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The following are photos from January to April 2008 of the construction of the Windsor & Midwestern layout. Other pages of photos from the W&M layout can be found on the following pages: 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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June 14, 2008
This shelf will hold the electrical components for the first leg of the layout. All electrical for the stagging yards and cement plant will be routed through here.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
The benchwork committee has been keeping busy working on the facia boards. This section is one of the stagging yards and the cement plant.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
These shelves are under the branchline coal complex and will hold the electrical components for this section of the layout.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
These switches are all part of the branchline coal complex. The left most track is the branchline main, the next track is a siding track, the third from the left is the flood loader track and the right most track is an unloading track for the crusher building.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
As a new challenge, we've started to build groups of switches as a single unit, rather then individual switches. By doing this we eliminate the rail joiners between some switches which will give us smoother and more reliable operation. This group of switches is build in two sections, the crossover is one piece and the other three switches are one piece.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
This crossover was also built as one piece using the single switch fast-tracks template. It is part of the branchline coal complex.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
All main line switches will be controled with tortoise slow motion switch machines. Decoders will be used so that the switches can be thrown by a central dispatcher via the DCC system. This switch is for one of the sidings.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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June 14, 2008
This is the second coal mine along the branch line. The majority of the coal mined here is sent to the main complex to be crushed. Most of the ties have been glued down, filed and painted. Next will be the addition of the rails.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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May 10, 2008
The branch line bridge is in place. The plywood will be a river that curves off to the upper left, this will help disguise its joint with the backdrop. You can also see the road heading back up the hill.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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May 6, 2008
The plaster cloth is done on both sides of the river now. The areas between the coal branch and backdrop have yet to be started, as we have not decided on a bridge for the road yet.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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May 3, 2008
The coal branch passes through a tunnel after crossing the river. To allow easy access to trains in the tunnel incase of derailments, we cut openings into the facia. While they are a tight fit, it will allow access, just in case. We chose to leave the openings uncovered and detail the interior of the tunnel for visual interest.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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May 3, 2008
This is looking into the tunnel after crossing the river. You can see the unpainted plaster rock casting on the left and the painted tunnel wall on the right. The track gang still has some work to do down here!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 26, 2008
The cardboard web has now been covered with plaster cloth. You can also see the base for a road coming down the hill and under the bridge. This road will cross the branch line and then cross the river and head back up the hill on the other side. This scene will have three bridges in it!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 15, 2008
Cardboard web covered in plaster cloth is being used as our main scenery base. Here we have the cardboard web in place at the large bridge over the coal branch. The coal branch staging entrance has been completely enclosed and can be seen under the web behind the main.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 15, 2008
While all visible track on the branch line is hand laid, the hidden track is Atlas flex. This saves time and effort. The lower track is part of the coal branch, and is hidden inside a tunnel. The facia will have cutouts to allow access incase of derailments.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 12, 2008
The spline approach to the bridge has been widened and the new track is in place. The curve approaching the bridge is much smoother now.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 12, 2008
The rework on the summit curve has also been finished. The curve here is now smoother and more consistent. The longer cars operate around here much better and look better too, as there is less overhang.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 8, 2008
An electrically charged meeting of the electrical committee minds! Paul, Curt, Stan, Geoff, Ian and John.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 8, 2008
A switch building session. Chris and I helped some of our other members learn to build switches using our fast tracks templates. Some switches turned out better than others! Carl, Myles, Fred Sr. and Chris, I, as usual, am behind the camera.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 1, 2008
Chris has added some of the cardboard strip webbing around the branchline staging entrance. The cardboard serves as the base for the scenery. It will be covered with packing tape and then plaster cloth.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 1, 2008
The ties for the coal branch wye have been glued down. There will be a small mining town built around the wye with a station in the middle of the wye. The wye will not go anywhere and be used mainly to turn steam engines.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 1, 2008
Geoff using a Kadee spiker to spike rail along the coal branch.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 1, 2008
Here is the coaling tower for the helper pocket being test fit to the scene. The tower will be raised so that double stack cars can run under it.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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April 1, 2008
The summit loop track has been re-laid, so we have a working loop again!
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
Most of the branch line ties are glued and sanded now. They have also been painted, a little too dark, but we'll address that with some weathering later on.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
Here we find Curt hand spiking some rail in the cement plant. Almost all of the rails are spiked in the cement plant.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
The facia board is inplace along the helper pocket. The openings cut into the facia are for access to the branch line track in case of derailments.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
Here we find Mike and Al working on the coaling tower track for the helper pocket.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
Vic and Geoff work on spiking rails on the coal branch.
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Photo By: Fred Jr.
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March 29, 2008
Larry stains ties on the coal branch.
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