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The following will document our progress constructing the new layout. The general track plan is in place and construction has begun... Due to the length of this page and load time issues, I have broken the photos up. The most recent photos will continue to be found on this page, but olders one will be archived on their own pages as listed below. Ian D. has been taking photos of the progress from day one. You can view his photos here
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
Some cement hoppers ready for loading.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
This large loading building was made by splicing two valley cement kits together. The silos behind are made from cardboard tubes. Visit the TIPS page to learn how.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
The rotary kilns and their supports have been added between the blending building and the klinker building.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
This massive silo complex is for unloading and storing the raw materials needed to make cement. The silos are made from PVC pipes glued together with styrene strips between the silos.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
This is an overall view of the Cloverleaf Cement complex. Not all the buildings are built yet, but you get an idea of the size of this place.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 27, 2009
The river banks have been shaped and the locations of the bridge supports have been finalized. Next up is the main line cork.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
The B&O interchange track plan has been transfered to the ceiling tiles. Next will be shaping the river banks and gluing cork.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
This tunnel is locate along the branchline, just past the wye. It wraps around the corner to another coal mine. The ground was made with a cardboard web with plaster cloth over it.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
The ties along the branchline on leg 4 have all been painted now. We are ready to lay track! You can also see the branchline engine house and turn table.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
The river banks under the big bridge at the south end of the layout have been started.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
With no new legs to build, the bench work committee is keeping busy installing backdrop supports and facia boards.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
We have put a focus on completing the main line around leg 4 quickly so we can start using the layout, so the spline around the tip of the leg has been built even though we still don't have any bridges for it yet.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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October 24, 2009
The extension to the bench work in the paper mill was added so the buildings would fit. This photo shows the rough placement of some of the paper mill buildings.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
Plaster cloth has been added to the town at the helper pocket.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
The branchline wye finally goes some where! It connects to the hidden staging yard on leg 4 via a hidden connecting track at the back of the staging yard.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
With the track plan finalized for the branchline town scene, we where able to finish gluing the ties down.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
The branchline interchange yard plan was also finished, so ties have been glued here as well.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
The hidden B&O staging yard tracks have been laid. When the spline connecting this yard to the interchange is finished, we'll be able to put the last switch in and finish this yard.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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Sept. 5, 2009
The B&O interchange yard was designed on cardboard sheets. We cut the river portion out of the ceiling tiles and it is now time to transfer the track plan to the tiles and start laying cork.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 26, 2009
Here is the first look at the final packaging building for the Cloverleaf Cement plant, and the unvieling of the name. There is still a lot of detail work and weathering to be done, but the main structure and silos are finished.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 26, 2009
There will be a covered loading bay for covered hopper cars and a track running into the building for loading boxcars with bagged cement products. The building is made from the bulk storage buildings from two Walthers Valley Cement Kits.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 26, 2009
The silos are made from cardboard tubes covered with sheet styrene. The head house is made of foam board laminated with photos. I created the photos using metal siding textures found online and added the windows, doors and vents using graphic editing software. They are printed on matte photo paper and glued to the foam board using a glue stick.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 25, 2009
After some discussion, it was decided to add a passing siding to the W&M main past the interchange. The branchline connection track now ties into the W&M siding track instead of the mainline.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 25, 2009
After going back and forth on the issue, we finally worked a turntable into the branchline interchange yard. This yard was once a division point on the branch, but now serves as the end of the line as the branch lost buisiness and contracted.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 25, 2009
All but one of the branchline staging track switches is wired and ready to go. When we get the last switch machine in place we will be able to raise this section into place and connect the return loop for testing.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 25, 2009
With the track plan finalized, we were able to start laying cork for the W&M main through the branchline interchange. I won't be adding cork to the raised spline behind the town until after we locate the viaducts and get them installed. A large section of that spline will be removed and reused elsewhere.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 18, 2009
Geoff and Miles have been busy intalling bell crank style ground throws for switches along the branchline coal processing plant. Most of the main line throws are in place and they are working on the yard switches next.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 18, 2009
After several revisions and much discussion, the branchline interchange yard has been finalized and drawn out on the plywood base.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 18, 2009
The space between the branchline town and the interchange is the most complexe piece of spline we've built. Two tracks will converge and then diverge agian into 5 tracks with elevation changes and 5 switches! This is just the start with half the branchline main and interchange connection track in place.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 18, 2009
The spline from the paper mill to the branchline town has been sanded and now the cork is glued down on part of it. When this cork is dry we will be able to finish the track in the paper mill and turn that section over to the electrical team!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
The weathering is done on the Klinker building and it is set roughly in place. Thankfully, it fits! We still have to finish the kilns before we can give this building its final position.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
The companion to the Klinker building is the Blending building, it is connected to the Klinker building by the kiln. Our plant will have two kilns. There will also be pre-heater towers attached to the front of the blending building.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
This is one end of the paper mill on the branch line. The track on the left is for unloading woodchip cars, next is a storage track. The third track is the branchline main and the four track is for unloading pulp wood. There will be a wood chipper with a conveyor over the tracks to the wood chip pile on the left side.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
The other end of the paper mill is where the processing takes place. The left two tracks will be inside the production building and serve boxcars with finished product. The third track is for unloading chemicals, there will be chemical storage tanks at the back with the Kraft mill in front of them. There will be a kiln for recycling chemicals infront of the mill with the small spur for loading recycled chemicals.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
This section of half finished spline is for the branchline main as it curves around behind the paper mill, across a small river and into a town full of switching.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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July 4, 2009
This is the raised base for the town on the branchline. The scene will be dominated by buildings and city streets with the W&M main line crossing over the back of the scene on a steel viaduct with streets passing under it.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
The benchwork for the fourth leg is now complete. This leg will include the connection between the coal branch and the W↦M, a full of switching on the branch line, a limestone quarry at the end of the leg and a second interchange yard with hidden staging.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
This area will have a town/city scene with lots of switching for the branch line to do. The raised spline is the W&M main line. It will fly over the town on steel girder bridges with roads passing under it.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
The end of leg 4 will be a large limestone quarry. The near corner will be cut off to model the edge of the open pit mine, complete with access roads going down into it with the W&M main crossing a steel trestle over the pit.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
This area will be another small town with passenger station and depot and maybe some other traffic sources. It will have a river bisecting the scene lengthwise to separate the W&M from the interchange with another railroad, possibly the B&O.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
The plywood base is for the hidden staging yard for the interchange (possibly with the B&O). The spline is the interchange track, but is also connected to the branchline wye to provide a small loop track. The connection is not planned as part of the operating scheme of the layout.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
This view is looking down the connection track toward the wye on the branch line. The grade on this track is just over 2%.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
This is the opposite view to that above, looking from the wye up the connection track.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
The buildings & bridges committee has been hard at work getting the coal crusher built. While there is still a lot of work to be down, you can get an idea of the massive size of this complex.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
More buildings, a passenger station and freight depot, have been built. These buildings are located in the small town at the start of the helper pocket on the W&M.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
While they may not all stay, these buildings give an idea of the look we are going for to help disguise the main staging yard. The cement plant is just to the right of this, separated by a small river.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
The experiments continue... We are still trying to find the best way to throw sritches by hand. The latest experiment is these pull knobs. So far, we are quite happy with the results, and it will allow us to use fine scale, non-operating switch stands for better looks.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 27, 2009
This is the underside of the same switch. The thick wire (coat hanger rod) is epoxied to the wooden knob on the outside of the fascia. The thinner wire is connected to the pull knob and runs up through the benchwork, through an bushing and to the switch. The spring creates tension on the throw wire to hold the switch in possition.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 26, 2009
We been slowly working away on the cement plant buildings. We are combining two Walthers Valley Cement kits into one large complex. This is the Klinker building, at the lower end of the kilns. We spliced the two kits together so we can have two kilns next to each other.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
C&O 5735 is pulling a train over the W&M bridge over the branchline wye. Test running trains two weeks in a row!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
The 5735 rounds the tip of leg 5 on the outside track. This area will be a mountain area with two small spur sidings for lumber type loading for one or two cars.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
Here we find the 5735 rolling past the cement plant. All the track is in place and wired, but several ground throws for the switches need to be moved due to clearance issues before we can thoroughly test this area.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
C&O 5735 passes over one of the larger bridges on the line, and the largest build so far. This is the first scene you see when you enter the room, so we want it to be impressive!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
The branch line staging yard is almost finished now. Jim is positioning the switches at the top of the yard, the bottom of the yard is already done. We are reusing old code 100 rail and peco switches in this area to save money, as it is not very visible.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
Paul Mi., our electrical guru, seems a little perplexed by his own wiring job... hopefully he can remember what he did! Actually, the wiring is being mapped out as we go, so we can keep track and trouble shoot far easier later on.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
The awesume site of steel wheels on steel rails, or nickle silver as the case may be, has a mesmerizing affect on all model railroad fans.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
The handlaid curved turnout into the mountain spurs has been finished. Preliminary test runs through it have been sucessful, but it needs more testing before we declare it fully operational. A ground throw would be nice too!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
Most of the switches have been built for the pulp and paper mill. They are being assembled in sets of three switches for improved performance.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 30, 2008
In an effort to get rid of that freshly fallen snow appearance of bare white plaster, Ian and the scenery team have started painting most of the layout with base paint colours. This simple step goes a long way to visualizing the end product.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 27, 2008
After what has seemed like an eternity, the main bridge on the W&M is finally in place. Geoff made custom pier caps to transition between the two bridge types to solve the issues with mounting the bridges. There is one bridge left to be placed, and the main line will be whole again so we can start testing trains again in the new year!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 2, 2008
Here we find Geoff spiking rails at the second coal mine on the branchline. He is connecting the handlaid track to the flex track we use inside the tunnels.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 2, 2008
Curt and Larry are building switches while Vic offers advice.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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December 2, 2008
This curved switch is one of several custom built switches on the layout so far. The Fast-Tracks filing jig was used to make to points and frog but we don't have a template for this switch, so it was built in place using track gauges.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
With the increased traffic we are putting on the branchline now, it was necessary to add a passing siding to the branchline. After much discussion, we decided to add a lapped siding to the coal complex. This allows us to have longer trains pass each other with out making a long siding. It also allows us to bypass the station if the passenger train is stopped in the mining town.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
Jim has been working on the branchline staging and return loop tracks. The benchwork for this yard is removable to make it easier to work on. When finished it wll be raised up closer to the mainline benchwork. It would be almost impossible to put track on if it was inplace now!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
This is looking through one of the access ports in the facia at the branchline in the tunnel. When the scenery is done, this wil make for a really cool photo with a train rolling around the bend.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
This is one end of the tunnel that the branchline uses to pass under the W&M helper pocket. Ian and the scenery team have been focusing on the area around the main bridge and helper pocket, as these are the first sections you see when you enter the room, so we want to get them done first.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
The electrical committee has been hard at work. Some of the electrical components have been installed to power the first leg of the layout. I can't wait to run some trains!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
Some of the ties for the sidings on the mountain have been glued down. These tracks will be for a small coal loader and a woodchip or pulpwood loader. Both will be switched by the W&M and interchanged with the branchline.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
The branchline passes through another tunnel below the main line to reach the paper mill. Here we can see the track and tunnel wall are both in place so work on the facia can be started.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
The ties for the pulp and paper mill have been glued in place. The track plan was drawn out on the plywoood base using paper cutouts of the switches to make sure everything fit correctly. Fast-tracks laser cut switch ties were glued in place first followed by the rest of the ties. Once the glue dries, the ties will be sanded smooth and painted.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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November 25, 2008
With the branchline track and tunnel wall in place, the benchwork team was able to attach the facia board around the corner at the summit of our grade. The openings in the facia allow access to the branchline track which is in a tunnel under the mainline.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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September 16, 2008
Paul M, our electrical guru, is hard at work soldering feeder wires for the branchline coal complex. I hope he doesn't hurt my track work with that extension cord!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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September 16, 2008
In an effort to add more operation to the layout, we decided to add some stub sidings in the mountain area to feed industries on the branchline. This forces the W&M to interchange the cars with the branchline for added operational interest. It also illustrates how easy it is to add new spline to the existing stuff.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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September 16, 2008
Some of the rail has been spiked for the second coal mine on the branchline. The ties for one of the switches had to be removed because they were too steep. A new sloped shim will be glued in with new ties in the future.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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September 16, 2008
Larry is working on adding feeders to the stagging yard tracks. Each track will be wired to a rotary switch so that only one track can be powered at a time. This should halp avoid any collisions leaving the yard!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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September 16, 2008
Another stub siding that was added for added operational value. This track will service one or two cars for loading wood chips or possibly pulpwood.
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