Header: Ħal-Zuzzu Model Railway Build Blog |
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| Published: Sunday, October 18, 2020 | ||||||
Post: #1/198 - Views: 47261  1 |
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The start of a new layout and a new hobby.. I was brought up around model train sets. My dad was very passionate about his model trains and layout. Every house we lived in, we had a huge HO railway layout. All the layouts had running water, mountains, tunnels, bridges and a turntable. In those days they were all DC layouts, none of todays hi-tech systems but, being an engineer, my dad always managed to go that one step further with electronics. I guess I got my bug from him, but unfortunately a bit late in life. I did not have much interest when I was a kid. All I wanted to do is tow as many carriages as I could at the back of the train, as fast as I could and enjoy watching the whole thing go over the edge.. I must have been a nightmare I don't take too long to think about doing something. I have often thought about trains. Sometimes I would share a video or an image I would have found and dedicate it to my dad, but that is as far as it went. When someone mentioned a layout, I'd laugh it off, until a few days ago. Maybe COVID-19 is playing tricks with my mind or age is telling me to hurry, but within a few days of talking to Rob, a new friend on Facebook, I have done more Google searches on model trains and layouts and other research than ever before. Today I went out and bought some wood, cut it up to the size I had in mind and started building the platform. CRAZY 
The layout is only going to be 70 inches by 55 inches. It is a very small layout, but that is all the space I have. I will explain where this space is and what it is I will have to do to use the layout, but later. I have started assembling the platform, gluing and screwing the frame together. Because of restricted space, I will have a manhole in the middle of the layout so I can work on the build, maintain the layout and retrieve trains and carriages that go off rail or to shoot videos 
A few weeks ago I built this for my hobby. Still have to put a guard on that blade, (I know about it - don't give me grief) but it sure came in handy today
This is one way to check that the manhole is big enough for me to fit in it and not too big to waste real estate that i cannot afford to waste. Still need to cut those two top pieces of wood to size, right after I know where exactly I will put them. 
So, after some struggling, sweating and a few four letter words, I managed to take the frame inside my workshop. There is no room to spare in there, and when you try to do something like this, you realise how crazy an idea this is. What was I thinking? I stood it up on anything I could find, for lack of legs. Need to get more wood. 
So I decided to install the scenery wall before installing the base, otherwise I would not be able to install the wall from the manhole. I would not reach that far. I can reach the edge of the base, but not drill and screw the wall while in the manhole. No way, so this needs to be done before the base. I decided that the wall will be 12 inches or 30cm from the underside of the frame. That will leave me 6 inches of head room when the layout is raised to the ceiling, and nothing I build inside those 4 walls should ever be higher than those walls, to make sure I don't crush them when raising the base to the ceiling. 
"WHAT??" I hear you say? yep, as you can see from the next couple of images, this layout is going to be larger than the available floor space. It will in fact be partially over the top of my workbench. The part over the workbench will have short supports to rest on the workbench, as opposed to the other two sides of the frame, that will have legs 45 inches long, to be able to sit over the vise. The finished height will be around 48 inches. This will give me a good eye level view without having to bend down too far, and also to not need to bend too far down to get to the manhole. 
Temporary leg 
Note the edge of the frame and the workbench below. 
I just finished marking the concrete ceiling where I will be drilling and hanging some hardware for some pulleys. Then I will install some screw hooks in the corners of the frame and then try to figure out how this is all going to work. Next time I go out, I will get some screw hooks, 2 x 2 inch timber for the legs, the scenery wall will be made from 1/4 inch plywood and the base from 1/2 inch plywood, then we can make some more progress. Until next time.. Stay tuned and don't forget to register for post updates...Check out the live CCTV camera HERE |
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