The Better Late then Never Modular Railroad Club

[trainmanmarsh]

Hello everyone

I thought I'd share with everyone here the fun times our small group has every thursday night. We have been meeting at My Dad's Trains in Wrentham MA for about 9 months now. We spent countless hours cleaning the upstairs of the store just to find the floor. We did this all through the summer while the temperature was high and unbearable. Now temperatures have headed the other direction and life in the layout space is unbearable yet again. It is no fun having to pick icicles off your locomotive before you run it. Luckily for us one of our new members, Jim Lincoln has offered us the use of his heated/ air condtioned basement. No more suffering thanks to mother nature. However it does mean we are back to cleaning (maybe we ought to change the name of the club to the better late than never cleaning service).

In the begining.. there was a mess

In the begining1.jpg (224.88 KiB) Viewed 1890 times

Now the mess here is no where near as bad as it was at MDT but it still mean many hours of picking up and cleaning. I think all of our members would agree that it is worth it just so we can have comfortable meetings. Last night was our second work session there and I was amazed at what I saw when i arrived.

Jim installing insulation, Ron keeping the drywall company and David doing his best impersination of a statue

In the begining2.jpg (216.19 KiB) Viewed 1893 times

We had a clean corner! It had newly installed drywall! There was even new lighting! It seems Jim had been busy without some of us there. He also had started to build up a section of layout. The section he is building now is going to be permanent. It has been known to take a while to get the engery up to unload the modules after a show and get them standing. This way we will always have something to play with when we jus don't feel up to manual labor. Jim is going all out on this section so far. He has decided to go for all hand laid code 83 tunrouts.

And the first comment was...Are those DCC freindly?

Let the mayhem begin.jpg (229.24 KiB) Viewed 1891 times

Well thats it for now. I've got to get started today on making up my modules to go over to add in to the new layout. I'll post updates as work continues.

Espen L. Marsh
President of the Better Late than Never Model Railroad Club

[hjw3001]

Thanks for sharing the photos. Looks like you'll have a nice sized layout room Those hand laid turnouts look great!

[LongHornCaddy]

Wish we had basements in Texas. Looks like you've got a nice start. The turnouts look very nice!

Cruisin,

Long Horn Caddy

[Zephyrus52246]

Can I rent you guys? I got a basement needs cleaning . Nice to see you're gonna have a more temperate space. Nice lookin' turnouts, too.

Jeff

[trainmanmarsh]

Hello everyone

Well It has been awhile since I have done anything on here except read so I figured I better add an update about what the club has been up to. After the last few shows we had all been griping about moving the old turn around modules which i belive were built with the expectation of tap dancing elephants coming to the show and needing a stage. They were 4 ft square with 3/4" plywood tops. Far too much weight to haul around. They also had very tight curves, 22" radius' that didn't allow some of us to operate our equiopmant. So we began designing new turn arounds with larger curves and less eye popping back pain included.

right turnaround.jpg (167.58 KiB) Viewed 1673 times

left turnaround.jpg (196.77 KiB) Viewed 1674 times

Now these are the new designs. They are 6ft by 10 ft each. They break down into 4 seperate sections that are 3 ft by 5 ft except for one which is funny shaped. during planing Jim lincoln was building more benchwork for the permanent layout at his house and decided to try using 1/2"plywood for the framework. It worked great and was alot chaper than using 1x4s. Each turnaround has cost about $40 with legs and tops. We also found out that a standard 2X4 ft module will only cost $10 with legs. The legs fold up under the module so there will no longer be a giant pile of legs to cary in to every show. As of last night both turnarounds are standing and now need to get the styrofoam added so we can start laying track. I'll try to remember to bring the camera tomorrow and take pictures. I'd also like to invite anyone on here in the area to come and join us on thursday nights. we usually try to start between 7:00pm and 7:30pm. We are back to meeting at My Dad's trains as it is easier to find for new members. Of course having the store downstairs does help if we need something for a project.

Espen

[Delaware&NorthernRR]

Espen,
Thanks for the update. Please keep us informed as the work continues.

[trainmanmarsh]

Hello

Time for another update. Today was spent working on the new left hand turnaround. First off here is a picture of the new turnaround. The car on it is a Atlas 2 bay covered hopper to give you an idea of just how big these things are.

right turnaround 005.jpg (176.52 KiB) Viewed 1567 times

I started today by laying out the 2" styrofoam on the modules to figure out how I was going to cut it. After getting it figured out I got to work cutting and attaching. The foam is held down with glue and screws. The screws are really only there to hold everything in place while the glue dries but I'll probably end up leaving them in. By lunch time I had half the foam down and had started to play around with how the track was going to lay out.

right turnaround 007.jpg (193.25 KiB) Viewed 1565 times

Later on, Ron came by and helped me get the rest of the foam attached and I got some of the cork roadbed glued down. Unfortunatly, I forgot to take pictures before I came in for the night. Tomorrow I hope to get all the cork down before the club meeting tomorrow night so we can get some track laid and start running some trains again. I'll make sure I take pictures.

Espen L. Marsh

[b.bollinger]

When (if) I get around to starting a layout I would love to have hand laid track. Your work looks amazing. I just spent the last several hours spiking down a 21" section of straight track on my covered bridge and it drove me nuts. It looks great... but so time consuming. I bow to you and the task you have before you.

-Brian

[trainmanmarsh]

Hello again

We had our weekly club meeting last night and got alot acomplished. We started with laying out the cork for the big curve.

left turnaround 001.jpg (187.02 KiB) Viewed 1520 times

left turnaround 003.jpg (203.73 KiB) Viewed 1517 times

We then had started laying track. We started laying from the back side of the curve and worked our way around to the front. Of course as we went along we had to test every joint with the worlds pickiest passenger cars. They handled the curve beautifully and looked great doing it.

left turnaround 004.jpg (198.63 KiB) Viewed 1515 times

As can be seen in the photo above, Ron can't stop drooling over the idea of running his Big Boy around these new modules. We finished the night up by getting the entire mainline down and then the kid in each of us took over and we had a great time pushing the passenger cars back and forth around the modules. I have a video of our playtime but i'm saving it for blackmailing purposes. I'm hoping to get the siding and the two staging areas installed tomorrow before I have to go to work. I'm hoping we'll have the frame work for the other turnaround over here soon. I can't wait to have a train run around unasisted by the big sky locomotive. Until next time.

Espen

[ironhorse]

love those big cerves, can't wait to see more
Rod