Welcome to the home of the Spindletop Railroad!

Follow along as I try to create a freelanced railroad and build my first HO scale layout. I hope to write a blog that helps others in building layouts, detailing engines, and creating their own railroads while identifying the road bumps to avoid and the fun aspects of model railroading to look forward to!

Monday, March 10, 2014

Construction Continues

They say that no good plan survives contact with the enemy.  I find this to be true in many cases, particularly mine.  I have had good results using the shelf brackets of the previous posts on earlier layouts, but those were mostly a loop of Bachmann track on 1X4 boards around the walls.  The layout I am building though uses two foot wide frames and as a result the brackets are flexing too much.  I tried everything I could think of to reinforce them, but alas, nothing worked to my liking.

After a week of deciding, I chose to build the layout with legs.  I had originally decided against this but it really is the simplest way to go.  So, I am removing the shelf supports and using the wood planks to make the table legs.  The modules are resting on these legs and a piece of wood that is screwed into the walls at my level line around the room.  The nice part is that all of the support pieces are at the same places as the brackets were, so the frames are the same size.

Now for the pictures:
 

The wall supports

The modules on their legs and supports

This is the first two modules installed
 
The frames are made out of 1X4s and decking screws.  I really like these screws because they use a #2 square head instead of a Phillips.  That means a whole lot less stripping.  The legs are the leftover bracket decks, same for the wall supports.  The frames are held to each other using 1" screws until I can procure some bolts and washers for a permanent fix. 
 
Next is the plywood to make the decking!  Then it will be time to move on to the next half of the room.