Often on these kinds of groups the posts are all about questions and answers. While those are the key reason for the group, I wanted to share a short story about Layout and Benchwork from yesterday.
Note I am very new to this hobby so this is probably a common occurance to many but for me was enlightening.
I was working on a section where I ended up needing a turnout where the throwbar was directly over a supporting strut from the benchwork.
My sections are removable from the benchwork (Foam, with wood structuring). When I remove a section (if I remember) I first use a marker and go underneath and draw/outline where all the fixed support joists are located. Then when I lay the track in my workroom I try to avoid putting any switch machines over where these obstructions are.
(Its not possible to see them once the top is removed ! so sometimes I've forgotten ..)
Anyway there was one critical curved turnout which I could not relocate easily and its throwbar was directly over a pair of 1x4's .
I went ahead and did the trackwork realizing I'd have to solve this problem when I attached the switch machine.
Well yesterday was the day. I mulled over fancy routes to run the throw wire, and even opened up my "remote tortoise mount" kit I had thoughtfully purchased a few months ago for just this situation.
Looking at the huge pile of complicated parts and 3 pages of directions I was having second thoughts. It should be simpler then this ! So I started thinking of ways maybe a wood brace with a hole in it and some z-shaped wire or some such could be used to work around the issue. Looking "forward" to hours of mucking with this to get it to work ... I went back to the benchwork in the other room and re-measured the offending part just to make sure I had it right.
When I noticed that it was really an unnecessary obstruction. The joist was sticking out about 10 inches further then necessary and served no useful purpose .. (Did I say I was new at this ?)
Finally a thought occurred to me and I got my screwdriver and saw and 5 minutes later had cut off 10 inches of the joist and moved the diagonal support over and voila ! No more obstruction !
Here I was trying to solve what I thought was a complicated problem with a complicated solution, when a trivial solution was at hand.
That ended my day well !
-David
Note I am very new to this hobby so this is probably a common occurance to many but for me was enlightening.
I was working on a section where I ended up needing a turnout where the throwbar was directly over a supporting strut from the benchwork.
My sections are removable from the benchwork (Foam, with wood structuring). When I remove a section (if I remember) I first use a marker and go underneath and draw/outline where all the fixed support joists are located. Then when I lay the track in my workroom I try to avoid putting any switch machines over where these obstructions are.
(Its not possible to see them once the top is removed ! so sometimes I've forgotten ..)
Anyway there was one critical curved turnout which I could not relocate easily and its throwbar was directly over a pair of 1x4's .
I went ahead and did the trackwork realizing I'd have to solve this problem when I attached the switch machine.
Well yesterday was the day. I mulled over fancy routes to run the throw wire, and even opened up my "remote tortoise mount" kit I had thoughtfully purchased a few months ago for just this situation.
Looking at the huge pile of complicated parts and 3 pages of directions I was having second thoughts. It should be simpler then this ! So I started thinking of ways maybe a wood brace with a hole in it and some z-shaped wire or some such could be used to work around the issue. Looking "forward" to hours of mucking with this to get it to work ... I went back to the benchwork in the other room and re-measured the offending part just to make sure I had it right.
When I noticed that it was really an unnecessary obstruction. The joist was sticking out about 10 inches further then necessary and served no useful purpose .. (Did I say I was new at this ?)
Finally a thought occurred to me and I got my screwdriver and saw and 5 minutes later had cut off 10 inches of the joist and moved the diagonal support over and voila ! No more obstruction !
Here I was trying to solve what I thought was a complicated problem with a complicated solution, when a trivial solution was at hand.
That ended my day well !
-David
