MMRy Progress

[TruckLover]

I've heard it called chip or particle board too. :mrgreen:

ive heard those terms too when referring to OSB. I used to work at Lowes in the Lumber Building Materials Department, OSB was our number one selling plywood to contractors, but i would get a few of those "newbie" contractors come in and call something like OSB some weird word that i never even heard of before LMAO

I can almost smell that 1000 post!!! :twisted:

LOL im approaching 4000

 

[Mountain Man]

OSB is Oriented Strand Board, which is made by orienting wood fibers in layers in different directions, then gluing under heat and pressure.

Wafer Board is made by cutting "potato chips" from logs in various sizes, arranging them in layers, and gluing under heat and pressure.

Particle Board is glue and coarse sawdust compressed under heat and pressure.

Right now in my neck of the woods, either OSB or Wafer Board is what everyone is using. Actual plywood has become outrageously expensive.

The nice thing about them is that they are pretty much dimensionally stable once you seal them. Otherwise, you can do anything to them or with them that you can with plywood, and a few things you can't.

 

[iis612]

Hi iis612, I see in your original pictures that you are using wafer board instead of plywood. Have you noticed a big difference? Is it as strong? Easy to work with? Price difference? One of these days I will start construction on a new layout and I'm just trying to get as many ideas as possible.

Thanks,
trainiac77

It is OSB. It is as strong as plywood, and FAR less expensive. The big difference is that it is much heavier than plywood. Otherwise, it is easy to work with. I have heard that some types of OSB will warp, but this is structural grade, and is sealed. The sealant has not caused any problems with adhesives, nor does it create excessive heat, or dust build up in the bit/blade while cutting or drilling.

Matt

 

[iis612]

You are almost at the magic 1k mark Mountain Man

 

[Squidbait]

The depot pic you posted is small compared to the major stations, ie Saginaw, Bay City, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and a few others.

True, but if you were to model it, it would probably still be close to 2-3' long.

*EDIT* Actually, when you look at the station, it's almost 350' long... that would make just the building about 4' in HO!

The Saginaw station is a really cool structure, but again, if you were to model it to scale, it would take up a huge chunk of your layout.

The choice really comes down to selectively compressing a large station to give a model that captures the flavour of the original, or modelling something more modest that fits the space you have.

I hate that kind of decision! :curse:

 

[Trainiac77]

It is OSB. It is as strong as plywood, and FAR less expensive. The big difference is that it is much heavier than plywood. Otherwise, it is easy to work with. I have heard that some types of OSB will warp, but this is structural grade, and is sealed. The sealant has not caused any problems with adhesives, nor does it create excessive heat, or dust build up in the bit/blade while cutting or drilling.

Matt

Thanks! I think I'll give it a look and see how the pricing compares here in the Boston area. I knew the stuff had a name when I was writting the first post but I just couldn't think of OSB wall1 Must be old age!

 

[iis612]

True, but if you were to model it, it would probably still be close to 2-3' long.

*EDIT* Actually, when you look at the station, it's almost 350' long... that would make just the building about 4' in HO!

The Saginaw station is a really cool structure, but again, if you were to model it to scale, it would take up a huge chunk of your layout.

The choice really comes down to selectively compressing a large station to give a model that captures the flavour of the original, or modelling something more modest that fits the space you have.

I hate that kind of decision! :curse:

I do too.

Walthers introduced their station kit, oh I am drawing a blank on the actual catalog name, with their Hiawatha run in the '08 catalog. It is based on the Milwaukee Union Terminal. It is remarkably similar, and with some tweaking it would have been a great stand in.
However, given the choices that we face as modelers, I have opted to move south, to smaller grounds... With the exception of Buick City, which is directly south of Mcgrew. There is no way I could model it all, and I won't try, all I hope to do is do it some justice, and hint at the immense-ness (that is a new word, I am going to patent it) of the plant.

Matt

 

[iis612]

More about Buick City

I picked up a book, it is "The Pere Marquette in 1945" which was prepared by the Ry itself. It shows everything you could want to know about the entire company for that year.
They describe Buick City as a literal city, complete with it's own fire department, police department, hospitals, etc.
They also go on to say that it had over 15 miles of trackage. All serviced by PM and the Flint Belt Railway (which is still PM, just different corporate officers, they rented power and people from the PM and only owned 8.03 miles of actual trackage. Outside of the trackage, which was maintained by the PM, they had no physical plant to speak of.)
That could be a layout unto itself.
Passenger trains never passed over the southbound main past Buick City, instead it circled around the western side of Flint. I have no idea how I am going to come up with a cohesive plan to cover this ground in my 13'x15' area.
My ambition is to fulfill a hefty wish list, which I am finding that I am going to have to render some fat from.
I wanted to model the stretch between Mt. Morris to Atwood Junction, which was the North/South passenger route, and as mentioned ran seperately from the Buick City traffic. Along this route I was going to include McGrew yard, a salvage yard, Gern, 2 passenger stations, and a few other industial locations. Off of the south end of McGrew I was going to add a penninsula to include Buick City (Obviously seriously compressed).
I don't know how I am going to do this, and still maintain space for northbound and southbound staging.
I may have to eliminate the passenger bypass, and send em south past BC. Modeling BC using background buildings, for the most part, and some larger sized scale buildings (which can be used as hidden staging as well)
As soon as I can remember how to convert an Xtrack file to a jpeg I will post a concept or 3 and see if I can get some ideas from those more learned than I.

Matt

 

[iis612]

As promised, some conceptual benchwork designs.
I don't know if the dimensions are on the the pics.
The area is 13'x15'. The grid is set at 6"
The first shows it's current state.
The red lines indicate either a backdrop or a lift out section. Except the 3rd one, the lift out is colored in purple.
I personally like the 3rd design the best, but the penninsula needs to be re-oriented.
Any input???

Thanks,
Matt

 

[conrailmike]

I will be focusing on a slice of what is now the Wixom Sub of the CSX Michigan Division.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Matt but actually it's the Saginaw Subdivision which now terminates at McGrew. LSRC leases everything north of there.

It would be real easy to model the traffic patterns today, you'd only have to run a train every couple days. The only steady traffic appears to be western coal (complete with BNSF power) and grain trains.

Layout looks good, have a good one...

 

[iis612]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news Matt but actually it's the Saginaw Subdivision which now terminates at McGrew. LSRC leases everything north of there.

It would be real easy to model the traffic patterns today, you'd only have to run a train every couple days. The only steady traffic appears to be western coal (complete with BNSF power) and grain trains.

Layout looks good, have a good one...

It is indeed, for CSX, but when it was the PM and into the C&O days, it was the Wixom sub. However, after spending time reading and contributing to the Lights Out thread in the General forum, I am missing some brain cells, and messed up when I typed that entry.
It is a shame to see that line go down hill.