"Milepost 15": Progress Shots

Stripped the benchwork bare. Talk about a fresh start...

"WondrBoard"

I covered the entire thing with 7/16" OSB. The top is meant to protect the stuff stored under the layout and keep expensive locomotives from falling to the concrete floor. The 2" high spline roadbed is laid on the top. It's the same laminated styrofoam spline I used on the first layout.

Because OSB is not as stable as plywood I secured the top with drywall screws every 12" along the frame edges and cross rails. I then laid the full size drawing directly on the completed top. I did not feel it was necessary to glue the drawing in place. I used strategically placed thumb tacks to keep it from wandering away. It will serve as a general guide for locatig track and other features...

The Full Size Plan

As I was laying out the full size drawing I found a "small" oversight. There is no benchwork at the location where the Average enginehouse should go. It was cut at an angle to provide a wider aisle with no pointy corner to skewer the operator's rib cage...

DUHHH!

I redrew the plan to represent the actual corner and rotated the engihouse 180'...

Fixed!

Then I dove straight into the roadbed installation. Since I was able to reuse the styrofoam spline from the Allegheny Eastern things went very fast. I used huge sections cut from the old layout. It was a bit like using sectional track. I screwed it directly to the top with drywall screws. The roadbed for the "Class 1" connecting railroads is already completed and ready for track...

Average Looking From The Enginshouse

The roadbed for the Average Eastern is elevated on blocks of styrofoam. The AE railhead sits about 2" or higher above the connecting roads. I started at East End and worked towards Average. Because of the spline construction I can build the roadbed first and elevate it afterwards...