In my last post I said I would write a bit about the electrical service to power up the railroad. Like everything else except for maybe scenery I run it as close to the bone as possible. Basically there are 5 outlets in the room served by 2 15 amp circuits. 1 circuit powers lighting, tools, vacuums etc. I used a 4 position lighting switch mounted right inside the doorway to access overhead room and partial layout lighting (the overhead fluorescents), a outside light above the door and then dedicated switches for nearby outlet power. First and foremost I have to say I'm happy with the amount of power available. The layout, the room doesn't require anymore then 30 amps to run. Have I blown a breaker on occasion? Yes....but only on occasion when power tools, vacuums, and a portable air conditioner were all in play. I really wasn't inconvenienced by it and never felt the need to power up the room with even 20 amp breakers. It works for an HO scale layout of this size. The other thing I did was to ensure that the power to run my NCE control system was separate from the rest of the room. The circuit for this was run through 3/8" plastic conduit sitting external to the room walls so I can get to it if needed. The rest - lighting, outlet wiring are all inside the wall where they belong.
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| drywall |
Next came the drywall. I enlisted help from my friend Phil Gulley to help with this. He assisted with all the mudding, sanding and so forth. An area which I have little or no expertise. All drywall is 1/2 inch and as can be seen from the photo I used water resistant material "just in case." Note also that the drywall does not run to the floor, so if rain or drainage problems cause water pooling on the floor it won't wick up thru to drywall, but simply wet the ledger or kick board at the base.
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| room before radiused/coved corners were installed |
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| coved or radius corners |
Easier then you might think. I put 1/4' fill strips at either end where the coved masonite corners meets the 1/2" wall. Then I popped the curved 1/4" masonic in place, securing it with drywall screws on either end. Taping, mudding, and sanding followed. Note the straight room walls were already being worked as mud has been applied to cover seam tape and screw holes.
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| drywall in process and nearing completion |
Note my attempt to add natural venting into the enclosed room. My home foundation is adjacent to the wall on the right. Before adding the ceiling a built wooden vent channels running from under the home to the room. It provide a bit of cool air in the summer time and didn't cost me anything to facilitate. There are three of these in place.
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| Just about ready for layout construction |
The room been painted white and almost has a sterile clean room look to it. Hmmmmm - wonder who spent their career in high tech clean rooms? The ceiling by the way, since I haven't mentioned it yet is 3/4" composition or roof grade ply. Lastly I painted my sky blue Home Depot Monaco 550-3C blue. Phil Gulley chose it on his Sumpter County lines. I find it a perfect natural color sky blue.
So now the room is ready. Its time to get the benchwork started. See you next time.
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