September 26, 2011
Apologies for the lack of posts over the past little while.
Admittedly, not a whole lot of stuff going on other than things taking up weekends (GETS in Edmonton, Railway Days at Heritage Park, good weather and obviously taking advantage of it before snow flies.) to get stuff done.
However, a few bits to report on:
- A restock of Code 70 ME flextrack arrived, so I’ve got enough to lay trackage on the visible portions of the peninsula.
- We’ve secured the trackage in the Parksville yard. I’m also getting a fair number of feeders wired for that trackage as well, including the port sub trackage on the middle deck.
- I’ve built a few Bullfrogs, now that I know how to make them work effectively (ie: take some of the spring out, wax the moving friction bits and voila. Works wonderfully.) I’ve also installed two of them – one at south siding switch Mud Bay and at the Ballast Spur just south of that.
- I’ve acquired and received a few more bits from FastTracks, including an assembly fixture for doing the curved 30″/40″ #8 turnouts and a few more quicksticks. As a result, getting trackage laid through the Parksville industrial area will be happening soon and we’ll be able to connect a few more bits of trackage together. (thinking south of Bryn all the way through to where the port sub enters the helix!)
- We’ve got another piece of backdrop installed, so most of Parksville has a backdrop installed. We are learning that the “Murray school of glue” is desirable here. For those who don’t know, Murray is one who figures that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth OVERdoing. Thus, his glue applications tended to be quite excessive. The backside of the masonite is quite rough owing to the manufacturing so the excessive glue is better to ensure a good bond.
Port Sub trackage
Tracklaying for the Port Alberni subdivision and backdrops are visible here. The turnout at the front is the junction switch for the Victoria and port subs.
September 4, 2011
Cam has recently been on my case to get backdrops in much sooner than later…While I was (and still am in some respects) reluctant to see why it’s now a “MUST DO NOW” thing, I went along with it as it’s going to be needed sometime and there is some benefit to having them in before anything fragile can get damaged.
Timing was also good for Dan too, as he had some cleanup duty recently at a store which had protected it’s new floor with full 4×8 sheets of masonite. Now that the store is about to open, they needed to get rid of the masonite. Since the material wasn’t screwed into, placed face down on the floor, and in otherwise very usable condition, I readily agreed to accept a few sheets that would’ve otherwise gone into the dumpster. Score! (hint: It’s a good thing to have a friend in the demolition business!)
Lured by fresh cinnamon rolls, Dan and Cam came over late this morning to get going on the backdrop installation. Dan showed up first with the masonite which we manhandled through the basement window and into the basement. This task will certainly be far more difficult once we start putting the shelves up around the walls!
Cam came over shortly after I finished moving the test train into the helix where it’s less likely to be knocked around (and potentially onto the floor!) and we got to work with measuring and cutting the masonite. Many measurements and cuts with a circular saw, we found that 3 full sheets of 4×8′ masonite wasn’t enough to do all the backdrops on the middle and lower decks!
Owing to the great weather outside, we called it quits after that and went railfanning – Scored a lucky break and managed to catch a CN Freight in the evening heading out to the Louis Dreyfuss elevator at Lyalta on the Drumheller sub – headed by an SD40-2W and GP38-2W!
Recent Comments