Sunday, May 25, 2014

Laurel Engine Terminal Is Taking Shape!

Since my last post about 4 1/2 months ago, I've focused entirely on Laurel, and in particular on the engine terminal.
The turntable is in and functioning properly. Radial tracks are all installed and most are wired, but only one lead out of the three planned is installed yet. Here's what it looked like while I was wiring up installed tracks:

Here's the overall view of Laurel as of Friday,  16 May. A work session was in the works for the next day, so I cleaned all the crap off the benchwork that seems to collect there. You can see the one turntable lead (the track with the passenger car on it) that's in place. The other two will be to the right of it in this photo, and there will be one more track - the one which brings coal and sand to the terminal, to the left of that track.

I had the work session as planned on Saturday the 17th - thanks Phil, Jim, Charles and Jimmy!  Jim and Phil installed some 120 volt wiring and outlets around the edges of the layout, then wired in more radial tracks for the turntable. Charles and Jimmy worked on the bridge and subroadbed that connects the Laurel peninsula to the benchwork Casper will be on. That bridge, which is temporary and will be replaced by a drop leaf at some point in the future, can be seen below. If you look carefully, you can also see the 120V wiring Jim and Phil put in, running along the face of the L-girders. That's a huge help, because I've been moving an extension cord back and forth between areas I've worked on since this project got started. Having outlets within easy reach is a major convenience!

The plan immediately ahead is to get the roundhouse construction started, and lay track on the new subroadbed.