047 The Augusta Railway - Making The Cut List

My children are asleep.  That is good because I can play in the basement.  That is bad because I can use power saws to make cuts.  So what do I do?  Make a cut list!  I draw out and list all the cuts I need to make and stage them for when I can cut.

I bought some adjustable feet for the two legs on my layout so that I can level the benchwork. Should have done that first, but thought I could get away with it.  Never cut corners.

The piece you see is the upper level.  Underneath that is the two track hidden staging.  We'll need to put that in first because we need to work over it, and it is a zero elevation, which is a great starting point for track laying.

So I know that 2 1/2" is the standard track separation in On30 for parallel tracks.  However, sometimes I like to widen it if I can for my fingers to get in between cars to move or re-rail them.  This is a tight area, so we'll stick with 2 1/2"

The two cars pass nicely on this straight away, so we'll leave it as it is.

In checking the measurement, we are good at 2 1/2" and a 5" board.

I check the placement of the board, remembering that I have to put risers in to lift the upper deck.  I also check the far wall to the left where the cartridge for extra trains will go.  Looks good.

Nice, long straight away.  We'll lay code 83 HO track here because I have it.  Most likely I'll use the concrete tie Atlas track that I have laying around.  No one will see it, and good track is hard to buy these days.

Here is where the two module sections meet.  We'll have to cut the roadbed here.

I mark the cut with a Sharpee and a speed angle.

I also cut part of the right end off so that it grabs only 1/2 of the support board.

While I had the caboose out, my tallest car, I checked the clearance.  3 1/2" will work just fine, so that will be our standard for clearance.  That also gives me just a little fudge room.

I'll need more roadbed for the hidden track, so I grab another board.

I'll mark where this board needs to be separated for the module sections.

A line and a small "x" to let me know which board I don't need.

I put the test cars back up on the mantle so they don't get crushed.  Oh, they will get crushed while building the layout, but not today!

While I mark the cuts, I carefully make notes of what to cut so I don't forget something.

The curves need some more work as I need to mark the roadbed and do more cookie cutter drawing.  We'll save that for later.

I need to cut the wrong angled dock lead off so that I can adjust it, so we'll mark that.

The dock lead also crosses a module gap, so we'll cut that too.

There!  I have a list and the boards are marked.  A few minutes with the saw and we are good to go.  We'll be laying track soon!