Hobo Jungle

[webenda]

Wow, WOW!

Thank you for the tour Murph. That works, I can stitch the layout photos together in my mind.

... time passes

No I can't. Your layout is like a maze to get lost in. Hmmm... if I backtrack from that Texaco Gas Station at the end of the newer section, I return to the mid-section where I am distracted by that pole. Is that little pole holding the entire house up?

[MurphOnMillerAve]

..I am distracted by that pole. Is that little pole holding the entire house up?

I don't know about the whole house, but one heck-of-a beam passing over that end of the house, yes. I've heard them called "lolly" columns, around here, but I've no idea why or if that's the spelling. That column marks the spot where two walls intersected, delineating the left rear corner of the garage;now, marking the spot where the basement opened up to include the part grafted from the garage.

Perhaps, these two photos taken from the vantage-point of the very front of the layout, at the stairs-bottom entrance to the train-room help give a perspective on the shebang from front to rear mid-section, as well as the helpful but pesky column?

[The Dirt]

Murph, no problemo. Just cut that pillar outa there.
More room for another section.

[rogruth]

Wow, WOW!

Thank you for the tour Murph. That works, I can stitch the layout photos together in my mind.

... time passes

No I can't. Your layout is like a maze to get lost in. Hmmm... if I backtrack from that Texaco Gas Station at the end of the newer section, I return to the mid-section where I am distracted by that pole. Is that little pole holding the entire house up?

Wayne,

I agree.
I tried to do that earlier also.
No way.

[rogruth]

Way back in, I think, the late 1940s MR did a series on building a layout named
"From Pillar to Post". The big deal was how they were able to hide a pillar and
a post. I also think it was an S gauge layout.
You need to work that pole into the scenery. You probably have already tried.

[The Dirt]

Can one build a mountain or a building around it?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

You need to work that pole into the scenery. You probably have already tried.

Paint it brass and hire Anastasia Sokolova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sVCZ8GsLTU

Pole, what pole?

[webenda]

Beautiful Murph. The view from as far back as you could get is a big help for putting the puzzle together.

The column is a Lally column. The inventor, John Lally, specified structural steel, 4 inch diameter, 1/4 inch thick pipe and that is what older buildings have. But you know how everything is built today, cheap. Modern Lally columns are typically made with 16 GA (approx. 0.06") shells. They fill them with concrete to give them the load supporting strength of the old thick pipes. Failure modes include buckling where there are voids in the concrete, rusting away allowing the concrete to buckle under the load, and sinking into the ground under the house.

I would not remove it or build around it. I would want the column exposed like it is, so that I could inspect the column and the concrete around the column for cracks and buckling.

Reference: http://www.deancolumn.com/columns.html
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/ ... olumn.aspx

[webenda]

Paint it brass and hire Anastasia Sokolova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sVCZ8GsLTU

Pole, what pole?

Да, да, да! Вступить в Мерф в подвале.

I just invited Anastasia into Murph's basement. I hope she doesn't show up at the same time as Fr. Tom and his friend.

[rogruth]

After watching Anastasia's performance several, well 5, times I have concluded that Murph would need to tear out part of his layout to accomodate her talents.
If he doesn't want to do that I will be glad to put a pole in mine and make the needed changes.

[J. S. Bach]

I just invited Anastasia into Murph's basement. I hope she doesn't show up at the same time as Fr. Tom and his friend.

After watching Anastasia's performance several, well 5, times I have concluded that Murph would need to tear out part of his layout to accomodate her talents.
If he doesn't want to do that I will be glad to put a pole in mine and make the needed changes.

Uh, Roger, what basement??

[rogruth]

I just invited Anastasia into Murph's basement. I hope she doesn't show up at the same time as Fr. Tom and his friend.

After watching Anastasia's performance several, well 5, times I have concluded that Murph would need to tear out part of his layout to accomodate her talents.
If he doesn't want to do that I will be glad to put a pole in mine and make the needed changes.

Uh, Roger, what basement??

I should have said layout room.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Can one build a mountain or a building around it?

I built that part of the layout around it and gave it it's own little 360o aisle for walking and gawking around it. I planned for its presence but still manage to occasionally bump my head on it when emerging from under the layout or to find myself hemmed-in by it when moving endless boxes out-from-under the layout there.

Actually, there is another Lally column that I built the layout around - right up next to and included (tolerated) within a neighborhood's precincts, during one of my earlier expansions of the layout toward the cellar stairs. You can make it out as a whitish - though in fact, sky-blue - vertical element in these shots...

(I have yet to have a single guest mention its presence, though it irks me to know it's there.) Oh well, it's just a modest model train layout in a mostly unfinished basement where one can, regrettably, still see plenty of the underside of the floor above (always cropped from all photos,) just a playroom.
Murph

[MurphOnMillerAve]

You need to work that pole into the scenery. You probably have already tried.

Paint it brass and hire Anastasia Sokolova: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sVCZ8GsLTU

Pole, what pole?

The layout, she's a jealous mistress and would resent any fancy-pants creating a distraction. It's a TRAINroom, not a BACKroom.
Nyuk yuk.

[J. S. Bach]

I just invited Anastasia into Murph's basement. I hope she doesn't show up at the same time as Fr. Tom and his friend.

After watching Anastasia's performance several, well 5, times I have concluded that Murph would need to tear out part of his layout to accomodate her talents.
If he doesn't want to do that I will be glad to put a pole in mine and make the needed changes.

Uh, Roger, what basement??

I should have said layout room.

Let me know when!!!!!!!