Blog Archives
Setting the grade …
In this post, I will attempt to explain how I have gone about setting the grade for the spline from the bridge at Chilcott’s Creek, through Kankool and currently halfway to the teardrop. The same process will continue right through to Ardglen where it levels out halfway through the tunnel. Apologies for the length of this post, but I thought that putting it all in one post would be easier than splitting it.
Following on from the last post where I explained how I marked the 42” datum level around the layout using the water level, the next thing I did was to flick a chalk line on the walls against the marks made using the water level. I now had my datum “zero” level around the walls to Kankool.
When it came to making the marks along the peninsula benchwork, I soon realised that where the 42” level was, was about halfway up the joists sitting on the main girders. This initially proved tricky to get a true datum level, so I decided to mark out the 70” top track level on the peninsula walls using stringlines. I now basically had two datum levels from where to mark out riser heights.
In all the articles I have seen about spline roadbed, they always say to fix the risers in place first where you want the roadbed. I couldn’t see how this would work for two reasons :-
- I didn’t know exactly the route the roadbed would take. That’s the beauty of the spline – it’s adjustable.
- How do you set the riser heights, and therefore the grade, without having the spline in place to check for dips or bumps?
So, hence the reason for me building the spline flat on temporary joists, then when the time comes, fix in place the proper joists at set intervals, and then the process of setting the grade can commence.
The beauty of the 3rdPlanIt program is that you can set a grade and have it display the track height (elevation) at any location along the track.
The screen capture above is from the layout drawing in 3rdPlanIt and shows the locations of the joists along the route. The lines actually are the centrelines of the risers rather than the joists, but there is only a difference of about 20mm.
Once the grade has been set in 3rdPlanIt, a text marker can be placed along the track that shows the elevation at that particular point.
The screen capture above now shows the elevation markers at the joists. The values shown are based on a zero elevation at floor level, so because my datum level is 42”, I just took the difference between the two. So now I had my roadbed heights, I could now mark these at each riser location. Using a large square and spirit level, I drew vertical lines on the walls that lined up with where the risers would attach to the joists. The roadbed levels were then made around the walls by just measuring up from the 42” datum line and making a mark.
When it came to making these marks along the peninsula walls, I just reversed the process by taking the difference between the roadbed elevation and the 70” datum and measured down the wall ‘stud’.
Now that I had all the elevations marked out, it came time to cut up some timber to use for risers. Under the single track areas I used some 2×1 DAR and under the double track areas at Kankool, some 3×1.
I initially started to attach the risers to the joists first with the aim of then attaching the roadbed to the top of the riser later, but this proved to be not the right way to do it. I instead decided to glue the riser to the underside of the spline first, using Liquid Nails, and when set, I could then fix the riser in position. This would then also allow for slight twisting of the spline to ensure it is level.
The photo above shows a riser being glued and clamped to the spline. Note the riser is only temporarily clamped to the joist at this stage.
Now, a short side note. Up until early this week, I had fixed the roadbed/risers in position all the way through Kankool and half way down the first peninsular. The grade was looking good, then for some reason, when I was looking at the overall layout drawing, I realised that when I first drew the plan, I hadn’t allowed for the peninsula wall on the teardrop section, and consequently discovered I hadn’t allowed for enough scene depth behind the track at both Pangela on the top level and the corresponding track underneath it. AARRGGH!!!! So after about two hours redrawing this section of the layout and pushing the track out further to give around 400mm scene depth, I got it looking better. I then realised that I would have to recheck the grade through this section. When I did, it had changed slightly, which now meant all the roadbed I had previously fixed in place was about 7 mm high at each riser. *@#$%!!!!!!
Also, during this time when fixing some risers along the first peninsula, I came across another issue. I think I must have used a cheap glue when fixing the riser to the underside of the spline, because I had to twist a couple of risers quite a bit to get the spline level at that point, and it was here I noticed that the glue was letting go. So a solution had to be found. I went through a number of ideas, but I think this will solve the problem.
I had noticed that the problem lay generally on the inside of curves where I had to twist the spline to get it level. So a quick trip to the hardware store to get some hoop iron and small wood screws. Short sections were then cut and bent to shape for each location and screwed to the spline and riser. I may have to rethink the riser to spline attachment process, but for now I have changed to a known brand of adhesive, namely Max Bond. I may have to use the method described here and nail the spline to the riser to compliment the glue. See pages 20 and 21.
So, after that issue was sorted out, I printed out another layout drawing showing the revised elevation heights and proceeded to remark the heights and drop the risers down. In the meantime I have also added more joists on the teardrop and started laying out more spline along the other side of this peninsula.
Now, back to the elevation setting process.
With the spline sitting on temporary risers, clamped roughly at the right height, I had to devise a way of accurately getting the riser at the right height. I ended up using a steel right angle square held against the wall at each location with it’s bottom edge lined up with the height mark, and either raised or lowered the riser until it touched the square. The riser was then clamped in position and screwed to the joist, after checking for level (see below). A small piece of scrap masonite was placed on top of the spline to allow for the foam roadbed, as all roadbed heights referred back to this datum ie 42”.
The two images above show the square in position against the wall with the masonite packer, and a close-up of the elevation mark on the wall (the green line) and the 42” datum (the blue chalk line). The red line was the previous elevation mark prior to the track changes on the peninsula mentioned above. At this point in the process, before fixing the riser, a spirit level was placed on top of the spline to check for level.
Well, that’s about where things are up to at the moment. I hope it all makes sense, as sometimes I find it difficult to put into words how I do something. As mentioned above, I have started to install joists further along the other side of the teardrop peninsula so I can resume spline construction here.
Over the last week I have also got my hands on some more photos of the area. I posted a message on RailPage Australia asking for photos of the signals and structures at Kankool, Ardglen and Pangela. I eventually heard from a couple of blokes who are ex train drivers, and are both sourcing more stuff for me. Some I have already received from one are real beauties. If anyone else out there has any photos of the area, please let me know.
Cheers for now.
A new year begins …
Hi all,
Since the last post, Xmas and New Year have come and gone, and here we are kicking off a brand new year of modelling.
Over the last few weeks, work on the layout has been sporadic to say the least. Just before Xmas, I had started to work out the riser heights of the grade from the bridge through Kankool, but realised before I could go any further, I needed to mark out the 42” reference height around the layout, as this is basically the layouts’ datum point for roadbed height.
Early on before any benchwork went up, I had marked out a 42” height along the walls to Kankool just using a spirit level and straight edges, but was always wary of its accuracy. I mean, I only had to have the bubble in the level a millimetre out at one mark, and by the end of the run, I could be out maybe 10mm.
So I came up with the idea of using a water level. So, it was off to Bunnings to get some clear PVC hose. After filling it with water, and some coloured food dye to make the water line a bit easier to see, one end was setup at the end of the storage yard benchtop. I fashioned a simple clamp to hold the tube in position.
I soon realised that this would be a two person job, so since my father was down for Xmas, I commandeered him. Whilst he held the tube at the storage yard end, I moved the other end to various points around the walls and benchwork, and when the water found its level at each point, a mark was made with a red pen. We soon got into a rhythm and eventually made marks all the way from the bridge to the teardrop peninsula.
The next job was to remove the temporary joists that were placed to support the spline whilst under construction and fix the permanent ones in position. I only had to do this on the section under Kankool and along the first peninsular wall. These were made from 2×1 DAR and placed around 500mm apart along the L girders. I wasn’t too worried about the length at this point, as I can always extend the joist when I come to attach the fascia.
The view above also shows some benchwork changes I made the other week. The original design was to have the benchwork supported on shelf brackets – see previous post. The main reason for this was to eliminate the need for legs which I always thought would get in the way.
But, ever since I constructed that section, there was a lot of movement in the benchwork and it wasn’t really solid enough. So I needed to do something prior to setting the roadbed height and attaching risers to the joists. Andrew was around one day, and after both of us pondering the problem, he suggested the idea of moving the inside L girder back towards the wall and fixing it to the wall. The outer girder would then be supported by 2×2 pine legs. This would then allow the shelf brackets and tracks to be completely removed. I still may use this method for the upper deck, but am thinking of placing the brackets at every wall stud, ie 600mm apart.
The resulting benchwork is now much more solid and I am much happier with it. The legs will still end up being far enough in behind the fascia to not be a problem.
In my next post, I will explain how I have set the grade and risers to the correct height.
Cheers.
Spline continues …
Hi all,
I have now completed full spline past the teardrop on the main peninsula. Since the last post, I installed the temporary joists to support the spline up to and around the teardrop.
As described previously, the first job is to set out the two centre strips, held in place by nails and temporarily clamped together. Then, using a plywood template set to 40 inch radius, the centre strips are then adjusted to the correct radius. Once the final position of the spline looks OK, the centre strips are glued and clamped together. Then the normal process of attaching the spacer blocks and the other spline strips continues.
Just to finish off, following a request from a fellow modeller, here is a shot of the track plan showing spline progress to date. The red line shows where I am currently up to, and shows a distance of 92 feet of spline completed.
Cheers.
Peninsula benchwork complete …
Hi all,
Since the last post, I have been quite busy. I have commenced more spline construction round the corner from Kankool onto the first peninsula section. I have also now completed the second peninsula with wall frame. Below are some shots of the benchwork during construction.
I am amazed at how sturdy the whole structure is now it is complete. I was thinking I may have had to secure the wall to the floor joists above the ceiling tiles, but I found there is no need to. To give some idea of size, this main peninsula is 8 metres long.
Just to finish off this post, the above photo shows the spline continuing along the first peninsula section from Kankool and onto the main peninsula.
It’s amazing now that I have most of the main benchwork up, how I can get more of a picture of how the layout will look. Up until now, it’s just been a two dimensional drawing; very difficult to imagine how things will look. But now I’m starting to visualise scenery and track elevations. All good fun!!
Cheers.
Kankool spline finished …
Hi all,
Well, I have finally completed the section of spline through Kankool. As mentioned previously, this section has been slow going because, as can be seen, there has been quite a lot of gluing and clamping required, but the end result is very pleasing.
This shot also shows the effectiveness of spline to achieve flowing curves with easements, something that would be very difficult to do cutting out from plywood.
The roadbed is still only on temporary risers/joists at the moment, until I get more spline built so that I can start to set the grade from the bridge. The top surface of the spline is yet to be ‘smoothed’ off prior to laying track.
Another view of the spline through Kankool towards where it turns left along the first peninsula.
The next task is to set out the next peninsula so I can continue with the spline. Over the next few months, I may make a start on some scenery, if not the Chilcotts Creek bridge.
Cheers.
Peninsula Benchwork …
Hi all,
Since the last post, I have made more progress on the peninsula benchwork and main support wall. I have constructed the wall from 3×1 DAR pine. The ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ plates are made from 3×1 L girders placed back to back with 3×1 ‘studs’ installed between them.
The photo above shows the two pieces of L girder in place to form the ‘bottom’ plate of the wall. These are supported on 70x35mm joists spaced about 1500mm apart.
The photo above shows the completed wall. The gap above the ‘top’ plate is to allow for more 3×1 on edge to support the future lighting pelmet for the top deck. The lower level spline will be supported on risers from joists supported on the main I beams. As the elevation gets higher, I may need to support the spline off cantilevered joists from the ‘studs’. Each end of the wall is secured to both the room wall at the far end and the steel post. It ended up being quite sturdy.
I have also made more progress on the spline through Kankool, with this nearly complete. Hopefully within a few days it will be. Below is a shot taken a few days ago. There has been more spline installed since. It has been quite slow going in this section, as I am basically building two lots of spline as I go, one each for the main and loop through Kankool.
Cheers.
More benchwork …
Hi all,
Just a quick post today.
I have started on the next section of benchwork for the rest of Kankool and around the corner onto the peninsula. For the main peninsula backbone, I have used fabricated timber ‘I’ beams, mainly for the long spans I can get between supports to try and eliminate the amount of legs required. The beams are 200 x 70mm and are custom made to the length required. The two shown here will be just under 6 metres long.
On top of these will go the joists to support the roadbed. The two beams are only temporarily in place at the moment, but hopefully after the weekend, they will be fixed in place.
I also added two more L girders at an angle from the wall where it steps back to just near the right hand side beam. This will now allow me to continue with the spline roadbed through Kankool and around the corner. I will have to start lifting the spline up on risers to close to the final level, as the two new L girders and beams sit about 100mm higher than the first section of benchwork. I worked out that I could get away with this as the line is climbing steadily here, and at the mid point of Kankool loop, the level is already about 4 inches higher than when it began at the bridge, so I realised I didn’t need to keep the benchwork at the same height, as I would have ended up with very tall risers. All I had to ensure was that I would end up with enough distance below the track to allow for scenery etc ie embankments.
More updates as things progress.
Cheers.
Spline roadbed Part III …
Hi all,
Well, things have been progressing really well on the spline since my last post. Spline is in place all the way to the first turnout at Kankool now, where I have split the spline. But first, some pictures of the construction sequence so far.
After the two centre strips are in place and glued, the next step was to attach the spacer blocks. These were placed at 100mm intervals.
The glue I am using is a polyurethane product from the SIKA range. I was originally going to use a Liquid Nails type adhesive, but this is not very easy to dispense from the caulking gun and it ‘skins’ pretty quickly once exposed to the air. The SIKA stuff is not cheap at around $15 per 500g bottle, but as I am using only small amounts, I think it will go a long way. It also says, as it cures, it slightly expands into the timber grain to achieve better adhesion. It is also waterproof.
The next step was to work out the position of the bridge. After allowing for the abutments, I worked out where I would terminate the spline either side. Then came the installation of the outside spline strips. These would go up to the start of the bridge only, as I couldn’t see the point in continuing the full spline across the bridge gap, only to remove it later for the bridge. The centre spline however did go across the gap only for alignment purposes for the continuation of the spline on the other side.
The process is quite slow, as I have been allowing at least 3 hours for each glue/clamp process before proceeding, although whilst one section is gluing, I can be gluing more spacer blocks in place for the next section. It all depends on how many clamps you have! I try to glue and clamp as much as I can in one session.
The photo below shows where I was up to on the 18th. Full spline from the storage yards to about two thirds the way along the wall towards Kankool. In the background, note the location of the bridge where the centre spline only is present. This section has now been cut away. Note how nice flowing curves can be achieved with spline roadbed.
During the week, I also erected the next section of benchwork where Kankool will be (well, half of it anyway!). Longer shelf brackets were used here, as this section of the layout will be deeper than where the bridge is. Again, L girders were made from 3×1 and 2×1 DAR pine. Temporary joists were placed to allow for spline construction. These will probably be relocated as I set the elevation of the spline later. Work on the spline continued around the corner and up to where the first turnout will be at Kankool.
Over the last few days, I have been working out how to make the spline through the turnout area. Whilst researching spline construction on the net, I have come across a number of articles which have helped in the process. One of these was very comprehensive, and is here as a PDF. There is a section in the article about how to make spline under turnouts, so I have tried the method which involves splitting the centre spline strips so one continues straight and the other one follows the diverging route through the turnout. Hopefully this is explained better in the pictures below.
As with previous sections of spline, the two centre strips are located on the track centreline and held with nails. I then placed a drawing of the 1 in 8 turnout over the top to work out its location. It was then placed underneath the spline so I could line up the strips. As can be seen, the outside strip has been split away from the other one to follow the diverging route. Then it’s just a matter of starting the spline again within the turnout, all the time holding it in position with nails. Then more spacer blocks and continue on with the spline down both routes. At this point, I’ll only be completing spline up to this turnout, as I want to build the next section of benchwork for the next half of Kankool, so I can get the curve correct and around into the centre peninsular.
Finally, to finish this post, a few shots back at the bridge area. I took the plunge and cut away the section of centre spline through the bridge gap and commenced setting the first section of spline on risers at the correct elevation. Once the first section was cut away at the bridge, I then had to work out how I was going to attach the spline to the storage yard plywood. With the ply being 9mm thick and the foam underlay being 3.5mm, I had to remove 5.5mm from the top of the spline at the storage yard end for about 100mm. I ended up taking the section outside and placing it in a jig to allow a small router to be set at the correct depth. It ended up working out nicely. The spline was then placed back in situ and test fitted. PERFECT!! I then cut some risers from 2×1 DAR and set the height of this section to 42”, same as the storage yards. That means that the grade now begins from the Kankool side of the bridge, as in the prototype. This meant I had to recalculate the overall grade from the bridge to Ardglen in 3rdPlanit, but it hadn’t changed all that much. This section of spline has not been attached to the risers just yet. The first shot shows the spot where the bridge will go, showing completed spline either side. The second shows the spline in its final location on the risers. The third is a close-up of where the spline meets the ply, showing the difference in height to allow for the foam on top of the spline.
Cheers for now.
Spline roadbed Part II …
Hi all,
Today saw the installation of the first section of spline. YAY!
I went to the hardware store to get some 6mm masonite to use for the spacer blocks, but could not find any. So I ended up getting a sheet of 1200 x 600 x 6mm exterior 5-ply. When I did the drawings for the spline last night, I was envisaging using 50mm long spacers. So I cut the ply into 50mm wide strips, and then docked these off to 25mm wide, same as the spline height.
After docking about half a dozen ply strips, I then realised that 50mm would probably be too long for around the curves, so I test fitted a piece against my 40 inch radius template and found this to be correct. So I then proceeded to cut a quantity of the spacers in half which will work better on the curves. I’ll still be able to use the 50mm ones on straight sections and gentler curves.
I then spent a few hours trying to get the first curve from the storage yard correct. In the original plan, I wasn’t going to model the bridge over Chilcott’s Creek, which is at the start of the 1 in 40 climb to Ardglen. After taking some pictures of it last week on the way back from a few days at Dubbo, I am now going to model this bridge.
After looking at Google Maps, I calculated that the bridge is 150 feet long with 5 spans each of 30 feet. Micro Engineering make a 30 foot long plate girder bridge so I am looking at using this. More on this bridge later.
Anyway, back to the spline. After some tweaking of the track plan to allow for the bridge and moving it slightly more towards the front of the layout, I came up with a slightly revised track layout for this section along the wall to Kankool. It’s not that much different from the diagram I have posted previously, but that is the beauty of using spline, in that it can be adjusted as you go.
After making some centreline marks on the benchwork, I then devised a method to hold the spline underneath the storage yard ply just until the spline is complete, and then it will be raised to the correct elevation.
I cut a short piece of L-girder that I had made previously. This was clamped basically in line with the easement on top of the ply, then the first piece of spline was clamped here.
At the marks on the joists made previously, I drilled a small hole to allow for a nail to be inserted on the outside of the spline to hold its position.
Once this first piece was in position, another piece of strip was cut a bit shorter so the joins are staggered, and was glued and clamped to the first piece.
This first pair of strips forms the centre of the spline. This will be left to set overnight, and tomorrow I’ll add the spacer blocks and more strips and see how it looks. The short joist at an angle is the start of a tangent section of track where the bridge will be located.
Cheers for now.
Spline roadbed Part I …
Hi all,
Yesterday I had delivered some masonite sheets to use for the spline roadbed. The sheets were 8’ x 4’ x 1/8”. I bought three at this stage.
Today I spent the morning cutting the sheets into 25mm wide strips. The three sheets were clamped together and then I used a straight edge as a guide for the circular saw. The three sheets produced 120 strips which equals 960 feet of spline material.
Now, over the last few weeks, I have been working out the details of the spline ie what width and whether I should use solid or ‘open’ spline. I have decided to go with the ‘open’ spline.
As can be seen, six strips will be used for the spline, which will end up around 31mm wide. So from this first batch of masonite, I’ll get about 160 feet of spline.
I have always wanted to use closed cell foam as the roadbed, mainly for its noise deadening properties. This afternoon I went down to the local Clark Rubber to see what they had. After some discussion with the bloke, I came away with a 9.5m roll of self adhesive foam tape, 3.5mm thick by 150mm wide. The stuff was $8.95 per metre, but the plan is to cut it into strips around 20mm wide to go on top of the spline, one each either side of the track centreline, so I’ll end up with about seven times the quantity which works out to be around $1.30 per metre which is not too bad.
I had originally thought about getting the foam in sheets and cutting it into strips, but the Clark Rubber bloke said that the sheets cannot be guaranteed to be uniform thickness, whereas the tape is, which is better.
Also, with the tape having adhesive on one side, I think it will make it nice and easy to attach to the spline.
So after the foam is down, next comes the Central Valley tie strips. More on this later when I get to that stage.
I hope to make a start on the spline tomorrow, with the first job to work out how to start and attach the spline from the end of the storage yards plywood top. More updates as things progress.
Cheers for now.
Liverpool Range 