This morning, I installed all the new car card box labels. Nothing too exciting, but necessary.
This evening, I continued working on the roads for the industries in Blue Island. The big road / parking lot project was paving the new West Davenport Intermodal terminal.
Keller Mills track has been converted to an intermodal terminal. Where to ship bulk flour? Well, to Chicago Bakery Inc at the former Proctor & Gamble site in Blue Island. A large elevator for Keller Mills would have been nice, but would have blocked access and view of the staging yard tracks. An intermodal facility fits nicely in the space, but doesn't block access to staging.
I installed the first of the train order signals. Just wow!!! I printed small square sheets to include the "Route Rock" logo, station name and room for the toggle switch and red/green aspects. I placed the printed sheet between a thin sheet of clear styrene and a .040 (1mm) white styrene backing. Drilled holes through the 1x4 benchwork and then attached the bulbs and toggle to the styrene sandwich. I only completed one tonight, but went ahead and prepared the remaining station plates as well as pre-wire four of the six train order signal locations. That is all I could complete tonight as I was under a power tool curfew due to the kids and wife asleep in their rooms. No worries though. I will continue work tomorrow.
A special thanks to Larry Keller of the Lehigh & Hudson River Railroad for the idea on the train order signals and to Marcus Neubacher of the Charleston, Roanoke & Eastern Railroad for his suggestion of the station plates using the white and clear styrene.
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Friday, March 23, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Progress Report 03.21.12
I failed to mention on Monday, I re-installed all the car card boxes, DCC throttle plug-in jacks and throttle holders.
Late last night, I added the new road in Joliet and filled in the gap between the roads in Blue Island and the fascia. I also started on the rough roads in front of D&D News in Blue Island plus the new road leading to the moved Bureau station. Oh yes, I probably failed to mention I moved Bureau station to the wye as it is in reality. So, no more reverse moves into Bureau off the Peoria Branch. I also built up the land forms in Joliet to match the fascia elevation.
This morning, finished clean-up of the layout itself (the room is still a mess).
Sanded the roads in Joliet and Blue Island and painted. I also painted the road in front of Franklin Farms.
When re-installing the car card boxes, I moved of the boxes around plus some industry names have changed . I decided to dress up the box labels from the originally printed versions. The new box label displays the RI logo, lists the town and industry to help quickly identify them. A sample is shown below.
The layout is starting to look classy now!
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Late last night, I added the new road in Joliet and filled in the gap between the roads in Blue Island and the fascia. I also started on the rough roads in front of D&D News in Blue Island plus the new road leading to the moved Bureau station. Oh yes, I probably failed to mention I moved Bureau station to the wye as it is in reality. So, no more reverse moves into Bureau off the Peoria Branch. I also built up the land forms in Joliet to match the fascia elevation.
This morning, finished clean-up of the layout itself (the room is still a mess).
Sanded the roads in Joliet and Blue Island and painted. I also painted the road in front of Franklin Farms.
When re-installing the car card boxes, I moved of the boxes around plus some industry names have changed . I decided to dress up the box labels from the originally printed versions. The new box label displays the RI logo, lists the town and industry to help quickly identify them. A sample is shown below.
The layout is starting to look classy now!
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Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Progress Report 03.20.12
Yesterday, I installed the new storage track in Joliet. Taking the opportunity gained by my mistake, I added a new pocket track for the Joliet local power and caboose. I'm happy about the new addition.
This morning, I added the slide switch.
I was beginning to wig out some as the layout is a complete mess with the op session a mere 11 days away. The layout has undergone major construction over the past few weeks. In turn, the layout looked like a combination EF-5 tornado, 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurred.
Began the clean-up process. Any projects from here on out will be minor in scale. I managed to clean up from Franklin Farms to West Davenport and Joliet to Chicago. Hopefully, I will complete the rest tomorrow. It shouldn't be bad. Also vacuumed locomotive and car tops as needed as the dust factor has quadrupled due to the various lumber cutting projects recently.
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This morning, I added the slide switch.
I was beginning to wig out some as the layout is a complete mess with the op session a mere 11 days away. The layout has undergone major construction over the past few weeks. In turn, the layout looked like a combination EF-5 tornado, 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurred.
Began the clean-up process. Any projects from here on out will be minor in scale. I managed to clean up from Franklin Farms to West Davenport and Joliet to Chicago. Hopefully, I will complete the rest tomorrow. It shouldn't be bad. Also vacuumed locomotive and car tops as needed as the dust factor has quadrupled due to the various lumber cutting projects recently.
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Sunday, March 18, 2012
Progress Report 03.18.12
Finished the fascia board for Burr Oak Yard in Chicago. This leaves Bureau, the ovalix and Peoria. I would like to get the guys opinion on the first two before proceeding with those. So, this is as far as I plan to go for the fascia project before the op session.
Painted all the fascia board except for a few small areas that need dry wall plaster added in some joints. I'm quite pleased as it makes the layout look more professional.
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Painted all the fascia board except for a few small areas that need dry wall plaster added in some joints. I'm quite pleased as it makes the layout look more professional.
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