Friday fun July 30, 2021

 Donald worked on the passenger tracks at Elsewhere. Rick had suggested have 3 passenger holding track in Elsewhere so, a 3 track plan was worked out, with 1 being a through track. The stub end tracks will switch off the north end of the Elsewhere yard, using powered turnouts. 

Glen worked on the cliffs of Admiral, mudding in cast rocks and his artistic touch.

Rod and Tom continued the mainline around the corner and into Pinehurst. A lot of thought went into the track layout.

The branchline port of Dover received a longer passing track. Zorra Cement was turned around to properly align the turnouts.

Town names

 It was decided, at the meeting, to recreate the naming of our towns using mostly Woodstock street names. Starting on the west wall, Wellington will be the front town and Elsewhere (not a street name but has history with us) will be the back town. Following the back mainline westbound (toward Wellington) Fidler is in the south west corner and is the location of the switching puzzle area. Past the furnace is Hunter with Hunter Steel the main industry there. Across the bridge at the fire door is Jutland, a one industry town. A long trip down the peninsula we arrive at Lincoln, another town reminiscent of our old layout, with at least 6 industries there, but well spread out. I have reserved the name of Lakview, in case we separate the port area from Lincoln. Maple is toward the south east end of the central peninsula, lumber being it's major commodity. Rounding the corner Marshall Power is the next customer and then Nelson Coal mine. As we enter the the main door loop, is the Oliver Ore interchange. Ortona is the next small town. Back on the central peninsula is the town of Pinehurst which has the connection to the branchline. Ridgeway will overlook the large bridge in the narrow approach to the loop of the central peninsula. The front mainline, skirts Lincoln on its way to Sunset. Sunset is a busy place with not only Zorra Coal, but also the gravel Dock at Dover and an interchange with the branchline. There may be a small town before the furnace called Tuck and another town, before Wellington, called Warwick. Wellington is the final destination. 

Completely separating the branchline, we start at Admiral (nicknamed the island town). This town has a turntable and a few industries. The switching lead for the passing track, appears to continue off the layout, via a tunnel through the wall. The siding to the lumber camp at Burtch, is just across the through truss bridge. Continuing along the east wall we come to Cartier (A tribute to the history of the building in that Club Cartier was housed here). Cartier has a sawmill and the connection to the outer mainline (on which the branchline has running rights only). Leaving the mainline at Sunset, we arrive at the port of Dover. Dover has an interchange track with the mainline. 

Main yard additions

Hard to draw with your finger, pardon the sloppy lines.

The red line is the mainline loop. The passenger station, blue lines on the right, will be moved and have 2 sidings in front of it. The storage yard, blue lines on the left, will be in this area, probably it will have a passing siding and about 5 sidings.

The rest of the area will be a town. 

July meeting

Our financial report was presented by Don S. as well as the news of upcoming train shows.

Joseph expressed concerns about some of our insulated rail joiners missing the center tab that mimics the rail profile. He will supply some and our supply will be checked. He is also going to check on bulk wire prices for our bus wires. We would like our bus wires for the east and west bound mainline be different colours.

Cliff, not only removed 3 old doors and 2 toilets but also has a baggage cart that we could put on display outside, Don is going to check if that is ok. He is also going to check if the alarm is functional.

Don P. suggested we move the Wellington station over to a location inside the oval and that at least 2 sidings be in front of the station for passenger train storage. The location of the 2 main yards was approved as was the location for a stub ended storage yard, along the front edge of the oval. A turntable is still undecided.

Our members decided our towns will be named after Woodstock streets and as many local businesses names be used, as possible, on our industries.

We also decided to build some shelves under the layout, to use shower curtain hangers to hold our bus wires, and to move the stove back into its original location and add a shelf on top of it, if needed.

More Friday fun July 23

 Tom and Rod worked on the mainline in the sawmill area, as Glen continued with a difficult scenery area, the narrow hill around the island. Here he is seen adding rock castings to the cliff face.

Peter and I worked on the harbour area. Peter laid the mainline curves as I got part of the harbour laid. Again small areas of ballast were glued down to hold the track in place, especially on either side of a track joint.

Friday fun July 23

Rob toiled in the breeze of an open door, to lay the track across the lift out section. A few areas of ballast was glued in to hold the track in place. The rerailers will need to be cut with a razor saw.

Barb and Rick continued to hang pictures on the wall. Looking good.

The main terminal

 Lots of discussion, with more than 1 person, at last, on various aspects of the layout. Glen, Mike and I, with more onlookers, laid out the main yard. Much better than what I had envisioned, but that's why it is important to have many lines of input. Basically, starting at the backdrop, a passenger stub siding to hold a passenger train, a mainline and passing siding, then a 4 track eastbound yard. Then on the westbound side, a mainline and a 4 track yard. The shortest yard track is 76 inches long. As you can imagine, turnouts were moved around many times to get the best arrangement. This layout has the turnouts at each end laid out so there will be no rolling stock blocking any turnout. In the picture below, outlined in red, you can see the turnouts, that makeup the throats of one end of both yards. 

As these are the main inbound and outbound yards, they deserve a lot of thought, so only the turnouts were set in place, for everyone's thoughts. Things to think about may include, do we want an engine facility with a turntable and other facilities , do we want a storage yard to hold surplus rolling stock and to rebuild trains and how big, where should these be located, do we want 2 passenger stub sidings so 1 can travel in each direction,  do we want to have a view block to hide some of the loop. I'm sure there are many more ideas I have not thought of. Please come out on Friday afternoon or to the Tuesday night meeting to voice your ideas.

The last backdrop.

 Rob and Larry M worked on designing and building the last section of the backdrop which is infront of the furnace. The thermostat had been  moved for better access.

Gary P. came for a visit, nice to see him. My second opportunity to give a layout tour to a visitor, even though there is little built as yet. Model Railroaders have good imaginations, so they can grasp whats to come.

Don S worked on some scenery on his On30 Newfoundland Railroad. 

Last week at the Huff and Puff.

 Wiring plan ideas were talked about. On the aisle side track the feeders will be black to the back and red to the front. The other track will have a different colour, yet to be decided. The wiring blocks were determining, the mainline was divided into about 25 foot lengths, and a line and the word block was put at the dividing line between blocks. Insulators will be used to separate these blocks.

The loop on the end of the peninsula was installed by Jeff and Mike. They soon found the difficulties of working with used track, the main one being that the track will not flex past old feeder soldering spots.

Larry M. moved a turnout, to make space for a river, near the coal mine, as Rod worked around the Power Plant.

Glen was busy working on the road from the town.

Rick and Barb put up pictures in the lounge.

 Peter and I drew on the mainline at the end of the west peninsula. Peter then added the track and he pointed out that the joints kink a bit. I showed him that l the 2 track nails near the join, puts the join inward, toward the center of the curve, which straightens the joint and then replace the nails.

 

The town that wasn't.

 Curving the mainline toward the coal mine accidentally created a great scenic opportunity, that I hadn't seen until I looked at the picture. The curve was initially created to breakup what would have been a very long straigh mainline at the front of this entire peninsula.

The green contour lines indicate, a hill for the branchline past the river, indicated in blue, and a small town, past the river and on the aisle side, is lower than the mainline, is there room for an elevated coal/gravel yard there? That would provide a westbound siding on the front mainline. 

There would be a wooden trestle, as long as possible,  on the branchline,  plate girder or similar low profile types on the mainline and a small wooden road bridge.

Yellow is for roads.

The Orange lines indicate a station and freight house, with a siding/team track in black. This is all at the same level as the mainline.

This provides an eastbound switching location, which is the only switching for the front mainline on this peninsula. There is a westbound siding at the coal mine and an eastbound siding at the power plant, on the rear mainline on this peninsula.  It also provides a scenic reason for the curve, and saves a nice scene of a lake on the backdrop. 

Friday fun

 The track approaching the coal mine was laid and small areas were ballasted to keep it in place. The mainline headed towards the coal mine was curved which allowed space for a small town with a team track, or freight shed.

Work on the approach to the power plant, was started by Rod, but he had to leave early. Glen and Don can be seen working on the island town, in the distance.

Zorra Cement was shifted away from the harbour. 

Turnouts and some track was set in place at the harbour.

 

More buildings

 All our turnouts were sorted as to brand, size and type. More talks were held about Mike's main yard plan, but not enough people have had a say yet to make a decision. Most were not sure that splitting the railroad into two was a good idea, also it is in a pinch point.

The stock yard and meat packing plant were set on the peninsula loop to see how it would fit in.

The cement plant was set up along the west side of the peninsula as was the refinery. Repairs to these buildings is on going.

The branchline port's gravel dock was set into place. Break walls were cut to length, and set in place.

Working on the coal mine.

 Did a couple of test ballast areas on the branchline to see how well it holds the track in place.

Glen and I test located a couple of industries and drew in the track arrangement in the coal mine and power plant areas. Need to redo the approach to the coal mine. Once this is corrected and finalized, a lot of mainline track can be laid, tested and ballasted. 

Tracks along the power plant. 

Would like to see the track follow along the cliff of the branchline where the buildings are setting,  and then curve back to go around the mine, breaking up a long run parallel to the fascia.