Alright Already! Sheesh!

Alright Already! Sheesh!

I've been getting comments and emails about the dry spell here, and before I show what I've been working on, I thought I'd point out the similar lack of progress on other model railroad blogs, like here, here, here and even here.

The N-Land Pacific group is getting ready for the NMRA tours in July, and we decided to build a utility module with a balloon track to turn the trains at the end of a run. Since this is strictly utility, the radius will depart from the standard and go down to just 18 inches. We should be able to turn an eight-foot train on a module that is 80" long, and 24" wide on the connection end, and 48" wide on the balloon end.

Last night I built the four legs for this module, and thought it'd be a good opportunity to post something here. I have completely given up on the idea of a leg made from a single piece of wood. There is too much warping and weight involved. These "engineered" legs are much lighter, and nearly bullet-proof. They are made of a strip of 15/32" plywood 2" wide, and another that is 1.5" wide. There are three, three-inch blocks, milled from a two-by-four with the saw still set at the 1.5" width. I mount a tee-nut with screw mounts (Rockler 68379) and use a 5/16" eye-bolt for the leveling adjustment.

I've used this leg design on several modules now, and I am convinced it is the only way to go.