbed yesterday, at the turn between Ophir's bridge 46-F and Lizard Branch; it was an earlier section and it turns out I cheated the radius where two modules join in that area. Once I started laying the curve and easements out with the cork, I found I'd cut a portion of the curve completely off! I'll have to rebuild that section before laying the cork there, unless I want a tiny segment of too-sharp radius in my mainline!

But, the rest is coming along. Cork now runs over all the hidden main (except behind the furnace - still avoiding that for the moment), from Dolores to Lizard Head, and Mancos to Durango on the visible main.

A milestone was reached this past weekend, when I finally started laying the cork roadbed.
Here's a shot of the Dolores townsite, with the newly laid cork sheet. This is (I think) 1/4" cork underlayment (normally used for flooring) that I picked up on clearance, online at Cork Direct. I purchased a 50' x 4' roll for a very reasonable price.


Sheet cork was laid on the Telluride and Dolores town sites, and cork roadbed laid from the laundry room's lower line all the way to Wildcat canyon.

And here is the Telluride peninsula. This photo also shows some of the floor anchors and bracing used. I was pleasantly surprised at how solid this very narrow peninsula became after adding the X bracing. It's only 1' to 2' wide in most places, and about 54" high, yet it's very strong and doesn't move even if you walk into it.

Still very busy w/baseball (little league) this spring, but I found enough time to finish the framing for the Telluride peninsula. It was kinda tricky figuring the final dimensions as that benchwork sneaks between the Dolores and Ophir areas, especially as it moves into the aisle toward Wildcat Canyon. But it's done now, and aisle widths were kept between 27" and 30" in the area, which is workable.

A long-standing concern of mine has been how to ensure that section is rigid, as it's really narrow and can't be attached to the ceiling. I ended up using some bits of AC2-treated 2x4s screwed into the floor (with Tapcon anchors), then attaching the 2x2 legs to those. At first I used scrap plywood bits to add diagonal bracing to the legs at pretty steep angles (maybe 60-70 degrees). That helps stablize the side-to-side swaying, but on the last few legs (some only 16" wide or so), I used a lot more diagonal braces, and kept the angles to 45 degrees. Wow - what a difference! Rock solid, if you can believe it. I'm removing the other bracing now and replacing it w/45 deg braces, adding 2 or 3 levels depending on the leg pairs. And yes, I'll post pictures of all this someday.

Tracks on the wall, and under the stairs

Finally got back to the layout, and have made great progress getting the final link between Ridgway and Durango built. This is a double-level shelf running along the wall and thru the basement stairs, and because it's one of most difficult piece of benchwork, I've left until nearly the end.

Here's the Ridgway yard area; the underside of the stairs is to the right. That board-thingie sitting on the yard is the upper-level main that installs inside the bathroom - through the closet and bathroom and into the laundry area. It's one long piece, and the fewer joints the fewer problems w/ trackwork, I reckon.



Here's the two levels of mainline approaching the stairs from the other side. It's a very narrow stack of two shelves, the lower one 4" wide, the upper 4.75", and part of the trickiness was figuring out how to support it. After building a mock-up, I finally settled on a 1x2s screwed into the wall, with more 1x2s on the outer edge under each shelf, which is 1/2" 4-ply plywood. This forms a bridge, basically.

There's a little 7" lip in the wall (where it changes from drywall on concrete to a normal stud wall), and I was able to have a 1x2 stick out from this lip to form a brace perpendicular to the shelf. I think a single angled bracket under another part will complete the supports for this.

Part of the mock-up was figuring out how high I needed my guardrails to be; the track is right against the edge of this little shelf, along a major aisle into the layout, and I've got to protect against trains falling off. I found that a wall only 3/4" high (measured from the plywood base) will work, even with the track elevated on cork roadbed. This wall is low enough to reach over easily for track cleaning, but high enough to keep equipment off the floor, or so I think.

After briefly losing a test car INSIDE the stairs (the back is closed & drywalled), I put this guardrail on the portion that's actually inside the stairs as well.

Once this is finished up, it's on to Telluride. The benchwork there is completed up to Keystone Hill to the edge of town, but I haven't built further because I need the floorspace for cutting large plywood sections. Now that most of those are complete, I can more the tools and finish up Telluride. And then, finally, on to track laying.

Track laying has been delayed, because (1) I didn't want delicate track in an area of such heavy construction, and (2) because I couldn't afford the track yet anyway. I think both of those issues are ending, enough to begin trackwork anyway.

No progress at all the last couple of months... I'm involved in a large project w/our church and work got busy as well. Hopefully that'll change soon!