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Glad you liked the video... and the shirts, too. Sorry I haven't posted more episodes in a bit, but I've been rather distracted working on Afghan SIV resettlement issues of late, and also some work I'm doing on combating antisemitism and climate change. That said, I have had opportunities to take breaks to work on the layout (a major stress relief) and I hope to get some new episodes in the can over the next couple months. I think you all will be quite pleased with what I've accomplished. Also, if there are any particular topics you'd like me to expand upon please let me know. Model railroading is fun!

Yeah, there's a gap of about 3/32 inch, roughly the diameter of the cotter pin. But since the roadbed is built up by eight laminations of Masonite strips there aren't any issues related to structural weakness, and I also use the resulting "hole" in the completed laminated subroadbed to insert a 1 1/4 inch phillips flathead machine screw to anchor the subroadbed to the cleat. Answer your question okay?

Thanks!

I don't use the foam for the roadbed on the mainline. I only hot glue it to the side of the spline roadbed to provide a connection point for the scenery I build up to the edge of the roadbed.

Sarhang, I'm thrilled that you've been so impressed with my latest efforts. It really has been one of the most enjoyable parts of this project to discover that I really could create a setting that (for me, at least) exactly recreated a setting so reminiscent of the times when I could watch my favorite railroad take on the battle of getting over the Tehachapi Mountains. Cheers, Cal...

F-zoid... Glad you found it helpful. It's really fun as you watch it come together and compare it to the reference images from the real world. Send me some pics from your layout. Cheers...

Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been very busy helping Afghan refugee resettlement. Thank you for your kind remarks about my videos. I'm going to switch over to building some scenery based on the California hills during the next few episodes, including placing a building and vegetation, and making trees. I have a lot of video and stills in the can, but with my more important refugee work I haven't had the blocks of hours it takes to produce the episode. I hope I can get something posted by mid-Feb. Please don't hesitate to pass on the link to my RUclips channel to anyone else who may be interested.

Brian, Glad you found my ad lib "tutorial" on spline roadbed useful. Correct re the segment on brads and countersunk screws as means to secure to the cleats. I just need to repeat a couple of the tips on that. First, if you use brads be sure they are at least .5 in/12.5 mm longer than the thickness of your splines, but less diameter than the thickness of a single spline. Drill a pilot hole slightly smaller than the diameter of the brad almost all the way through either of the splines nearest the center of the laminated sub roadbed, but not into the cleat. Slightly dull the sharp point of the brad with a light tap with a tack hammer... this will minimize risk of splitting the grain of the cleat. Tap the brad into the pilot hole and continue to carefully tap away until the head sits flush with the surface of the laminated splines, then use a nail punch to "seat" the brad about 1-2mm below the surface. But, proceed carefully here because if you drive it too far you may risk separating the spline laminations, so it is always a good idea to c-clamp the laminated splines before you use either brads to provide a little additional reinforcement when you drive the brad. Second, I prefer to use counter sunk (phillips head) wood screws do in locations where the spline roadbed is under additional tension over the span of a vertical transition easement curve. I do this because I've found that if the laminated splines are not held securely to the vertical curve established by the riser+cleat that the tension will be relieved elsewhere, and that never works out well... particularly if the roadbed is also in tension from a horizontal curve or easement. That said, proceed as with a brad, except use the appropriate size drill bit with adjustable countersink fitting and set the depth of the drill bit to equal the length of the screw, minus the head. Definitely c clamp the location before you start drilling, and be sure to also clamp the spline to the cleat as well, because the force of the drilling and/or the screw itself will tend to lift the spline from proper contact with the cleat. The point here is that you're taking a structure that wants to be level and straight and forcing it to conform to a distortion in three dimensions so that over time it will naturally assume the desired shape. Like the brad, be sure the head is countersunk 1-2mm below the surface of the splines. BTW, I usually use 1.5 in/37 mm #6 screws twice the vertical thickness of my splines. Hope this was helpful. And to all of my subscribers, I owe you an apology for the delay in releasing new episodes. I have been very busy working on resettling Afghan refugees and that has a much higher priority than my model railroad layout. I am accumulating enough video and graphics to produce at least two episodes, both devoted to constructing scenery, I just need about 8-10 hours to go through all the work to turn them into finished productions. Hopefully I will have something up for you all later this month or in February. In the meantime, if any of you want to join in on the effort to assist our Afghan, Iraqi and Kurdish allies, I very much you to check out Veterans For American Ideals, www.vfai.org. Happy New Year!

Glad you like it. I will probably alternate between working on this model and the layout. I spent the last couple days working on the wiring for one end of the staging yard and I think I'll devote the next video to that.

Tks, Mike. Yeah, setting it up in a vertical jig, the same way be build aircraft wings, was an idea that came to me. At age 72 it sure makes the job easier. I plan to run a test on all the electronics and switch machine operation once I get all the wiring done on this module, and the experiences should make the progress on the other staging yard throat go more quickly.