This past weekend we "broke ground" on the Spring 2006 expansion of our garden railway. As I noted in an early post, we intend to run our second line from within our detached garage, through a small hatch, and then along the entire length of our backyard fence and then returning via a reverse-loop type arrangement. Probably in the neighborhood of 130 feet of new track total.
This weekend, we installed a treated wood 2x4x8 vertical ledge with a 2x6x8 horizontal treated wood trackbed onto our existing treated fence about a foot and a half above the ground. This forms a shelf that will be the straight trackbed. We’ve installed a total of about 88 feet so far.
Last night I ordered 90 feet of new Aristocraft-brand straight track from Trainworld to mount onto the new trackbed. The plan is to start with this straight "point-to-point" type operation while I make and install the two reversing-loops on either end using the "ladder method" that I used last year.
I went with Aristocraft track rather than LGB brand track to save money on the expansion this year. I have never used anything but LGB track, so this will be a bit of an experiment. I hear that the Aristcraft track is every bit as good as LGB, but it stays shiny brass colored longer. I like the dark weathering of LGB track, so hopefully the shine doesn’t last too long.
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About mattsanf
Matt Sanfilippo is the Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) for the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Co-Director of its Engineering Research Accelerator. In this role, Matt coordinates and enables strategic and sponsored research opportunities across the college, and stewards the development of proposals for major research opportunities along strategic themes. Additionally, he enables collaboration among the college's research institute/center executive directors, and industrial and government relations personnel in the pursuit of opportunities with industry, federal and state governments. Before becoming CPO for the College, Matt was the Senior Executive Director for Research Initiatives, the Executive Director of CMU's SII (Smart Infrastructure Institute) and ICES (Institute for Complex Engineered Systems), and Associate Director of PITA (Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alliance) and RAMP (Research for Advanced Manufacturing in Pennsylvania).
Before CMU, Matt was Managing Director of Applied Technology for Michael Baker Corporation, an engineering and energy services firm. Matt managed Baker's technology division including Geographic Information System (GIS), software and web development, multimedia, virtual reality, visualization, Global Positioning System (GPS), mapping and surveying services. Before joining Baker, Matt was an Innovation Director for Redleaf Group, a Venture Capital/Operating Company focused on information security, supply chain and mobility solutions. While at Redleaf, Matt managed technical due diligence for seed-stage investments and coordinated relationships between Redleaf and their partner companies. Prior to Redleaf, Matt was CIO of GZA GeoEnvironmental Technologies, an infrastructure engineering firm, and operations manager for their Internet start-up that focused on web-technologies for health and safety and manufacturing metrics.
Matt is on the board of Larson Design Group (LDG), past Chairman of the Board for the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, current board member of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF), current Vice President of the Sewickley Heights Gun Club (SHGC) and former member of the Information Sciences and Technology Advisory Board for the Pennsylvania State University Beaver. Matt is also former Vice President of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the Association of Internet Professionals and former Vice President of the Board of Trustees for Baker Combined Charity of Pennsylvania.
A Learning Adventure in the Workshop 