Tokyo Interurban II

[EdF]

So should I paint the decks before attaching track?  It will all eventually get covered.  Will grass and ballest adhere better to paint?  It is marine grade ply to more robust than most.

[marknewton]

Yes, painting the plywood will seal it and protect it from moisture or any water you use doing your scenery.

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

Those are bigger modules so probably best to paint them. Depending on your scenery and ballasting you can introduce a lot of moisture. 
 

Don’t use a fancy exterior paint. we made that mistake with our precious club sectional layout modules. We put a couple of coats of clear varnish all around on them first. Perfect sealed up and nice sooth surface for grabbing and exposed edges and no warping. But then we put down a layer of gray exterior latex paint on just the tops. It was some nice stuff that someone had sitting around. Well it ended up bowing up our 1m long modules by a few mm! Some research showed that some exterior latex paints are made to shrink a bit I guess to pull tight over all the surface. Well it was enough to bow our modules a bit. With time (months) it relaxed, but one I had to slit the paint in a number of places to get it to fully relax. Frustrating when things are tight and true and then go a little wonky. I painted some on a sheet of the surface Luan ply (good stuff as very water impermeable, used as bathroom underlaminent for that reason but hard to get these days) and sure enough boing!

 

on the current sectional layout modules I used an interior flat latex for the surface coat and tested it on a sheet of just the top ply first and no issues! It’s largest modules are about 3’x1.5” and 2” tall frames with 1/2” Baltic birch 7 ply and 3/16” luan on the top. They spent a good 6 months naked in the garage then had the tops painted and have been perfectly flat since built. I’m still debating on painting the undersides or not.
 

painting the underside really is a case of how much humidity change do you think they will see. When one side of a sheet is painted and the other isn’t you run the risk of moisture getting in/out of one side and not the other causing warping. Good marine grade ply may really help that. Also using ply for your fame can help stability as it’s less prone to moisture penetrating due to the glue layers and alternating grain helps. I use the 1/2” 7 ply Baltic birch plywood for a lot of stuff and even down to a 3/4” strip of 1/2” ply I’m amazed at how little warping there is on them after sitting years in my garage shop with large humidity swings in there compared to many of the dimensional lumbers available.

 

jeff

[EdF]

Well I'm in Richmond so humidty weather is pretty close to DC.  Storage will be a shed, or clubhouse, but the clubhouse only runs hvac on weekends.  Our shows range from the old cow palace at the raceway to the new show space at the Science Museum of VA.

[cteno4]

Probably can’t hurt to paint the bottoms as well. Our modules usually live in my garage so big seasonal humidity swings as well. One reason I like the 7 ply Baltic birch is it seems to really resist warping even with moisture especially once constructed into something. Probaby the extra plys, glue layers and better, harder wood used.. Usually cheaper than dimensional lumber for structural stuff. Edges are really tough and don’t splinter on corners. Faces are full ply, ont a micron thick veneer of most hardwood plys today (I’ve hand sanded thru home despot hardwood ply skin layer).
 

saw some poor mans paint stands the other week. Just cut some strips of like 1/4” or 1/2” ply like 1.5-2” wide in varying lengths. Then near the ends drive a short screw or nail thru so the head is flush with the wood. Put on the bench screws pointed up and you can arrange them to be little point stands for painting objects and holding them up to dry (Ie paint bottom of module first and outside faces then flip onto the stands and paint the top.

 

jeff

[EdF]

So got the piers and enough viaduct to do the 3 module corner.  Looked like some 1x2 (3/4"x1 1/2") cut to 1 inch would work, but it sticks out I'd guess 2mm.  Wondering if I just go with this and just model up to the post and let the pier ride on top.  I had to slightly taper the tops as the pier tapers for the mold release.  Maybe 1mm thinned at tbe top.

 

 

[EdF]

The cavity is 3/4" across the thin, a little more than 1" wide for a rectangular shape (inside the oval shape), and just under 1 1/2" top to bottom.  I think the wood hits the clips that hold the top surface of the pier, otherwise the wood would go all the way in.

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by EdF

[EdF]

So, its been a year.  I am spending some time this week working on the support platform for the modules, and then getting the rest of modules assembled and wired.  After that I can start working on individual modules for adding scenery.

 

Here is the support I've gone with all from 1010 aluminium extrusion.  The legs will be using camera frame rig pieces attached to the bottom, need some nuts for those still.

 

This is 94" long (tnutz suggests this to save shipping cost over 96")  with 16" cross members.  My modules are 20" internally, so I have some play. My modules are 1" deep so they should rest on the cross members mostly, haven't tested that yet.

[EdF]

And it packs down pretty well.

 

[EdF]

So feet solved and 10 more modules built.  Ooph I forgot about sealing them, hoping I can find a place with a paint booth that will do it reasonably.  Humidity here is not ideal.

 

Looks like I can adjust between 3" - 5.25".  Not ideal but moving them to the top of the rail makes would be 1.75" - 4" but the legs would hit the bottom of the modules, so really 2.5" - 4"  The legs are 3/8" so they should hold the weight of 4 modules, and are long enough to adjust.  The black parts are the camera rig pieces, aluminum with 3/8" and 1/4" inch threaded paths, and 1/4" sized whole that I put the t-slot bolts in.