Work Session 10-6-2009

I invited my friends and fellow members in the South Coast Society of Model Engineers over to help me with a few jobs on the layout. We meet most Tuesdays at members homes and once a month for a business meeting where we also share new acquisitions, stories of railfanning adventures, and other railroad related events. The meetings at members homes can be running on a members layouts, work sessions on members layouts, or just watching videos with friends.

I had finished the walls but wanted to put some additional stiffeners which would also later serve as supports for the second level. The stiffeners or external ribs were described briefly in the Thin Walls post of June 23, 2009. Most of the stiffeners were cut previously when we were putting up the new thin walls (see the July 3, 2009 post). Because the walls have some curvature to them the stiffeners are cut to match the curvature. Because the curvature should be the same at the top as the bottom, when the walls were erected three or four identical stiffeners were cut. It was quite easy then to attach the stiffeners to the new walls. Since the walls are only 1/8" thick the stiffeners are secured using 1 1/4" dry wall screws from the opposite side of the wall.

John Ryan and Michael Lopez holding a stiffener over Summerland

John Ryan and Bob Lyon holding a stiffener over Carpinteria

John Ryan securing a stiffener over La Patera from the Carpinteria side


Joe Heumphreus securing the stiffener over Summerland from the back side.

The problem came when stiffeners had to be cut for the old thin walls that were errected initially. Each individual stiffener had to be measured and cut.

Walter Naumann measuring a stiffener for the old thin wall

In addition to the stiffeners, I had a bookcase that I wanted to put some doors on so that I could hand a blackboard for crew announcements and a crew call board. Two of the club members tackled that task. By the end of the evening we had accomplished much and another step was accomplished.

Art Sylvester and Jim Felland work on the bookcase doors

The blackboard and crew call board on the finished doors