Friday Update

 Yesterday afternoon shortly after lunch, Rob and Glen transported 2 van loads of layout materials to the trailer for storage. Tom met us there. Any materials that should not be frozen [paint, glue, etc.] are being stored in members' basements or taken to the city yard on Saturday for disposal as hazardous material. Rob made the necessary appointment. We had a brief chat with the weldshop owner about bringing more items to the trailer next Tuesday night which will require accessing & resetting the alarm. 

Next Tuesday night's work session will be our last at the Devonshire location so strong arms and stable bodies are needed to move the remaining lumber and other items to Cliff's truck and vans if necessary. A sofa and chair are included in the move. PLEASE BE THERE AT 6 PM so the move can be done in daylight.

Chief Don says there is room for regular group get togethers at his business location at 80 Norwich Ave., just south of Len's Mill Store. Use Len's parking lot. Frequency of such meetings yet to be decided. Don is expecting some kind of update on the Wallace Building by Tuesday. 

The Wallace building.

 Although our move is on hold until we hear the status of the Wallace building after the fire, I would like to update what we have planned so far.

After some discussion on the benchwork layout and style, this is what we have so far. Benches will be mostly 2 x 6 feet, some may be 8 feet long, some may be much shorter. Theses tables will be made of 1 x 4 lumber topped with thin plywood, or paneling, and blue board. These will be supported with 2 x 4 legs. At the north, lounge, end there will be an area of benchwork designed to allow for a 4' x 8' table to roll underneath it. Aisles are mostly 3 feet wide and you will be able to follow your train as it circumvents the layout.

The bottom of this plan is the north or lounge end. The reason this plan was considered the best is because it gave us about the longest mainline possible and aisles that exit at opposite ends, helping limit congestion. The long bench on the right hand of this plan is thought to be the best location for our main yard. This yard will most likely be both ends of the mainline, which would allow for both point to point or continuous running. There has also been some planning done on having a return loop at each end of the mainline ( just before entering the main yard) to allow trains to run in the opposite direction back to the main yard (where they left) thus making the route twice as long.

But all these plans depend on the outcome of the damage investigation to the Wallace building. We are all hoping for the best.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

 Well we huffed and puffed and blew all the walls down. Now taking things to storage and clean up on Friday. No news about the Wallace building but we will be having meetings at Don's office, from time to time, until we get a new location or news about the Wallace building. Below we see our members hard at work cleaning up. 

Friday work

 A bunch of us move lumber into storage. Still a lot to move, and 3 more days to move it.

Nice to see John W. Thanks to all those that helped.

All gone.

 All but the front wall has been taken down. Now we have to store what is left.

cleaning up lumber for storage.

all stacked along the walls with care.

More pictures of teardown.

 One of the benches is being taken apart by Jim and Cliff. Jeff, Rob and Larry M. Are also hard at work.  This picture shows most of the layouts benchwork is gone.

Rob has packed all the remaing buildings into totes. Piles of lumber and rubble are everywhere. 

Layout Demolition & Destination

Larry and Rob masked and at work taking the current layout apart on September 4, salvaging what they can for a planned move to a new location in the midst of a pandemic. The layout was initially stripped of buildings, trees, train cars, vehicles, track, control units, wiring, etc.with everything boxed up for future use. 

Another view where the former branch line and peninsula location of Lincoln stood. Some of the backdrops are standing vertically at the left side of the photo after being removed from the wall framing in the background. 

One more view of another layout area being removed bit by bit and things being boxed up before the table structures are removed board by board and sorted. Some of the layout wiring is shown at the bottom left to be reused after being pulled out through holes in the cross  pieces under the tabletops.

The second floor of the building on the left is to hopefully be the new layout home. As club members were meeting to discuss some of the details for setting up the new layout, word was received that the barn immediately behind the W.B.Wallace building was burning down as the photo shows. The Wallace building survived with some damage and we do not know if or when we will be able to locate there.