Thanks Carl. This mountain (and the rest of the layout) is going to have to have a bunch of C4 to take it apart. While the L-girder assembly is basically a screwed-together affair, the rest of the hundreds of pounds of plaster and sculptamold isn't going anywhere.
As planned, the new interchange base is in and painted. The track came by UPS this afternoon and I ran downstairs after dinner to lay the tracks on the new base and see if, in fact, they were would fit. They did. My paper doll method was close, but not exact, but it will all work.
I make cleats out of 1 X 2 cut to about 5" for both the riser and the head. I pre-drill all the holes using the clearance drill for the SPAX screw. The riser gets two holes to attach it to the joist, and the head gets four holes; 2 to attach it to the riser, and 2 drilled vertically through the head to attach to the subroadbed. I had a starting point, the cleats attached to the existing straight section. I used a long level and clamped a cleat three joists away and set to level and then cross level and drove in one screw. I recheck both directions again, make any slight mods and then drive the second screw. Now that I have one cleat that's level with the existing platform I level the next cleat between this one and the datum point. With two in place, I put the level across the first two and then just push the third to touch the level, clamp it and screw it home.
I screwed on cleat into the three new joists and then set the subroadbed. I first screwed it tight to the cleats at either end and then to the three new cleats. For the remaining cleats, I just push them up tight to the subroadbed and clamp them. I put the screws in the riser and then screw it to the subroadbed. After putting in one per joist, I went back and added some more where the overhang was a bit much. To test it, I sat on it and I don't think it flexed an 1/8". It's amazingly strong.
These last cleats were placed flush to the edge so they'll serve as additional places to attach fascia. It's good to think about where the fascia's going to attach at this stage of the build. I've learned that by lots of experience. You can see here that the new roadbed looks very flat.
To finish it off, I threw a coat of Behr Ultra dirt-colored paint, first as a good base color, but more importantly to seal that awful OSB, which I call "Instant Splinter Board" or ISB. You look at that stuff the wrong way and you'll get a splinter. Before painting, I took the Dremel with a cutoff abrasive disk and ground down any screw heads that penetrated the surface. The 1.25" SPAX screws were just a tad long, and depending on how deep the head penetrated the board determined if and how much point was exposed. If they're exposed, you will get cut. Again, I've learned this from lots of experience.
The last thing I did was add a little piece of triangular stock to the little spot on the switch end.
I'll paint that piece tomorrow.
Here's the track roughly laid out on the new subroadbed. It needs a little straight piece to bring the curves into tangent with the straight track. The straight piece will fall right under where the coal tipple's going to go so it's lucky. Now that I look at it, I'm wondering if I can't add another #4 switch on the straight section that would give me a two track tipple. We'll see. I find cutting and fitting Ross track is much easier than with Atlas. I use an abrasive wheel with the Dremel's Flexishaft. You can make very precise cuts this way.
I'm still thinking that I should stop with the track now, get the mountain underway and then lay the track. I know it will all work. It would just be more track to mask and keep away from plaster. So tomorrow we get back to the mountain.
