Trains Luvr

I was on my way to start mounting the threaded rods and building up the first loop of the helix, thinking I’m finally going to get a breakthrough. Not…so…fast. Even the best laid plans can bite you back in the ass when you are not paying attention.

After marking all the holes for the threaded rods (oh yeah, my “jig” for marking holes did not work – the center screw was tilted throwing all the measurements off by 1/16″ so I had to use one of the helix segments as a template), I thought to myself I should check below to make sure there are no crosses in the benchwork that are in the way. As “luck” would have it, it had to be the second last hole I checked to lay right next to a metal cross in my benchwork. Disaster!

I really felt defeated at that moment. I spent a lot of time trying to think things through, looking at my plan, and accounting for variables. But, it turns out my AnyRail plan did not have exact positions of the crosses and that’s where the discrepancy came from.

After regrouping my thoughts, I decided to do the only thing I could – lift that part of the benchwork up and hope I can replace the dreaded metal cross with another one slightly off to the side. Fortune favours the foolish, as that portion of the benchwork was next to the joint line.

A bit of crawling under the benchwork on the creeper to remove all the screws holding the benchwork, then quick handywork with the aviation snips and metal stud crimping tool and the new metal cross was in place.

I don’t doubt for a second that there might be more issues coming up as layout construction progresses. I can only hope that they will not be the “deal breakers” as we get further down the road.