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New arival at my home
A new modeling tool has arrived at my home. I had to build something to put it on.
There are three gallons of water in the bucket plus the water pump. That weighs about 25 pounds. It really
stressed the lower shelf, so I had to beef it up.
Middle school model RR: the leg team's pulley problem
One of the most important considerations in the design of the benchwork, as with most of what I am planning for the layout, was how easy it would be to parcel out tasks in a way that allowed all students to participate. The benchwork design for the blackboard wall consisted of three 8-foot long modules on legs clipped to the wall under the chalk rail, plus a special 6-foot long section for staging behind the door. That section is just a frame sitting on top of a bookshelf.
Middle school model RR: track plan
As I mentioned in a previous post, once I was satisfied that a model railroad produced good chemistry in my classroom, my initial thought was to add a simple yard module so that trains could actually arrive on the Inglenook from somewhere, and to develop the industries which were now just empty car spots. Even those two things, I realized, would provide many additional dimensions and allow us to incorporate a more robust rationale for the distribution of specific car types.
Middle school model RR: measurement
I don’t know if the room dimensions shown on the sketch in my previous post are correct. I’ve never checked.
When I decided to start thinking about layout plan options I asked a couple of kids who had finished their classwork early to measure the room. I made a rough chalk sketch of the major features on the blackboard, handed them a variety of different measuring tapes and asked them to fill the sketch in with the lengths of each section of wall and the distances between opposite walls. This is a photo of the results:
Trainlife site
Anyone know more about the closing of the Trainlife site? The back issues magazine copies resource was very valuable.
Bob Bochenek
Flirting with the Sacramento Northern
I enjoy imagining what kind of a layout I can build whenever I take control of a space. Even when I’ve worked in office cubicles I didn’t hesitate to sketch up ideas for shelf layouts that I could fit in, even though it might have been bad for office morale to slack off of work so brazenly. But I seem to be ensconced in my current classroom for the foreseeable future and the Inglenook convinced me that a model railroad would be a legitimate and appropriate educational tool. For some kids, maybe better than just appropriate.
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