SP Jawbone Branch (Part 55) - Installing Spur and Foam Scenery for Owenyo#3

I've been away from the layout for most of a month... so let's get caught up with a series of photo-blog... Pblog... plog?... anyway... This is just a smattering of my pictures I took in order.  There will probably be several posts in this series of photos.  Mostly you'll see lots of clamp pictures - but that's what you get when you're assembling the layout!

Sept 8th Photos Starting at Midnight

Time to make the decision by starting to work on the trestle spur roadbed.

I'm using the 3ft bubble-level as a straight-edge to clamp the spur's inner vertical frame to before gluing.  This will keep the frame straight, so it won't be wavy.

Looking towards the window, more clamps.

The transition to the spur's curve also clamped straight.  The front edge will be bent around to match the layout "cookie cutter" top sheet shape.

Planting more clamps to hold the pieces where I want them.

Notching of the vertical frame member over the cross span frames, which connect the main frame and the main track spline roadbed.

Time for more clamps on the diagonal brace frame.

Everything clamped together for the glue to dry.  I didn't want the spur's frame moving, so the lower clamp is holding the spur's frame at the right distance along the diagonal sub-frame.

Back checking where the front spur frame lands on the wall.

I use water to pre-wet the structure before I put the glue on.  There's an area of "wetted" rear frame still showing, as the applied Gorilla Glue is about to start expanding over the later photos.

Lots of drop-clothes in the form of paper towels to keep the drips from causing trouble.

Small amounts of Gorilla Glue is starting to expand from the first angled joint.

Starting to clamp around the curve.

Again, wetted MDF for the bonding with the Gorilla Glue at the start of the spur's curve.

Main cross brace on the primary direction of the #3 Module frame.

Expanding Gorilla Glue filling in vertical gap, but I was still concerned how strong this joint would be, given that I made square-cut notching in the frame-strip.

Back Frame joint.

The glue filled in around the rear frame joint.  The notches in the frame make it level, to my pre-glue dry fitting.

Filling in frame joint with glue.

I applied a good amount of extra glue around this joint, and used some plastic bag material between the module frame and the wall-bracket, so the module won't get glued to the wall!  I don't mind the glue squeezing out, or expanding, but I don't want to break it off of the bracket later.

Time to Work on the Top and Rear Frame

Time to start putting in the cookie-cutter roadbed top, which required ~1/4" shims underneath.

Overview of the end of the standard gauge spur, which will be under the trestle.  I placed some shim material under the top-surface roadbed to hold it at the right level while the rear frame is glued in place.  At this stage I am dry-fitting everything.

Box-section rear frame being glued in place.

This type of dry fitting is good, as I need to practice how I'm going to clamp it when I have glue on the parts.

Waiting for the glue to dry on the straight portion of the spur roadbed.

I'm cross checking the way everything fits at this point.

How much more can I do while the glue dries?

And, what's it like with the piece of flex track in there?

Still waiting for the glue to dry.

Checking the view down the curve.

16 Adding shim along short-wall support for the spur's curved roadbed.

Let's add a bit of shim to support the edge of the roadbed curve against the rear-frame, along the right wall.

Looking down at the right end of the #3 Module.

Downward view of the wall between the window and doorway.  Marks in place to show where I'll be cutting it of.  This allowed me to move the spur radially around the main track.  The extra material would then be cut off.

Time to Glue

Ok, now to the rear Spur Frame.

Level-bar checking that the spur is on the correct level and the spur is "flat" without any humps and dips.  It will need to be, as the future trestle will want to be on a constant surface.

I wanted to use the level to keep checking the flatness of the roadbed.

And now the forest of clamps comes into play again.

Wow, that's a lots of clamps!

Another view of the clamp forest.

Time to Mock it Up

Now that the spur roadbed is stable, time to see if everything fits.

I make a number of test fittings to check everything, evaluate how the views of the layout look, etc.

Let's check from the doorway, lift-out area.

Backing up a bit to see how the curve comes into the main track.

More views

The "reverse" view checking how everything looks.

Close-up of the joints under the trestle roadbed.

Detail view of the footings of the trestle and how the front frame glue is bonded.

"Doped" Paper Towels?

On old balsa wood airplane kits, the final skin of the model used to be made with tissue and "dope" which was a varnish, which would tighten the tissue as it dries.  I've also used techniques like this to make 'tar paper' on roofs of cars and buildings.  I decided that I wanted to do something like this to contain the glue drips and provide more bonding area around the weird angled joints in this module.

Front main frame and front spur frame.

Close-up of the application of paper-towels to form both a bag around the wet Gorilla Glue, keeping it from dripping, and also to provide effectively a "fiber-glued" structure around the joint, adding strength.

Cross brace near the left end of the spur's roadbed.

Close-up on another example of cut paper-towel filling in square-cut joint, and allowing the glue to fill the void.

After Midnight (Sept 9)

Another Midnight Mockup!

Another overview of the whole module with train posed as a mockup.

Time to Lay in the Foam

This is a dry fitted piece of foam for the rear section.

Now that the basic parts of the spur's roadbed has dried, it's time to start installing the rear foam pieces into the rear portion of the module.  I made sure not to let the left end of this foam get too low into the pin and bolt connection to the #2 Module.

Dry fitting the rear foam panel.

The next section I worked on was the rear piece that would fill in the rear corner of the module.  This section will wedge in well, but also have some glue to secure it.

The edge of the rear foam block will be cut down later.

It's good to finally see the module filling in for the first time.

A nice high view of the foam and positions of the relevant pieces of foam.

Starting to lay in the foam between the main track and the trestle spur pit's roadbed.

Back to a track-level view of the whole spur and trestle area.

The foam is now filled in from the rear piece along the right wall, following the edge of the spur.

A view of the trestle with the various pieces of foam filling in.

I like coming back and taking photos to check against the prototype photos to see how the layout is coming together.

In Closing

Time to see what the local with a 2-8-0 will look like switching this part of the layout.

Let's have another mockup!  Sadly, being a "nightowl", my work on the layout during these late summer days starts at about 9-11pm and stops somewhere around 3-4am.

Next time we'll look at Sept 14th, nearly a week later, as I continued to work on the smaller pieces of foam being put in.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 54) - Roadbed & Rough Scenery for Owenyo#3 (Aug 31-Sept 6)

Jawbone Branch Layout Build Index