LK&O

A Railroad with Relevance

Upper Benchwork Finished

Written By: Alan - Feb• 23•13

The final section of upper benchwork is in place. You will notice right away the obvious lack of cross members. That’s because the south helix sits in the middle of this benchwork section. And by middle I mean both x, y, and z axis. The helix top lap sits inside the benchwork. 100_5184Positioning the helix inside the benchwork was necessary to keep the grade below 2% from the yard to the helix. The grade would have been over 4% if the helix was below the benchwork. That might as well be straight up as far as a train of any length is concerned. The helix assembly itself will provide support to the area above it hence no cross members.

You may recall in an earlier post I was concerned about not having enough plywood to finish. The concern was justified. I had to go get another sheet. And as my luck would have it, they had only a single sheet left of the birch plywood I am using. That sheet was pretty beat up and not worth the asking price. So, I bought a sheet of Menards classic birch which is really TigerPly by Shelter Forrest. Never again. The face veneer is horrible. Not so much appearance but rather thin and chips out badly when cut. The face veneer doesn’t really matter in my case because the benchwork will be hidden when finished but still. At $40 a sheet one expects a decent product. From now on I am sticking with Timber Products plywood. Nonetheless, I was able to get another sheet ripped and this final piece of benchwork finished.

Next up… lighting for the lower deck. And one at a time pull the shelf brackets off, paint them blue, and put them back on. Fun, fun, fun!

Take a video trip around the LK&O right-of-way. We start at Brittain Yard engine service area and end at the tunnel leaving Kitzmiller. Yeah, you are really going to have to use your imagination. 🙂

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