Nooksack: East Staging Part 1

East staging location coming off trestle scene

As mentioned in several earlier posts, the TOMA Nooksack plan includes staging at both ends to facilitate one-town operations. My plan for this east end is to construct a staging module that will be sceniced and used repeatedly. I have had a plan on paper for awhile based on using a hollow-core door. Over the past few weeks I have started the module (seen under construction in the opening photo).

Mocking up plan on the door

After removing the hardware from the door, I experimented with mocking up the track plan seen in a previous post. It seemed like the staging plan based on this hollow-core door would work. Well into this phase, I was intending to use some older Shinohara turnouts and Code 70 flex track that I had on hand. Following the advice of Dick Bradley about the difficulty of making said switches "DCC friendly" and the concept of using the same brands and sizes, I later decided to stick with Code 83 and Peco turnouts. More or less following the draft plan for the door benchwork from my last post, I started work on turning the door into staging benchwork.

Bolting end lip

After enlisting my wife's help to hold the door up in place, I calculated the height of the legs, cut them to length, and moved on with constructing attachments. On the clamp-to-the-module side I glued, screwed, and angle bracketed a piece of clear 1" X 4" lumber to the end of the door. The door is positioned upside down for this. During construction I will be clamping the staging module into place, but ultimately it will be bolted to the trestle module with 1/4" carriage bolts. 

Leg bracket

On the other end, I created a platform for the 2" X 2" legs to hold up the staging module and a lip for the legs to be bolted to the staging at this end. Here, I found myself deviating quite a bit from my original draft drawing. For one thing, in working with the hollow-core door, I noticed that the wooden frame on the inside was fairly narrow and that the veneer was not particularly thick. To avoid any potential crushing or penetration of the veneer by the ends of the legs, I decided to have the ends of the legs supported by part of the L-shaped "bracket" platform. While the two boards making up the bracket are glued and screwed, the platform itself is screwed (without glue) to the wooden frame of the door in case any future adjustment is necessary.

Mocking up track in place

After finalizing the "brackets" and clamping the door and legs in place, the next step was to position the 1" foam insulation board in place. Using a piece of cork roadbed to form smooth curves, I marked the foam with a transition from the width of the existing module to the width of the narrow door. Working back and forth to double check possible track mockups, I approved the transition and cut the foam board. Then I used Gorilla brand construction adhesive to glue the foam board in place and weighted it down with a few bricks overnight. 

Most recent status of "East Staging"

A little shaping of the terrain at the joint with the trestle module and a couple of sessions with the Peco turnouts and Code 83 flex track led to finalization of a track plan. I am using a gentler than minimum curve radius, at least 4" of straight track in and out of turnouts, and a 3" center line between tracks for smooth travel and ease of handling in staging. The track position is marked and the green foam is painted with a wash of my brown "dirt" latex paint. Next steps will be trackwork and wiring.