Construction Progress - uprights

Phil Collins asked after the last blog post I put up if I could post some additional photos of the rear of the model to get an understanding of how that structure is supported and kept straight.

Happy to oblige!

We spent a lot of time lining each of the vertical pieces up with the level before to ensure a 90-degree join before attaching it with screws fed from inside the framework for the middle two, and attaching the outer end uprights to the end of the layout frame.

We then cut a notch in the top of the backboard, and filed and sanded the opening for each vertical brace piece to feed through and attach at the rear, as shown in the photos.

I'm concerned that there's not enough strength in the horizontal pieces supporting the roof of the module to maintain to 90-degree angle over time, so to provide additional bracing and to visually separate the scene from the fiddle yard I'll add a 9mm pine panel at the left-hand end of the module once the track is down, the turnout servos are installed and all of the wiring is finished. You can see in the last photo that all of the parts at the end of the module finish flush to enable this panel to attach easily. On the right-hand end (pictured) I'll add a 9mm pine panel cut into a 'C' shape to brace this end.

My Engineer brother assures me that I've successfully over-engineered this to beyond what it actually needs to be strong (something about clients being pedantic and not trusting physics), so it should provide many years of fun.

Until next time!

Cheers,
Ben