Progress Report 07.18.12

The board of directors met last night and have set the date of August 4th for Operation Nolix' major construction to be complete and room cleaned.  Crews will be required to work some overtime to get the task complete.

There wasn't much left to build, but it seemed like a lot tonight.  Engineers decided to take one additional piece of benchwork out in Ottawa.  The plywood top had a farm field on it plus plaster on top of that.  The existing plywood wasn't long enough to reach a good joint in the 1x2 frame benchwork.  It was also slightly damaged.  So, I took out the two foot section or so.  I cut and laid new plywood along the back wall over Bureau.  This section of benchwork is 14" wide.  It partially covers Bureau, but works well.  I will add LED lights underneath to illuminate the lower deck.  I have found some sold on Amazon for cheap and have great reviews.

So, as of this evening, major construction of the subroadbed and basic benchwork is 95% complete.  Whew!!  I do have to add in the benchwork for the Peoria branchline, but most of that is in place now.  So, it shouldn't be too big of project to connect the missing section.  What a project this has been!  Trust me!  I had many doubts that this would work.  The heart palpitations were quite high after taking down the ovalix.  A little over a third of the railroad was severed.

Next on the agenda...

1) complete benchwork for the Peoria branch
2) drill holes for the bus wire
3) run the bus wire
4) cut and re-install the workbench desk
5) clean up the room.
6) start laying cork roadbed and track.
7) drop solder feeders
8) install slide switches
9) install car card boxes
10) revise timetable schedules
11) introduce new and remove obsolete waybills
12) re-stage layout (majority is re-staged, but need to integrate the new industries and place cars in the new Ottawa yard, LaSalle and Bureau storage tracks).

Benchwork was the biggest obstacle to get past.  Laying cork roadbed and track is easy (at least I find it easy ~ plus much more relaxing).

I will upload pictures once I complete the Peoria Branch and clean up the room some.  It's a major OSHA hazard currently.


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