I’m finally getting the plywood top on the second turnback loop, and it may be ready to go upstairs by the end of this weekend.

I moved everything inside before we left on vacation that fateful last week of August, and some time later I got the 50% complete module out of the storage room. Had it propped on one end, the wind knocked it over and broke a couple of pieces loose as well as bruising some of the corners. Then the Gulf Coast “winter” caused me to make very little progress for weeks, now I’m trying to wrap it up.

Discovered a design flaw when I tried to set the first turnback loop. It had six legs, four on the inside and two on the outside curve, about 2′ away from centerline. That was ok for weight balance and stability when being turned upright, but definitely not ok for supporting the outer corners. Without clamping to the next module, I had about 1/4″ of droop. So I’ll have to turn that module upside down, cut into the curve bracing and add two more leg clips on the train room floor. Oh well, there’s so much sawdust up there now a little more will only incrementally add to the mess.

I have two “air-suckers” (HEPA filter units), the old cylindrical Honeywell ones, up there and I think that does help keep down construction dust. Only thing is, the soft plastic wheels under those units are disintegrating so they no longer roll, but there’s a handle on top so no big deal except the disintegrating plastic smears a little on the floor. I don’t see an easy way of replacing the wheels, so I may just take them off.

One thing that helped with wiring the underside of the first turnback loop, and later with uprighting it, is I set it on 4x4s so it was a little ways off the floor, so I wasn’t kneeling so far. Then I raised the outer radius with more wood until it was at about a 20 degree angle before I tried lifting it.

RG7