Progress Report 07.28.12

The ROCK had two crews working today.  One crew went out ahead laying the foundation for the new mainline.  They made it from Bureau to West Ottawa.  Quite impressive!  

While the cork was drying, the track gang followed a ways behind.  The mainline and sidings where appropriate were laid from Bureau to West LaSalle.  The track gang could have got further today, but more energy was poured into the lead crew laying the cork.  

Management went on scene later today to review the crews work.  They are quite pleased.  Seeing the benchwork is nice, but seeing the track laid and taking shape is really exciting!  

I'm looking forward to running my first train up to Ottawa on the new trackage.

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Progress Report 07.27.12

The track gang has arrived on site!  This evening, crews installed cork roadbed from where the mainline was severed in Bureau up through the West Switch of LaSalle, IL.  Also, a portion of the cork for the Peoria branch line in the Bureau plant was installed.  Management flew to the scene to check out the progress this evening.  They were very pleased!  The ROCK is back!



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Photo Progress Report

A view from the hallway looking into the layout room.

The ovalix Before

The ovalix After - now Bureau Junction (bottom level) and Ottawa (top level)

The desk and shelves Before

The desk and shelves After

Future Hennepin Canal

Updated Layout Schematic and Map

Progress Report 07.25.12

This evening, I felt better (not 100%, but better).  Although, my wife stated I had red bags under my eyes.  Nevertheless, I came home and worked on the layout.

I installed more fascia finishing all but two short sections on the lower level (in the back corner).  I have the corner and the top level along the backyard wall that needs to be completed.  That should be fairly easy, but I need to save that for another day.  I have more pressing items to tackle.

I cut and installed all of the DCC throttle jacks in the new section.

I then began the massive clean-up.  I worked my butt off cleaning the room and not at a leisurely pace.  I was cleaning at a high rate of speed.  I'm wore slap out!  I'm happy to report the room is 98% clean.  I simply need to run the vacuum one more time over the entire room and it is complete.  Wow!  I'm beat!

Project update
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 off items stored on layout during construction
6) clean up the room
7) test NCE system to ensure no shorts before commencing trackwork
8) start laying cork roadbed and track.
9) drop solder feeders
10) install slide switches
11) install car card boxes
12) run wire and install throttle jacks
13) install fascia board (majority complete - put off for another day)
14) paint fascia board
15) introduce new and remove obsolete waybills
16) 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).
17) schedule next op session!




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Enter Sandman

I made no progress whatsoever yesterday on the layout.  I felt beat up by the time I made it home.  I ended up going out to eat with my wife while the girls were at VBS and took a nap trackside until they were done.

Today, I was thinking more about what Larry and I discussed this past weekend regarding the Ottawa local.  In being true to the prototype, my layout is going to start moving a lot of sand!  I do mean a lot!  The two sources will be the Ottawa Silica Company and Belrose Silica company.  They have the potential to produce a total of 24 car loads per session.  That's good because we have two hungry plants requiring lots of sand.  Libbey-Owens-Ford in Ottawa and Philadelphia Quartz in Utica will be receiving loads of sand throughout the day.  I pondered just how many cars this would require and how many sand hoppers would move during a session.  I punched in some test data into my random car generator spreadsheet.  During any given session, we can move anywhere from 20 to 60 cars of sand alone on the Ottawa local!  I would say on average, the crew would be moving 30 to 35 hoppers.  That's a *LOT* of sand!  I will have to sell off some less needed rolling stock to fund the insatiable sand appetite on the ROCK!

In the previous session with Larry and myself, I tried to match the amount of outbound mine loads to the factory requests.  Since, I will have a three track yard in Ottawa, no more.  If there are a surplus of cars at mine or plant, they will simply sit in the yard until the next day.

Larry and I had also discussed that this local might have to be split up into two shifts.  The 1st shift crew would work as much as possible and then turn it over to the second shift to complete the job.  I know that I want to prevent movement of finished windshields from the shipping dock at L-O-F until after 5pm.  So, that alone will push the local's time out quite a bit.  I'll probably have it start around 7 or 8am.

Honestly, the Ottawa Local could be run independently of the rest of the railroad for solo or two person op sessions.

The Rock Island Railroad is undergoing some major changes to portray the prototype more accurately.  I can not wait!


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Progress Report 07.23.12

Construction continues on the ROCK.  Since, we have been in the habit of creating saw dust lately, why not continue that trend?  Instead of moving toward cleaning up the room tonight, I decided to go ahead and install the fascia on the new benchwork.  I managed to cut and install the fascia from the hallway out to the former ovalix benchwork on the lower level.  That's probably about 45% of what needs to be completed.  Not bad.

I fired up the NCE system tonight.  Considering the amount of destruction over the last two months, there was some concern if everything was still ok in the electronics department.  I'm happy to report all is well.  We even moved a few locomotives around tonight.  The track is dirty, but that was expected.

Tomorrow night, I will hopefully complete installing the fascia boards.  I will then move back to clean-up duty.

Project update
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 off items stored on layout during construction
6) clean up the room
7) test NCE system to ensure no shorts before commencing trackwork
8) start laying cork roadbed and track.
9) drop solder feeders
10) install slide switches
11) install car card boxes
12) run wire and install throttle jacks
13) install fascia board (*halfway complete)
14) paint fascia board
15) introduce new and remove obsolete waybills
16) 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).
17) schedule next op session!






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Progress Report 07.22.12

Hello boys and girls!

Progress was slow over the past few days with only a minor amount being accomplished since last Thursday.  Today, saw more significant progress though.

My friend, and mentor Larry came up today.  No work was completed on the railroad, but much discussion was made about the changes.  Larry approved of all the benchwork completed so far.  That is awesome to receive verification that all is well and will work.  Larry did suggest cutting back the former box benchwork where the ovalix once resided.  This would allow for better access to Ottawa.

After Larry left, I took his suggestion to heart and began the process of modifying the former ovalix box benchwork.  I moved both support legs back and then attacked the benchwork with the saw all (saw of death).  The project was quick and painless.  The floor and aisle space it created is tremendous!  Plus, operators now have easy access to Ottawa on the upper level.

Larry and I also discussed in detail the track arrangement in Ottawa.  Most of the newly created places were straight forward as far as track arrangement.  Ottawa was a large blank slate.  I really am glad to have Larry to help work out a master plan.  I think it will work really well.  I'm happy to report that the Burlington Northern junction will be added to Ottawa as with the prototype.  The BN will come in from the north and work the Ottawa Silica plant and head back.

This week, the girls are at VBS every night, so this gives me a great opportunity to really knock out some projects on the layout.

This evening, I continued cleaning the room.  The room is looking *MUCH* better than it has been.  For the last month, it appeared as if a bomb was set off in the room.  I ran the bus wires for all the new benchwork and connected with the existing layout.  I re-installed the fascia board at East Ottawa and trimmed down to match the layout profile (it was lowered from before).  I moved all the downtown buildings and Bader Ag structure back to Ottawa.  I also moved the buildings for the future Bureau into place.  Re-installed the car card boxes to the benchwork.  Re-installed all but one of the NCE DCC throttle jacks.  I have removed all items that were stored on the layout and potentially shorting the track.  Tomorrow, I plan on firing up the NCE system to ensure there are no shorts before beginning track work.

I need to continue cleaning as I really want to get that complete before laying track.  The floor is pretty much clear, but I need to organize my desk/workbench.

I would like to go ahead and install the fascia board on the new section of layout.  It makes the layout look so much better and finished.  I will try to work on that off and on this week too.

The vision of the Rock Island v1.33 (since we removed a third of the layout) is coming in nice and clear now.  I'm very excited and now focused to get the layout back online.

Thanks again to Larry for coming up today to help hash out some design issues on the new layout.

Project update (I keep adding to the list as I think of new tasks that need to be complete):
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 off items stored on layout during construction
6) clean up the room
7) test NCE system to ensure no shorts before commencing trackwork
8) start laying cork roadbed and track.
9) drop solder feeders
10) install slide switches
11) install car card boxes
12) run wire and install throttle jacks
13) install fascia board (newly added)
14) revise timetable schedules
15) introduce new and remove obsolete waybills
16) 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).
17) schedule next op session!




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