I'll take cheesy any time over criticism... Thanks!
Today was a mixed bag. I finish sanded the repaired crossing—they're waiting for paint. I decided to add some topography next to the parking lot, and while some adhesive was drying got started building the train shelves.
The realigned crossing now has a much smoother approach than it had originally. It will look much better and operate better. I pre-taped the road from the station so I don't have to go back and grind it while installed.
I'll paint these crossings when I paint the remaining ones leading to the station.
Instead of piling up cardboard strips I decided to use some old Masonite that was laying around and build up a topographical "stair-step" to make plastering go faster. I shaped each piece to taper smaller and then beveled the edges to make the transitions even smoother.
The bevel was put on using a belt sander and the initial cuts were done with the saber saw.
The first piece was glued to the table with foam glue because what's beneath is mostly foam with a little OSB around the edges. I also wanted to strengthen this area a bit since I had already put my elbow through the foam once and didn't want to do it again. It took a lot of weight to get it to lay flat since the foam was marginally thicker than the surrounding OSB. Now that I'm going to have some contour to that wedge-shaped area, I probably won't put a building there, just landscaping.
Since the foam glues takes overnight to cure, I needed to work on something else so I got started on building the train shelves. These are not going to be your furniture quality shelves that some collectors use to line their train rooms. Nope! This is cheap, pragmatic, get-some-shelves-up-on-the-wall, down and dirty train shelves. The reason I'm digging into this now is simple. I took my T1 off the track to replace the traction tires. I didn't have a tire for this engine and had to call 3rd Rail. So where to put the engine? Nowhere, that's where! I still have four engines that aren't even unpacked yet, plus a load of passenger cars. I need a place to put trains that aren't currently on the layout. I also have too many engines parked. I would like to have one engine per siding. It makes it much easier to operate the layout. I can only manage about 12 engines on the layout at one time. I have 17. Shelves will help.
The wall isn't even sheathed. It's just open studs enclosing the space under the cellar steps. Instead of spending the time and money finishing that one part of the basement, I put a 5" strip of Masonite behind each 1 x 4 that makes up the shelf proper. The Masonite acts as a backstop to keep trains from falling through the studs. It will also effectively hide the open wall behind.
Without a table saw, I relied on the saber saw to cut the strips, using a 1 X 3 as a fence. In retrospect, I could have use my Skil Saw to cut the strips. It would have cut faster and made a straighter line. Oh well...
Anyway, to speed up setting the fence, I've made two spacer blocks (2" and 2.25") to use to offset the fence by the distance the blade is from the saber saw's edge. I use quick clamps to hold the fence in place. Since I was using Masonite scraps to make these strips, I had to set up the fence many times.
All the shelves are assembled with their Masonite backers, and I started fitting track to it. I have a lot of Atlas straight sectional tracks left over from when my railroad was essentially a display of trains on shelves in the office of our house in Germany. I also have a bunch of Ross straight tracks that can be pressed into service, so I shouldn't need to buy anything more. I'm using simple 90º steel angle brackets to secure the shelves to the studs. Don't need a stud finder here. They're staring me right in the face.
The shelves will be up on the wall probably tomorrow. Then I'll finish up the station area terrain work.
Oh... and one more thing... Remember those Grandt Line doors that I knew I had and couldn't find. That led me to make a bunch with manila file folders and styrene. Well... they finally showed up. When I was emptying the shelve unit to move it across the room in preparation for the shelves, I had a NWSL box from the sander, and it rattled. In it was all the missing parts from the Station. I'm going to use the Grandt Line parts since I want to have some doors open and they have details on both sides.
I knew that I had them, I was just unsure that they made the move. They did. There was also extra porch posts, which I had already re-bought. Oh well.
