SP Jawbone Branch (Part 14) - Construction and Mockups for Height

Well, for those of you who have been following this blog series, I'm now to the point where I'm assembling the sections of the layout.  Check the bottom of this post for a complete list of previous parts of this series.

Owenyo (top) and Mojave staging (bottom)

CAD rendering of the Owenyo Branch's more complicated mechanical relationships of this layout, the stacking of the Mojave staging and Owenyo yards.

Mojave (West Panel)

View of the underside of the West Mojave panel with diagonal frame trussing for extra strength.

 Layout Panel Construction

End Frames

Endsills of 1/2" MDF material

Owenyo West #1 section needed a notch for one of the longitudinal frames to meet inboard of the front edge of the layout, where the company village will be.

Mojave West panel's endsill glued in place.

I glued the endsill to the top skin with Gorilla Glue.  The joints are dampened with water, which improves the bonding and expansion qualities of the Gorilla Glue.  Clamps are applied until the glue expands and sets.

Mojave West panel being assembled on  top of Owenyo #2 panel.

Small Machinist square used to check that the parts are going together square.

Laying out the longitudinal frames of 1/4"x1-3/4" MDF strips.

2x2 Corner Blocks

Right side of West Mojave with 2x2 blocks

Middle of West Mojave panel with 2x2 blocks.

Longitudinal Frame Strips

Front frame prepared to be glued.

2x2 Pine corner blocks notched for the cross frame and diagonal pieces.

Test fitting 3/4" Plywood Bracket under the staging panel.

Test fitting front edge frame.

Clamp and Glue

Gluing cross frames and 2x2 blocks in place as anchors first. Front frame clamped in place dry for spacing.

Another view of the cross frames being glued in place.

Unfortunately, I only have five of the larger clamps which can span the width of the yards.  So each step of gluing the panel together has to account for how much I can clamp at once.  By gluing the cross frames in first with the 2x2 blocks, I can using the five smaller clamps to secure the 97.25" long front frame edge piece with the combination of all the clamps.

Mid-West Mojave panel endsill.

The wall-side longitudinal frame is now glued to the panel.

Mid-West Mojave yard being glued. Notice small clamp holding frame to end blocks.

Watching Glue Dry...

Clamps removed and checking bracket placement.

Yup, it is getting pretty strong now. Gorilla glue 'squeeze out' has happened in some places.

Diagonal Truss

Diagonal frames being installed with Titebond wood glue.

The fit of the diagonals is tight enough that I am driving them into place with a small hammer and scrap of MDF to prevent damaging the edges.

The rasp makes short work of cleaning up any edges or burrs.

Finished Diagonals.

Completed West Mojave (far end of staging) panel section - Feb 21, 2021.

After the glue dried overnight I tried lifting the section and twisting it with only the two ends supported.  The sheering twist only resulted in maybe 1/4" of twist in 97.25" of length and 12" width.  Laying flat on the Owenyo #2 section, which is on 2x4 rails, the Mojave section did sag about 1/2-3/4" in the middle over 8ft in length. 

Mocking Up Support Brackets

South Wall Bracket with 3/4" Plywood and 2x2 support.

The Wall Brackets will be fabricated out of several pieces, but the first piece I cut was the supporting arm of 3/4" Plywood.  These are 4" on the wall side, 2" on the cantilevered side, and span about 14".

Dismantling Work Bench Shelf

Old shelf which will be dismantled.

A few years ago I added a shelf over my south-side work bench.  I plan to reuse the shelf part on another project, but the 3/4" plywood supports will be useful now for the new brackets.  The far support is a bit over 14" by about 30".  It will make at least eight of my cantilever brackets.  I'll get some other 3/4" ply to make the vertical part of the wall brackets.

South Wall Brackets cut from 3/4" Plywood

Stack of cantilever brackets after cutting on the table saw.

Looking over the Brackets and gluing up one joint that missed enough glue.

 So I checked how it was with three supports below when I mocked it up in place.

Mock-Up Mojave Staging Yard

I decided to do some more height checks at this point with the first two panels of layout structure (Owenyo #2 and West Mojave Staging).  The height is 51" above the floor.  At five points I stacked up various materials to simulate the rough locations the brackets will be supporting the layout at.  Each section of Mojave Yard will be supported by three brackets, approximately 36" apart.  The joints between the sections are unconveniently landing over windows where I can't have a bracket supporting them.  This will mean having the alignment pins and bolts holding the sections together and even.

West Mojave Staging - Feb 25, 2021

I leveled the two sections with a 36" bar level.  This was enough that none of the equipment wanted to roll away.  The track has not been delivered yet.  The far west end will have a crossover to allow run-a-rounds of the arriving train consists.  I believe in considering the reach to the planned ground throws for the switches, I will have this be a right-hand crossover to allow cleaner reach to the far switch under Owenyo's west end and any equipment on the resulting stub-track will not be fouling my reach to the switch stand.  

The rear 'track' shows a handful of the 'Excursion' cars, three Walthers Pullmans, my kitbashed SP 10913 Cafe-Lounge and a modernized 72-C-1/2/3/4 class "deluxe" chair car.

60-BP-30-1 & Coach laying over at Owenyo - owensvalleyhistory.com - ebay35_owenyo_sml

The 60-BP-30-1 RPO and SP 1005 chair car are for the 'mixed' train consist, if I want to run the layout in the earlier eras, I need to check exactly when the 'mixed' train was dropped.

Middle of the West Mojave Staging Yard - Feb 25, 2021.

I also decided to test the structural capacity of the sections by placing some equipment models to check for the amount of deflection (sag) which will be created.  The final plan is to have three brackets supporting each 97.25" long section of benchwork.  The roughly 36" between supports seems not to sag at all.

East end of the West Mojave Yard panel.  Owenyo #2 Panel to the left. Feb 25, 2021.

I set up a 'full length' freight consist for the Owenyo Local on the #2 Track, which will be the 'working' A/D track.  There will be a total of five tracks in the staging yard.  No.1 (Run-around) is the closest to the aisle.  No.2 Track is the A/D track, which can also access the 'Stub Tail' at the west end where I'll probably store a 60ft RPO and coach for the mixed train version of the consist.  Tracks 3-5 will be storage or staged tracks for consists and extra equipment.

Owenyo #2 panel in place of the East Mojave Yard panel. Feb 25, 2021.

The Mk-5 SP 3259 is standing in for one of the regular Owenyo Local engines.  A sample of some P2K tank cars fill up the No.3 track at the east end.  Hope the switchmen tied down the required hand brakes on those cars!

Long shot from the east of the Owenyo Local. - Feb 25, 2021.

Notice the notch out to 14" standard for the Owenyo #2 panel, this is where the support column from the brackets will catch the upper level and the staging yard panel is narrow enough to drop between the supports to the lower level of bracket.

I'll be changing around the lighting as well, once the layout is coming together.  The current lighting is more for my work bench and general lighting.

In Closing

I'll be fabricating the rest of the brackets and them gluing up in one of the upcoming posts.  Construction of the East Mojave Staging section and the East end of Owenyo are also coming wil probably take most of a week with the clamping and glue drying times.  Next will come installing the brackets and constructing the mating alignment pins for the layout sections.  After all of that, I'll be able to place the layout sections together and see about starting to lay the track!

Piles of track materials as the NG is pulled up at Owenyo in 1960 - Rich McCutchan - owensvalleyhistory.com - c_n_c57_owenyo_1960_900_sml

It is fun to see the layout coming together, so I hope you'll join me in the upcoming posts as I build my model of the Jawbone Branch!

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 1) - Concept

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 2) - Researching and Changing of the Plan

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 3) - Consists and More Bartlett Research

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 4) - Freight Car Roster

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 5) - Pulling the Trigger (Buying the materials for the benchwork)

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 6) - Q&A Continuing Design Tweaks - Working out the logistics for the staging yards other details.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 7) - Film & Construction Begins - Historic movie film clip of Owenyo Local and starting construction of the layout.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 8) - Little Lake Grows - More research materials have surfaced for my modeling of Little Lake.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 9) - Layout Material Changes - Shifting to MDF for the roadbed and moving the foam to secondary scenery uses.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 10) - Track Plan Details of Owenyo - A deeper dive into the buildings and track arrangements.

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 11) - Researching More Fuel Oil Dealers - Transfer to the SPNG?!

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 12) - Cutting Time! - Cutting material and starting to assemble layout sections

SP Jawbone Branch (Part 13) - A Bridge Too Far? - Over-stuffing Designs and other planning issues.

Freight Symbols Over Tehachapi - Part 4 - SP Locals - Tehachapi Pass's SP Local Freights, several of which work out of Mojave.