I managed to get a bit work done on the layout over the Memorial Day weekend, but house work and special activities (family barbecue, Memorial Day ceremonies, upcoming election primary) took most of my time. I installed four pieces of flextrack from the west Glenrock switch west towards Casper. That puts me at the end of the installed roadbed, although I could install another four feet or so of roadbed and track before reaching the end of the subroadbed (the plywood base). Before I can go further with track I need to build more benchwork. I still have to install feeders on west end of Glenrock and the extention west.

I installed the ground throw for the Glenrock west switch last night. Didn't have much time to work on the layout, so that's all I got done. I have a meeting tonight, but I'd like to extend track west from Glenrock a bit. As the additional track will be hidden, it should go down pretty quick once I get started. Then it's feeders, and back to the IRDOTs on the Minneapolis staging below. Hopefully I'll manage some good progress over the long weekend, in between house projects.

I finished installing the individual ties in the Glenrock area last night. Looks kinda different without the end-of-track-section gaps. Tonight (if I have a chance) I'll install the west switch groundthrow and start extending track from there towards Casper.

Glenrock Trackage Finished!

I finished laying track in Glenrock (the siding) yesterday. I ran the 2-10-2 through it and through both switches and it ran without a hiccup. This is a major step towards beginning scenery in this area, whihc will be the first on the layout.
I have several more things to finish before starting scenery, though. First thing is to install missing ties at all the flextrack joints in Glenrock. This is about half done, and won't take more than another hour or so to complete. I also have to install the west switch ground throw, and connect some additional feeders tro the track at the west end. All total, probably 2 1/2-3 hours of work.
I need to add additional track off the west end of Glenrock also. Right now there is one three-foot section of flextrack in place. I need to go on around the curve there and move on down the Thermopolis wall towards Casper. This is necessary since after Thermopolis is started, access to install the Glenrock-Casper track would be tough.
The other, most major task, will be to get the IRDOT units in place in the Milwaukee staging yard below Glenrock. While I could wait to do this, it's much easier to cut the holes between the ties for the sensor from above, where I can SEE the ties. This will be a ten to twenty hour job, most likely, and I'll have to wire the detectors and test them as well. I also don't have enough on hand, so I'll have to order another ten or so.
So it will still be several months before scenery is started, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel at least!

Coaling Tower is Finished!

The presentation to the local NMRA chapter on Saturday went well, based on audience comments. It was a lot of fun to do, too!

I finished the coaling tower and put it in place on the layout Sunday. I think it came out OK, overall. I received several very nice comments on the Trains.com forum. Here's a few photos of the finished product on the layout:







I still need to add the rest of the tracks and begin scenery, but it's a start. Before adding the track under the inside chutes and the coal delivery track, I need to build the ashpit between the tower and the turntable. That probably WON'T happen within the next couple of weeks - I'm very busy with local politics, gardening and house renovation right now, but I'll try and eke out a few hours here and there on the layout.

The coaling tower is coming along well. Should be done in a few more days. Here's the latest progress photo:

The humidity in the basement is fine again. Just a few more spots on the floor to clean, and I'm back in business down there!

The humidity in the basement (train room) continues to drop - like a feather. Another five percent or so will put it below 60%, and I can start working again.
Meanwhile, the coaling tower continues to progress. The instructions are a bit inadequate in places, and the rigging thread is larger in diameter than the holes through which it's supposed to pass (!), but other than that it's progressing well.

I'm continuing to work on the coaling tower while the basement dries out and the benchwork stabilizes. Here's a shot of the tower in work:

Great news! My wonderful wife has been busy cleaning the train room all day! Just a few spots left to clean up and it'll be ready for us to work in there again. I will have to wait another week or so, though, because the humidity is just starting to come down to normal, and I want the benchwork to re-acclimate before I lay more track.

The water is nearly dry in the train room - just a few small puddles. By the weekend I'll be able to start cleaning up (sweeping and mopping). Not a bad thing - it was overdue anyway.

The coaling tower I've been building is progressing slowly, but it IS progressing. Should be finished next week.

I'll be giving a clinic on how I built my helix at the Garden State Division, NMRA meet on May 12th. I've been spending quite a bit of time putting that together:

The water is finally almost gone from the train room - just a few small standing puddles remain. They may stillt ake a couple of days to dry because the water is seeping up into them from below.
Meanwhile I've started construction on the Laurel coaling tower (the Walthers wood tower kit). I've been sitting at the kitchen table in the evenings assemblint it in front of the TV.

Work on the layout is postponed for a week or two. Like a lot of folks in the northeast, the big storm that rolled through Sunday and Monday left some water in our basement. We fared better than most with only a couple of inches in a depressed area of the train room, which is the basement under the original part of the house (I don't know why, but in one area the floor was poured two inches lower than in most of the rest of the old basement. Used to be a room there, I guess). There's also some shallower standing water on other parts of the floor. When I clean up the water, it seeps back up through the floor, so apparently it will take a few days for all that rain to percolate through the soil enough so that the water table is back below the basement floor level. No damage to the layout (except a couple of legs are wet on the bottom), but I'll need to wait a couple of weeks for the humidity in the basement (and in the benchwork) to drop back down to normal before I can start work again. Meanwhile I may start working on a structure or two at the kitchen table.

Had a grand-nephew stay over Friday night and into Saturday - a great little five-year-old fella known as "AJ." After breakfast Saturday, he was chompin' at the bit to run the trains. So at 8:30 in the morning, he, my wife and I all traipsed down to the train room and fired things up. I'd cleaned off the layout and done a bit of testing about a week earlier, so I know it was ready to run.
And run we did! For about an hour and a half, AJ, my wife and I all ran trains. Mostly I acted as dispatcher, switching tracks, giving running directions, and making a couple of little mistakes in routing (no major incidents, though!). We had a great time!!

Sunday it was back to construction. I installed one of the two turnouts I built last week (except for the ground throw), completing the mainline through the Glenrock siding (I still have to finish the siding track) and added a bit more track beyond the siding. I also laid more cork roadbed so I could continue the rails onward. I've about run out of benchwork for continuing the line - soon I'll have to clear out that end of the train room and add the additional tables. I also changed out the poor-rolling trucks on about a half-dozen cars for better-rolling sprung Kadees. I hauled forty-eight cars around the staging loop behind the 2-10-2, with no slipping!

All in all, a very productive and fun weekend!

No construction at all last night - just cleaned up the table where I was building turnouts for company arriving today. I went down to the basement, thinking I might do a bit of work on the layout, and instead just ran some trains. A couple of months ago I bought a P2K 2-10-2, and decided to test its pulling capacity. With the traction tire driver installed, it hauled 45 cars around the NP staging loop on the layout (no grades on that line), including my John Allen-style track cleaning car and half a dozen tank cars that roll like they have flat tires (those trucks are slated for replacement some day). Forty-four forty-foot cars plus loco and caboose is the maximum train size my staging yards will handle, so the hauling capacity of the 2-10-2 is just about right. Up the grade on the Frannie cutoff it hauls twenty-plus cars with no problem, which is the appproximate train length for that branch. On the milder grades of the Wyoming Mainline, it should handle around 25-30 cars. The BLI 2-8-2s will haul about five cars less.

Gee, rather than work on the layout I actually stopped and ran some trains! What's wrong with me?!

Cleaned up around the points on the two new turnouts. They now "throw" easily - or at least they did. I also painted them last night, so now I'll have to go back and clean up the points again! That's about all I did - after painting the fumes drove me out of the train room for the night (too cold to paint outside).

Again, not much time to work last night - borough Planning Board meeting. I did remove the support frame from the turnout ties and clean up the points area a bit to improve freedom of movement of the points. All that's left is to paint the turnouts, then install them! I may opt to build two more turnouts first, though - that will use up all my quick-sticks wood tie sets, and I can put the turnout building stuff away for awhile.

Last night I managed to get the wood ties attached to my second turnout, but that was it - had a borough council meeting in the evening. Not a whole lot of time to railroad!

After a break of about a week, I spent a good part of yesterday building a couple of #6 turnouts. The second one is nearly complete - I only have to add the wood ties to it, then paint them both.