Appalachian Southern

Today, the work continues on the AutoCad drawings for the BB&T building, here in Florence, SC.  As the drawings progress, I am gettting excited about the building process.  Once I complete the rear elevation, I should be able to order the materials that will be required for construction. 

This N scale model is going to be huge. From the scale drawings, it will be just under 12″ wide!

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Front Elevation

Left Elevation

Revised Right Elevation

For my second scratch building project, I have selected the BB&T building in Florence, SC, my hometown. This building in N scale will be about 9″ x 7″  from  the initial work on the elevation drawings. Quite a large building, but I have plenty of room on the layout to accommodate a building of this size. The first step, I have learned, is to create a set of elevation drawings for the building in AutoCad. I have completed the right side elevation drawings at this point. Please excuse the fact that they are labeled incorrectly in the drawing below.

The best way to scale the photos was to count the actual bricks in the building. Knowing the size of standard bricks and their mortar joints, it is pretty simple to derive the dimensions of the building and windows.  The soldier course of bricks above and below the windows really adds a touch of flair to this building.  While I still have more work to do on the elvevation drawings,  here is where I am currently with the progress.

Below you will find a few of the photos I took of the building to produce the elevation drawings, and the right side elevation drawings of the building.  The brick detail is left out for clarity, except what is found between the first floor windows.  I am completing the drawings in full scale and will then scale them to .00625 of actual for N scale.  We will see how this works out in the coming days.

Have a good afternoon.

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Left Side Rear of the BB&T Building in Florence, SC

Left Front BB&T Building in Florence, SC

BB&T AutoCad Right Elevation Florence, SC

My performance at St. Luke last night went great, so I am thrilled that it is over and I can move on to a new piece of music.  It also appears that GM is headed for bankruptcy. In my opinion, this should have likely been the course of action before the government threw them billions of dollars in the first place.  Who am I to say though, I am just a taxpayer.

On a more positive note, my progress with the layout drawings continue to move right along. I am currently drawing in some of the major bench work support structure.  It is helpful to do this as the measurements can come right off the drawings for all the pieces that have to be cut.  People often wonder how I build so fast… the secret is AutoCad. If you don’t have to figure out dimensions as you go, you can move along much quicker.  Anyway, I hope you guys all have a good day and here is a photo of  my progress so far.

Oh… I almost forgot, tomorrow is my third wedding anniversary. I have got to take care of that today!

Layout Update

Many of you may not know, but I also play the classical guitar. My parents started me when I was very young and I took lessons for about a year.  Like most young kids, I was severely misguided and decided that I didn’t like guitar lessons.  Last year I met one of the best music instructors in Florence, and we started working together on the guitar again.  Allen has brought me a long way towards improving my skills and my age has brought along the discipline to practice every day.  Anyway, I have a performance at St. Luke on Tuesday night.  I spent most of yesterday trying to get ready and my practice went pretty good.

About 4:30 yesterday, I had the urge to work on the new layout some. I called my friend Larry who came over and helped me stand up the walls for the new layout.  By 7:30pm we had all the walls up and they turned out really good. This new layout is going to be great. All the credit goes to Mike, or Pastoolio in the N scale world. I know you guys are really getting tired of see layout diagrams and drawings, so here are some progress photos from the work yesterday.

Layout Framing

Layout Framing

Layout Framing

Layout Framing

Layout Framing

Layout Framing

Well, it is a sunny day here in South Carolina, and North Korea is on the verge of launching their “satellite”. It will be interesting to see who shoots it down first or if we just let it fly so they can gather all of that ballistics data. Should be helpful for their nuclear delivery system design to say the least.

After I started working on the bench work, I was working with a friend of mine, Michael, better known in the world as Pastoolio.  He is the most creative skateboard dude I have ever known.  All the credit to him for this great design.  He had some wonderful ideas, and we are going to make some changes as to incorporate the design below. We are both very excited as it is going to create a totally awesome layout. It is amazing what you can do with internet collaboration! In about 2 hours, I was able to get it all into AutoCad to check the clearances and make sure all the aisle way widths would work out. Fantastic!

This is a split level layout and the helix will be located in the top left corner.

Today  I changed the CSS theme on the blog so I could post these larger images. Hopefully they are a little easier to see now. Your feedback, as always, is appreciated.

A Grand Design