A quick update to share a few snapshots of some progress and talk about what has been going on since the Winter. Well, first up, between December and January I took on a massive project; replacing the transmission in my 2006 Honda Odyssey. The task was no small feat and I did nearly all of the work myself. As a result, I have a functioning car again, and have likely permanently damaged an already questionable right shoulder. (A recent MRI revealed the reality that surgery is likely in my future.)

But I digress. I showed you the Rock Creek trestle mocked up in place. Now let’s take a look at how I got there. I made the decision that building the trestle would be my priority. First up was to start mocking up the terrain to be sure it would work with the existing design. So I used some masking tape to outline the land forms.

What became apparent was that the angle required for the long fill the trestle approaches sat on would not work with the existing benchwork. I also had the idea that it would be nice to be able to remove the trestle should I want to transport/save it from the layout room in the future. This required completely rebuilding this section of the layout, by essentially widening this dropdown area.

I then needed to install the trestle and shim it to sit flush and level with the track, so I could measure the height of each riser.

I measured the height from the base to the lowest pile in each bent. I subtracted about 1/16″ and fashioned risers from 1×4’s and other boards.

I installed the risers so the bent sits just on the edge. I will shim up to the height of each pile, since they are uneven. Risers were glued in place with wood glue.

Now that the risers are in place, I can begin building the landforms, including the creek itself. I’ve still got a bit of work to be done on the bridge; namely the stringers on the top deck and some other details, but otherwise I’m nearly done. The same day I worked on the new benchwork, Kelly came over and helped me figure out and install the new benchwork as well as some foam at Chevy Chase and at Georgetown Jct. Progress!

A few other command system and lighting improvements: I deaccessioned myself from the old Digitrax Empire Builder II system and picked up a new TCS CS-105 unit.

After a weekend of setup, it is functioning beautifully.

With the addition of my trusty RasPi/JMRI, the ProtoThrottle is working well, too.

I also installed LED strip lights beneath the upper deck on half of the layout.

This is very much a work in progress as I attempt to best engineer how to get the most out of them, but I am really pleased with the initial setup. More to come on this later.

I’ve also been giving some thought to completing my model of the Bethesda Freight House. If you recall, a few years back I designed and laser-cut parts for my model of the station, but hadn’t assembled it. I spoke with Greg C. who is a master at building structures, about how to proceed and he gave me some great tips. I need to figure out the inserts for some of the moulding around various windows and engineer how I will install the garage doors, and get building.

Well, that’s all for now. Life is quite busy at the moment; my kids are wrapping up the school year, lots of sports activities, road trips, and other commitments. I’m taking a week off to host my cousin and we are planning on hitting several regional railfan spots, hobby shops and working on my layout. Hopefully more progress reports soon!

I took the plunge and decided to rid myself of my twenty-some year old hand-me-down Digitrax Empire Builder II starter set for something a bit more cutting edge. I really like what TCS is doing these days with their new systems and was able to finally see one in action at Springfield last winter. A new CS-105 is on hand and will be installed soon.

I also picked up a handful of LED light strips and a power supply. These will be used to illuminate the lower deck. Hope to do a full write up on this once installed. Need so cut some 1/8″ strips to mount the lights to.

As you may or may not know, I have a helix to connect the upper and lower decks of my Georgetown Branch layout. I built the helix ages ago, back in 2003 for my previous layout. It was designed to fit below a set of stairs and as such is relatively tight, with 19.5″ radius curves and a 2.9% grade. (yikes!) Thankfully I mostly run small B+B locomotives! One thing that is lacking is any sort of protection for the trains as they traverse the helix from falling off the edge and cascading to the floor. I thought about cardboard or mat board strips but decided against them as I didn’t like the idea that they would crease or break if I had to reach in to re-rail a train. I have been kicking this idea around for ages and recently had the idea of using polypropylene folders. These are the flexible-yet-stiff plastic folders you find in a lot of school binders. When I was cleaning out a supply cabinet, I found a stash of old folders from my son’s grade school days. Perfect. So I got around to testing this out.

I first remove the inner folder piece (seen in the photo above as a lighter green) and then set the edge of the folder against a sheet of glass and lay my steel ruler down atop it. I then score until the sheet is cut through.

Next, lay the strips on the side of the roadbed, keeping it parallel to the bottom, and use a staple gun to fasten to the plywood.

Some of the staples will not go in all the way and I tapped them in with a hammer. Occasionally I would miss and have to remove the staple with a screwdriver and try again. I really like the way this is turning out.

The last several weeks proved to be some of the busiest for me at work and as such progress has slowed. Today, however, I tackled another milestone – completing all of the assembly for the trestle structure itself. I tacked on the final bracing, stringers and girts to complete the lower section. Here’s a few photos of what it’s looking like:

This means that the to-do list is getting shorter and shorter. Here are a few highlights of what’s left:

• NBW castings on the side-facing stringers and beams. This will take a good amount of time as I will have to drill and install each one. Much like what I did on the bents, but a bit fewer. I’m not going to install NBW castings on the inner facing beams due to the difficulty in placing them in such tight spaces.
• Attach a brace to the bottom of the middle two bents. This will serve as support when the model is turned upright.
• Build a sort of cradle to hold the bridge when upright.
• Remove bridge from base and flip upright onto cradle/steps.
• Build two emergency platforms on the top side.
• Install the two beams that run atop the deck parallel to the track, install NBW castings.
• Install bracing/walkways that run along top of bents.
• Weather and install on layout.
• Build and install bracing around lower center bents and cribbing for the ends.
• Drink a cold beer.

Exactly one month since my last update and I’ve made some great progress on the Rock Creek trestle model that I’d like to share.

On Friday I built a sled/jig thing to facilitate installing the bents perpendicular and square. More on this in a moment. First up, I needed to flip the top of the bridge over, as it was mounted with track side up. I then took the opportunity to extend the lines that indicated where the bents would be installed, as this would guide my sled/jig later. I also measured where I wanted the straight edge to be and installed it with double-sided tape.

Next it was time to install the center deck girder section (which I had previously built, painted, weathered and installed ties and tie plates). I prepared some 5-min epoxy and lightly brushed it to the back side of the rails. I carefully positioned the bridge in place and weighed it down while the glue dried.

I then completed the blocking around the deck girder.

The sled/jig allowed for me to install the bents perpendicular and square to the base. This took a bit of finagling to get set up properly but made the job go fast once the system was in place.

Halfway there!

And here we are with the completed bents. It’s looking pretty good!

If you flip over the photo you can sort of get a feel for what the completed model will look like.

Ok – that’s all for now. I’m very pleased with how this is coming along and up next I’ll be installing all of the stringers and girts to get this over the finish line! Stay tuned…