Friday, January 13, 2012

How to build L structure - new station - part 1

A brief break from my other series on building L structure as I have started construction of a new section that will be a station. The station will have platforms along the sides of the tracks.


A view of where the new section will go:
























Next, I cut the girders and laid everything out to see how it would fit. 


 Cut girders


Seeing how the girders fit.






















I then started gluing the girders together:
 I started construction on a flat board (an old shelf)
 Good idea to test the track spacing (4" centers)
I ran out of room on my shelf so I moved to the actual layout. The clothespins are my cheap versions of clamps. The are holding the angled styrene pieces I use to strengthen the joints.














These next pictures show the connection to the existing structure:
 A piece of 0.040" styrene is cut to fit the girder of the preceding section. A hole is then drilled through both.
 This styrene piece is then attached  to the end of the girders and reinforced with the styrene angles.
















For those cross girders that will have curved ends - that will hold up the platform's girders, 0.040" styrene is glued to the girders:



















Once all the girders are glued, the hole structure is test fit. This will determine the placement of the columns. I can then lay out the cross street, sidewalks and where the station building will go. Depending on where the columns will be placed will determine their length (if on sidewalk, ground or station pavement). Blocks of wood hold up the structure:
























I can then cut the columns to the proper length, flip the whole structure over, and then start gluing the columns to the structure:






























This is as far as I've gotten, more to come.

1 comment:

  1. Terry:

    Your blog is a continued source of enjoyment and encouragement for me! I need to get back at working on my HO layout regularly.

    Thanks for your encouragement!

    Regards! Jim K.

    ReplyDelete