HO Scale Layout Photos – Windsor Model Railroad Club

Windsor & Midwestern Permanent Layout

Most Recent Photos

* NOTE: The larger images will not load until all the thumbnails have finished loading *

The following will document our progress constructing the new layout. The general track plan is in place and construction has begun…

Due to the length of this page and load time issues, I have broken the photos up. The most recent photos will continue to be found on this page, but olders one will be archived on their own pages as listed below.

Current Photos
Photos from Oct 2009 – Jan 2011
Photos from Sept 2008 – Oct 2009
Photos from April – June 2008
Photos from Jan. – March 2008
Photos from Nov. & Dec. 2007
Photos from Oct. 2007
Photos from June – Sept. 2007

Ian D. has been taking photos of the progress from day one. You can view his photos
here

* NOTE: The larger images will not load until all the thumbnails have finished loading *

The following will document our progress constructing the new layout. The general track plan is in place and construction has begun…

Due to the length of this page and load time issues, I have broken the photos up. The most recent photos will continue to be found on this page, but older ones will be archived on their own pages as listed below.

Current Photos

Photos by Fred Jr., taken on February 18, 2012

: As more trees and details are added, the layout looks more like a world and less like a toy.

: This bridge is the first thing you see when you enter the club, so its scenery is well along. More details are always being added though.

: The town of Cliffside is starting to take shape with Main Street buildings in place and the Station and Depot ready to go.

: Scenes like this continue to evolve with the addition of more details and more trees!

: Trees, trees and more trees! The making and planting of trees seems endless.

: The Blackrock crusher and flood loader continue to evolve.

: Looking back at Blackrock Mine 1. That red push pin makes me think we need to fix a turnout!

: The mining town of Blackrock huddled next to the cliff with the W&M main line high above.

: The Blackrock station and tower. The wye leads up to another coal mine.

: Tight clearances rule the grade up to the town of Summit. Some additional blasting may still be needed!

: The town of Summit is served by a small spur for coal and a team track.

: The Summit station and general store.

: Blackrock mine 3 sits snug between two tunnels and a cliff.

: This small road leads up to Chuck’s Chipping and is a great spot to grab pacing-the-train photos!

: This spur and switchback server Chuck’s Chipping. We better plant some trees or Chuck is going to be out of business!

: Abitibi Paper mill is still being designed and built. The buildings at the back will stay, the others, maybe, maybe not.

: The town of White River was built by the rail roads and still serves many industries. Lots of ideas are still being kicked around for here.

: Currently the North end of White River is slated to have a Team Track and LCL warehouse, a small feed mill and a metal fabricating plant.

: The White River Yard and Interchange allows traffic to move between the W&M and the BR&WR.

: While the quarry is mainly complete, the buildings that will make up Caramuse Lime have yet to be designed. These are all just stand-ins.

: Misty Run, formerly Misty River, now has a completed track plan and industries are being designed.

: Not much is happening at Cloverleaf Cement right now. Some additional buildings still need to be designed and built.

Photos from Oct 2009 – Jan 2011

: January 22, 2011 The Facia board has all been given a first coat of green paint. We chose green instead of black so it would not contrast with the scenery as much. The green blends and is less noticable.

: January 22, 2011 Lots of rock castings have been puzzled together to create this rock formation around the branchline wye.

: January 22, 2011 CP ES44AC 8724 leads an intermodal train across the steel viaduct over the limestone quarry.

: January 22, 2011 CP 8724 rounds the bend past the mining town.

: January 22, 2011 CP 8724 leads an intermodal train through the helper town. We really need to pick a name!

: January 22, 2011 Ballasting has been done in the area around the helper town. Larger talus was used at the base of the fill with finer ballast at the top around the ties.

: January 22, 2011 This view is from the coaling tower looking back at the town. The Depot is on the left with the station behind it.

: January 22, 2011 Some more work has been done on the buildings that will line main street.

: January 22, 2011 Looking from the bridge back toward town we can see the backs of buildings along the street and the station and coaling tower in the distance.

: January 22, 2011 Mainline ballasting has been done by the mining town.

: January 22, 2011 This small church overlooks the mining town.

: January 22, 2011 The foamboard base for the limestone quarry has been covered with a layer of plaster cloth to help form the hills.

: January 22, 2011 A small section of plaster was added and scraped to resemble the finished quarry walls. The whole thing will get stained to highlight the rock features later.

: December 29, 2010 More rock castings and plaster carving have been done to help hide the staging yard and return loop on the W&M mainline.

: December 29, 2010 This tunnel allows the branchline to pass under the helper district town.

: December 29, 2010 Building locations are being roughed in for the helper pocket town. The stations, depot and coaling tower are in place, but Main Street still needs work.

: December 29, 2010 Small rock castings and carved plaster have been used to create this rock cut tunnel portal.

: December 29, 2010 Rock castings and carved plaster are being added to the plaster cloth hills. Trees and underbrush will follow.

: December 29, 2010 The W&M main line climbs a 2% grade through the hills above the branchline mines.

: December 29, 2010 The mountain was made of plaster cloth over cardboard webbing. A concrete tunnel portal and retaining wall will be installed next.

: December 29, 2010 The row of identical houses is one hallmark of a mining town.

: December 29, 2010 This small road leads up into the mine company town. A small repair shop is on the left with a gas station and general store to the right. On the extreme right the edge of the train station is visable.

: December 29, 2010 This is one of the coal mines on the branch line.

: December 29, 2010 This curved switch leads from the siding onto the switchback.

: December 29, 2010 This switchback will serve two small industries for pulp wood and wood chips.

: December 29, 2010 The paper mill scene is almost ready for ballasting. All the bell crank switch throws are in place. We just need to do some test switching to make sure everything works well before ballasting begins.

: December 29, 2010 The steel viaduct over the limestone quarry is now in place. The foam insulation board footings will be covered in plaster and weathered to look like concrete. The quarry itself will be built up using plaster cloth and carved/shaped plaster for the rocks.

: December 29, 2010 This small pannel will control the switches and track power for the hidden B&O interchange staging yard.

: December 29, 2010 This wye allows access to the Modular layout for North and South bound trains on the W&M. It is only temporary and will be removed when construction on the last two legs of the layout start.

: December 29, 2010 The quay for the cement plant is made from a scale scenes paper kit. The kit is a PDF file and you can print as many sections as needed to fill the space. The paper was glued to a masonite backing with glue sticks and then sealed with several coats of clear flat finish to protect it from water during scenicing.

: December 11, 2010 Southwestern Ontario GP38-2W 201 leads a coal train over the newly installed viaduct over the limestone quarry.

: December 11, 2010 Another view of SWO 201 crossing the viaduct.

: December 11, 2010 The branch line main is now fully operational from the hidden staging yard around to the interchange year on leg 4.

: December 11, 2010 Here we see a coal train coming the hidden staging loop track and back out onto the layout.

: December 4, 2010 The spline has been removed from the quarry scene to make room for the steel viaduct.

: December 4, 2010 The abuttments at either end of the viaduct are made from scraps of plywood and masonite, covered with paster and weathered using several washes of black acrylic paint.

: December 4, 2010 The viaduct is finally in place! Scraps of plywood and cardboard have been used to support the bents and level the bridge. These are temporary and will be replaced with foam insulation board cut and plastered to look like concrete footings.

: November 20, 2010 A 2 bay covered hopper lettered for the Cloverleaf Cement plant on the layout. The car is a bowser kit and very nicely detailed.

: November 20, 2010 Mike S’s CP SD90 coasts down the grade behind the Wilson Industrial district on leg 4 of the layout. The W&M main line will pass through this area on a raised viaduct with the branch line handling switching duties are street level.

: October 30, 2010 The girders for the steel viaduct over the limestone quarry have been trimmed and curved and are being test fit before they are painted and weathered.

: October 26, 2010 SOO SD60 6026 leads the first train to be run on the W&M since the 4th leg was tied into the main line.

: October 26, 2010 Rounding the curve off leg 5 and onto leg 4

: October 26, 2010 This train stretches the entire length of leg 4, over 30′ long!

: October 26, 2010 Two trains meet on the temporary siding. So named because this section of track will be re-done when construction of the last two legs of the layout starts in a few years.

: September 25, 2010 The mining company town is being laid out on a mainly foam insulation board base. Various buildings are being tested to lay out the town. The cardboard ess will be a road.

: September 18, 2010 The open pit limestone quarry is starting to take shape. A plywood platform was built to form the base of the quarry. The rest of the quarry was built up using foam board. The curve of spline will be replaced by a steel viaduct.

: September 18, 2010 The open pit limestone quarry is starting to take shape. A plywood platform was built to form the base of the quarry. The rest of the quarry was built up using foam board. The curve of spline will be replaced by a steel viaduct.

: September 18, 2010 More scenic work behind the papermill.

: September 18, 2010 Some scenic work around the tunnel portal on the branch line.

: September 18, 2010 The mountain on the end of leg 5 is starting to take shape with the addition of rocks, shrubs and a road.

: September 18, 2010 This branchline mine was kitbashed using two Walthers New River Mine kits.

: September 18, 2010 The hills have been extented around the end of leg 1 onto the coal processing plant area along the back wall.

: September 18, 2010 A look along the main bridge toward the staging yard shows the hill and newly ballasted track.

: September 18, 2010 This view from the staging yard toward the bridge shows the staging yard track on the right and the loop track to the left. The loop track goes around the end of leg 1 and allows continuous running on the layout.

: June 29, 2010 Who says mountains take eons to form? The scenery crew used cardboard strip weave covered in plaster cloth to create the mountain on the end of leg 5.

: June 29, 2010 The same technique was used to create the hills behind the papermill and around the curve onto the 4th leg.

: June 29, 2010 This is the other side of the mountain on the end of leg 5.

: June 29, 2010 The hill hiding the staging yard was built using the same cardboard stripe and plaster cloth method.

: June 29, 2010 This is the view from the branchline staging yard under leg 1 heading out of the yard and across the connection under the main bridge.

: June 29, 2010 This is the return loop on the branchline staging yard. This allows trains to run into staging and loop around back out of the yard and back onto the layout.

: June 29, 2010 The branchline interchange yard tracks are now all spiked down. Only the engine facility and turntable still have to be finished.

: May 8, 2010 The view across the aisle between the permanant layout and the modules. There is a custom module to bridge this gap to connect the two layouts.

: May 8, 2010 While not actually part of the permanent layout, this wye track was added to the modules to allow better access to the inner staging yard for operations between the two layouts.

: May 8, 2010 After a long hiatus to allow scenery to be worked on, the main bridge is back in place! So the main line is whole once more.

: April 24, 2010 A small road through town at the helper pocket on leg one. This asphault road was made using N scale ballast.

: April 24, 2010 A test sprinkling of ballast on the branch line to see how the colour mixture looks.

: April 24, 2010 The backdrops on leg 4 and almost done. The short panel in the front hides the staging yard from view. This will be disguised with hills and trees.

: April 24, 2010 This view shows the B&O staging yard and branch line connecting track along the backdrop.

: April 24, 2010 This view down the aisle between legs 4 and 5 shows the backdrop fully in place.

: April 24, 2010 This is the wye track that will connect the permanent layout to the modular one. We plan to operate across both layouts for a few years while we scenic the permanent layout. This will eventually be removed to allow us to build the final two legs of the permanent layout.

: January 9, 2010 This is the new temporary track along the back wall. This will eventually be replaced by two more legs of the layout. The siding here will be part of a double track main past the W&M yard.

: January 9, 2010 The switch will be the end of the double track main off leg 3. To the left of the main line is a four track staging yard for the B&O interchange further down the leg.

: January 9, 2010 The B&O crosses the W&M here with the W&M continuing up along the backdrop with the B&O in front for switching.

: January 9, 2010 After crossing the B&O the W&M crosses a small river and then splits to include a passing track for the passenger station via a curved turnout.

: January 9, 2010 This is the opposite end of the passing track. The B&O interchange track is off the passing track to the left.

: January 9, 2010 The track has been completed on the curve around the end of leg 4. This will be a limestone quarry and open pit mine with the main line crossing the pit on a steel viaduct.

: January 9, 2010 The backdrop crew has been hard at work installing the backdrops on leg 5. This is the paper mill area.

: January 9, 2010 More backdrops have been installed on the corner around the end of leg 5. This area will be a small coal loader and company town.

: January 9, 2010 The branch line staging yard under leg 1 has finally been put back in place. The switches have all been powered now.

: January 9, 2010 Wood and foam are being used to rough in the hill that will hide the staging yard from view.

: January 9, 2010 Grass has finally sprouted on the W&M!

: January 9, 2010 More grass around the corner of leg 1.

: October 31, 2009 The cork for the W&M main line and siding past the B&O interchange has been glued down and painted grey. The scenic base is old ceiling tiles.

: October 31, 2009 The cork and track have been added for the W&M siding and main line past the branch line interchange.

: October 31, 2009 The W&M main line goes from the upper right to the lower left in this photo, crossing the branch line. The W&M has two interchange tracks with the branch in this location, one between the diamond the siding switch giving direct access to the yard and one off the siding.

: October 31, 2009 The cork is in place on the curves connecting legs 4 and 5.

: October 31, 2009 The facia board is on around the end of leg 5. The ‘portholes’ give access to the branch line track below the W&M main in case of derailments and for cleaning.

Photos from Sep 2008 – Oct 2009

: October 27, 2009 Some cement hoppers ready for loading.

: October 27, 2009 This large loading building was made by splicing two valley cement kits together. The silos behind are made from cardboard tubes. Visit the TIPS page to learn how.

: October 27, 2009 The rotary kilns and their supports have been added between the blending building and the klinker building.

: October 27, 2009 This massive silo complex is for unloading and storing the raw materials needed to make cement. The silos are made from PVC pipes glued together with styrene strips between the silos.

: October 27, 2009 This is an overall view of the Cloverleaf Cement complex. Not all the buildings are built yet, but you get an idea of the size of this place.

: October 27, 2009 The river banks have been shaped and the locations of the bridge supports have been finalized. Next up is the main line cork.

: October 24, 2009 The B&O interchange track plan has been transfered to the ceiling tiles. Next will be shaping the river banks and gluing cork.

: October 24, 2009 This tunnel is locate along the branchline, just past the wye. It wraps around the corner to another coal mine. The ground was made with a cardboard web with plaster cloth over it.

: October 24, 2009 The ties along the branchline on leg 4 have all been painted now. We are ready to lay track! You can also see the branchline engine house and turn table.

: October 24, 2009 The river banks under the big bridge at the south end of the layout have been started.

: October 24, 2009 With no new legs to build, the bench work committee is keeping busy installing backdrop supports and facia boards.

: October 24, 2009 We have put a focus on completing the main line around leg 4 quickly so we can start using the layout, so the spline around the tip of the leg has been built even though we still don’t have any bridges for it yet.

: October 24, 2009 The extension to the bench work in the paper mill was added so the buildings would fit. This photo shows the rough placement of some of the paper mill buildings.

: Sept. 5, 2009 Plaster cloth has been added to the town at the helper pocket.

: Sept. 5, 2009 The branchline wye finally goes some where! It connects to the hidden staging yard on leg 4 via a hidden connecting track at the back of the staging yard.

: Sept. 5, 2009 With the track plan finalized for the branchline town scene, we where able to finish gluing the ties down.

: Sept. 5, 2009 The branchline interchange yard plan was also finished, so ties have been glued here as well.

: Sept. 5, 2009 The hidden B&O staging yard tracks have been laid. When the spline connecting this yard to the interchange is finished, we’ll be able to put the last switch in and finish this yard.

: Sept. 5, 2009 The B&O interchange yard was designed on cardboard sheets. We cut the river portion out of the ceiling tiles and it is now time to transfer the track plan to the tiles and start laying cork.

: July 26, 2009 Here is the first look at the final packaging building for the Cloverleaf Cement plant, and the unvieling of the name. There is still a lot of detail work and weathering to be done, but the main structure and silos are finished.

: July 26, 2009 There will be a covered loading bay for covered hopper cars and a track running into the building for loading boxcars with bagged cement products. The building is made from the bulk storage buildings from two Walthers Valley Cement Kits.

: July 26, 2009 The silos are made from cardboard tubes covered with sheet styrene. The head house is made of foam board laminated with photos. I created the photos using metal siding textures found online and added the windows, doors and vents using graphic editing software. They are printed on matte photo paper and glued to the foam board using a glue stick.

: July 25, 2009 After some discussion, it was decided to add a passing siding to the W&M main past the interchange. The branchline connection track now ties into the W&M siding track instead of the mainline.

: July 25, 2009 After going back and forth on the issue, we finally worked a turntable into the branchline interchange yard. This yard was once a division point on the branch, but now serves as the end of the line as the branch lost buisiness and contracted.

: July 25, 2009 All but one of the branchline staging track switches is wired and ready to go. When we get the last switch machine in place we will be able to raise this section into place and connect the return loop for testing.

: July 25, 2009 With the track plan finalized, we were able to start laying cork for the W&M main through the branchline interchange. I won’t be adding cork to the raised spline behind the town until after we locate the viaducts and get them installed. A large section of that spline will be removed and reused elsewhere.

: July 18, 2009 Geoff and Miles have been busy intalling bell crank style ground throws for switches along the branchline coal processing plant. Most of the main line throws are in place and they are working on the yard switches next.

: July 18, 2009 After several revisions and much discussion, the branchline interchange yard has been finalized and drawn out on the plywood base.

: July 18, 2009 The space between the branchline town and the interchange is the most complexe piece of spline we’ve built. Two tracks will converge and then diverge agian into 5 tracks with elevation changes and 5 switches! This is just the start with half the branchline main and interchange connection track in place.

: July 18, 2009 The spline from the paper mill to the branchline town has been sanded and now the cork is glued down on part of it. When this cork is dry we will be able to finish the track in the paper mill and turn that section over to the electrical team!

: July 4, 2009 The weathering is done on the Klinker building and it is set roughly in place. Thankfully, it fits! We still have to finish the kilns before we can give this building its final position.

: July 4, 2009 The companion to the Klinker building is the Blending building, it is connected to the Klinker building by the kiln. Our plant will have two kilns. There will also be pre-heater towers attached to the front of the blending building.

: July 4, 2009 This is one end of the paper mill on the branch line. The track on the left is for unloading woodchip cars, next is a storage track. The third track is the branchline main and the four track is for unloading pulp wood. There will be a wood chipper with a conveyor over the tracks to the wood chip pile on the left side.

: July 4, 2009 The other end of the paper mill is where the processing takes place. The left two tracks will be inside the production building and serve boxcars with finished product. The third track is for unloading chemicals, there will be chemical storage tanks at the back with the Kraft mill in front of them. There will be a kiln for recycling chemicals infront of the mill with the small spur for loading recycled chemicals.

: July 4, 2009 This section of half finished spline is for the branchline main as it curves around behind the paper mill, across a small river and into a town full of switching.

: July 4, 2009 This is the raised base for the town on the branchline. The scene will be dominated by buildings and city streets with the W&M main line crossing over the back of the scene on a steel viaduct with streets passing under it.

: June 27, 2009 The benchwork for the fourth leg is now complete. This leg will include the connection between the coal branch and the W↦M, a full of switching on the branch line, a limestone quarry at the end of the leg and a second interchange yard with hidden staging.

: June 27, 2009 This area will have a town/city scene with lots of switching for the branch line to do. The raised spline is the W&M main line. It will fly over the town on steel girder bridges with roads passing under it.

: June 27, 2009 The end of leg 4 will be a large limestone quarry. The near corner will be cut off to model the edge of the open pit mine, complete with access roads going down into it with the W&M main crossing a steel trestle over the pit.

: June 27, 2009 This area will be another small town with passenger station and depot and maybe some other traffic sources. It will have a river bisecting the scene lengthwise to separate the W&M from the interchange with another railroad, possibly the B&O.

: June 27, 2009 The plywood base is for the hidden staging yard for the interchange (possibly with the B&O). The spline is the interchange track, but is also connected to the branchline wye to provide a small loop track. The connection is not planned as part of the operating scheme of the layout.

: June 27, 2009 This view is looking down the connection track toward the wye on the branch line. The grade on this track is just over 2%.

: June 27, 2009 This is the opposite view to that above, looking from the wye up the connection track.

: June 27, 2009 The buildings & bridges committee has been hard at work getting the coal crusher built. While there is still a lot of work to be down, you can get an idea of the massive size of this complex.

: June 27, 2009 More buildings, a passenger station and freight depot, have been built. These buildings are located in the small town at the start of the helper pocket on the W&M.

: June 27, 2009 While they may not all stay, these buildings give an idea of the look we are going for to help disguise the main staging yard. The cement plant is just to the right of this, separated by a small river.

: June 27, 2009 The experiments continue… We are still trying to find the best way to throw sritches by hand. The latest experiment is these pull knobs. So far, we are quite happy with the results, and it will allow us to use fine scale, non-operating switch stands for better looks.

: June 27, 2009 This is the underside of the same switch. The thick wire (coat hanger rod) is epoxied to the wooden knob on the outside of the fascia. The thinner wire is connected to the pull knob and runs up through the benchwork, through an bushing and to the switch. The spring creates tension on the throw wire to hold the switch in possition.

: June 26, 2009 We been slowly working away on the cement plant buildings. We are combining two Walthers Valley Cement kits into one large complex. This is the Klinker building, at the lower end of the kilns. We spliced the two kits together so we can have two kilns next to each other.

: December 30, 2008 C&O 5735 is pulling a train over the W&M bridge over the branchline wye. Test running trains two weeks in a row!

: December 30, 2008 The 5735 rounds the tip of leg 5 on the outside track. This area will be a mountain area with two small spur sidings for lumber type loading for one or two cars.

: December 30, 2008 Here we find the 5735 rolling past the cement plant. All the track is in place and wired, but several ground throws for the switches need to be moved due to clearance issues before we can thoroughly test this area.

: December 30, 2008 C&O 5735 passes over one of the larger bridges on the line, and the largest build so far. This is the first scene you see when you enter the room, so we want it to be impressive!

: December 30, 2008 The branch line staging yard is almost finished now. Jim is positioning the switches at the top of the yard, the bottom of the yard is already done. We are reusing old code 100 rail and peco switches in this area to save money, as it is not very visible.

: December 30, 2008 Paul Mi., our electrical guru, seems a little perplexed by his own wiring job… hopefully he can remember what he did! Actually, the wiring is being mapped out as we go, so we can keep track and trouble shoot far easier later on.

: December 30, 2008 The awesume site of steel wheels on steel rails, or nickle silver as the case may be, has a mesmerizing affect on all model railroad fans.

: December 30, 2008 The handlaid curved turnout into the mountain spurs has been finished. Preliminary test runs through it have been sucessful, but it needs more testing before we declare it fully operational. A ground throw would be nice too!

: December 30, 2008 Most of the switches have been built for the pulp and paper mill. They are being assembled in sets of three switches for improved performance.

: December 30, 2008 In an effort to get rid of that freshly fallen snow appearance of bare white plaster, Ian and the scenery team have started painting most of the layout with base paint colours. This simple step goes a long way to visualizing the end product.

: December 27, 2008 After what has seemed like an eternity, the main bridge on the W&M is finally in place. Geoff made custom pier caps to transition between the two bridge types to solve the issues with mounting the bridges. There is one bridge left to be placed, and the main line will be whole again so we can start testing trains again in the new year!

: December 2, 2008 Here we find Geoff spiking rails at the second coal mine on the branchline. He is connecting the handlaid track to the flex track we use inside the tunnels.

: December 2, 2008 Curt and Larry are building switches while Vic offers advice.

: December 2, 2008 This curved switch is one of several custom built switches on the layout so far. The Fast-Tracks filing jig was used to make to points and frog but we don’t have a template for this switch, so it was built in place using track gauges.

: November 25, 2008 With the increased traffic we are putting on the branchline now, it was necessary to add a passing siding to the branchline. After much discussion, we decided to add a lapped siding to the coal complex. This allows us to have longer trains pass each other with out making a long siding. It also allows us to bypass the station if the passenger train is stopped in the mining town.

: November 25, 2008 Jim has been working on the branchline staging and return loop tracks. The benchwork for this yard is removable to make it easier to work on. When finished it wll be raised up closer to the mainline benchwork. It would be almost impossible to put track on if it was inplace now!

: November 25, 2008 This is looking through one of the access ports in the facia at the branchline in the tunnel. When the scenery is done, this wil make for a really cool photo with a train rolling around the bend.

: November 25, 2008 This is one end of the tunnel that the branchline uses to pass under the W&M helper pocket. Ian and the scenery team have been focusing on the area around the main bridge and helper pocket, as these are the first sections you see when you enter the room, so we want to get them done first.

: November 25, 2008 The electrical committee has been hard at work. Some of the electrical components have been installed to power the first leg of the layout. I can’t wait to run some trains!

: November 25, 2008 Some of the ties for the sidings on the mountain have been glued down. These tracks will be for a small coal loader and a woodchip or pulpwood loader. Both will be switched by the W&M and interchanged with the branchline.

: November 25, 2008 The branchline passes through another tunnel below the main line to reach the paper mill. Here we can see the track and tunnel wall are both in place so work on the facia can be started.

: November 25, 2008 The ties for the pulp and paper mill have been glued in place. The track plan was drawn out on the plywoood base using paper cutouts of the switches to make sure everything fit correctly. Fast-tracks laser cut switch ties were glued in place first followed by the rest of the ties. Once the glue dries, the ties will be sanded smooth and painted.

: November 25, 2008 With the branchline track and tunnel wall in place, the benchwork team was able to attach the facia board around the corner at the summit of our grade. The openings in the facia allow access to the branchline track which is in a tunnel under the mainline.

: September 16, 2008 Paul M, our electrical guru, is hard at work soldering feeder wires for the branchline coal complex. I hope he doesn’t hurt my track work with that extension cord!

: September 16, 2008 In an effort to add more operation to the layout, we decided to add some stub sidings in the mountain area to feed industries on the branchline. This forces the W&M to interchange the cars with the branchline for added operational interest. It also illustrates how easy it is to add new spline to the existing stuff.

: September 16, 2008 Some of the rail has been spiked for the second coal mine on the branchline. The ties for one of the switches had to be removed because they were too steep. A new sloped shim will be glued in with new ties in the future.

: September 16, 2008 Larry is working on adding feeders to the stagging yard tracks. Each track will be wired to a rotary switch so that only one track can be powered at a time. This should halp avoid any collisions leaving the yard!

: September 16, 2008 Another stub siding that was added for added operational value. This track will service one or two cars for loading wood chips or possibly pulpwood.

Photos from April – June 2008

: March 29, 2008 Most of the branch line ties are glued and sanded now. They have also been painted, a little too dark, but we’ll address that with some weathering later on.

: March 29, 2008 Here we find Curt hand spiking some rail in the cement plant. Almost all of the rails are spiked in the cement plant.

: March 29, 2008 The facia board is inplace along the helper pocket. The openings cut into the facia are for access to the branch line track in case of derailments.

: March 29, 2008 Here we find Mike and Al working on the coaling tower track for the helper pocket.

: March 29, 2008 Vic and Geoff work on spiking rails on the coal branch.

: March 29, 2008 Larry stains ties on the coal branch.

: March 25, 2008 Part of the bench work committee hard at work. L to R John, Richard and Ron.

: March 25, 2008 The bench work committee has been installing facia boards along the edges of the layout. With these in place, the scenery team will be able to move in and get to work. The facia also creates a small lip around the layout to help prevent cars from visiting the floor!

: March 25, 2008 After a few weeks of discussion, the coal branch track plan has been finalized and track work has begun. Here we see some of the ties in place. The two tracks on the left feed the crusher building, the next track to the right is the arrival/departure track and the right most track is the branchline main. The single track extending up at the top of the picture is for a flood loader to load coal from the crusher building.

: March 25, 2008 The first ballast on the layout. This track is the coal branch main where it enters a tunnel and goes to hidden staging.

: March 25, 2008 Here we find a rare sight, Ian working! 🙂 He is using our fast-tracks tie laying jig to make strips of ties to be glued down. Simply put ties into the slots on the jig and run a piece of masking tape along the tops of the ties and lift the strip out. The jig provides the proper spacing. Run some glue along the track center line on your benchwork and press the ties into the glue, when the glue dries, just peel the tape off and lightly sand the tie tops flat.

: March 25, 2008 More of the coal branch ties in place. The upper right of the picture is the crusher tracks and the switch at the lower left will lead to a small mine/coal loading track. There will be a road crossing the tracks between the switches.

: March 25, 2008 The upper tracks in the picture are the WMRC main line helper pocket. The lower track is the coal branch, it passes under the helper pocket in a tunnel. Here the support for the back wall of the tunnel is in place.

: March 25, 2008 Those bench work guys are a hard working bunch! Here we have Richard and Ron cutting masonite for facia boards.

: March 15, 2008 This is the spline for the branchline return loop on the hidden staging yard. Rather than trying to build this piece of spline in place, we clamped some wood together to make a jig and made the spline on that. Now we can sand this mush easier than if it was built in place under the existing staging yards.

: March 15, 2008 The spline on the corner here has been redone and sanded. Now the new cork is being glued down. Next will be painting it gray and laying the track back down.

: March 15, 2008 Here is what the added spline sections look like with the clamps removed. Next step: sanding.

: March 11, 2008 Construction was put on hold for a month as we focused our attention on getting the modular layout ready for the Essex Train show. To see photos from the show, look in the Gallery. Now that the modular layout is setup and running we’ve again begun to focus on the permanent layout. We will be focusing on getting the scenery base and facias in place for phase I of the project. Many different methods will be used to create the scenery base, here we are using a mesh created from cardboard strips.

: March 11, 2008 Chris is busy hot glueing cardboard strips together to make the scenery base while Geoff and Joe do some hand laid track work on the coal branch. The cardboard strips will be covered with packing tape to fill the gaps and prevent a huge drippy mess when the plaster cloth is put over it.

: March 11, 2008 Out initial test runs raised some concerns about the radius around the end of the fifth leg. It was messured and found to be egg shaped. To correct this problem and create a smooth curve, we’ve add spline to both sides of the curve. This is another benefit to using spline, it is very easy to add to.

: March 11, 2008 Here we see the other side of the curve with the extra spline glued on. This is why testing before adding scenery is good. Problems are easier to fix if there is no scenery to remove!

: January 21, 2008 A couple of Tortoise switch machines were installed on the staging yard and loop track switches. They still need to be powered, but at least they keep those hand made switches lined tightly.

: January 16, 2008 All members were invited to bring in there stuff to test run on the new layout. We tested some big power and long cars including this B&O E unit pulling a heavy weight passenger consist.

: January 16, 2008 We also took this oportunity to test some long trains. This train stretches nearly 40′, about the length of one leg of the layout. The three engines on point needed some help getting this beast over the 2.5% grade to the summit.

: January 16, 2008 One F40 was all that was needed to pull this 6 car passenger train up the grade. These long cars operated with no problems around the layout. We discovered a few areas that need improvement during this test session, but the changes will have to wait until after the Essex Train Show.

: January 12, 2008 Chessie GP38 4829 passes by the coaling tower on the helper siding about to complete the first ever trip around phase 1 of the layout. It’s taken almost one year to get to this point, but it has been worth it. Seeing the first train run around the layout is great!

: January 12, 2008 More cars were added for the second run, but the two C&O geeps stalled on the 2.5% grade on the north side of the mountain. Luckily, this is what we want to happen, so we can run helpers in this area.

: January 12, 2008 Here we can see WMRC GP38-2 #100 coupling on the rear of the train to help the C&O geeps get over the hill.

: January 12, 2008 The helper worked perfectly shoving the train over the crest of the hill. It cut off at the top of the grade and started coasting back down the hill for its next assignment. This is a shot that we won’t be able to get forever, as we see the C&O train on the down grade temporary connection track in the background. One day that track will be gone and a back drop will be in its place.

: January 12, 2008 CP SD90MAC-H II coupled onto the head end for the next run. This unit is sound equipt, and boy did it sound great roaring up the hill in notch 8. The dynamic brakes on the down grade were almost as cool!

: January 5, 2008 Only one more switch needs to be installed in the cement plant. The number 6 switches off the main line are in place and all the number 5’s except the coal track are done. The clean ties you see need to be sanded and weathered before the track is put in.

Photos from Jan. – March 2008

: June 14, 2008 This shelf will hold the electrical components for the first leg of the layout. All electrical for the stagging yards and cement plant will be routed through here.

: June 14, 2008 The benchwork committee has been keeping busy working on the facia boards. This section is one of the stagging yards and the cement plant.

: June 14, 2008 These shelves are under the branchline coal complex and will hold the electrical components for this section of the layout.

: June 14, 2008 These switches are all part of the branchline coal complex. The left most track is the branchline main, the next track is a siding track, the third from the left is the flood loader track and the right most track is an unloading track for the crusher building.

: June 14, 2008 As a new challenge, we’ve started to build groups of switches as a single unit, rather then individual switches. By doing this we eliminate the rail joiners between some switches which will give us smoother and more reliable operation. This group of switches is build in two sections, the crossover is one piece and the other three switches are one piece.

: June 14, 2008 This crossover was also built as one piece using the single switch fast-tracks template. It is part of the branchline coal complex.

: June 14, 2008 All main line switches will be controled with tortoise slow motion switch machines. Decoders will be used so that the switches can be thrown by a central dispatcher via the DCC system. This switch is for one of the sidings.

: June 14, 2008 This is the second coal mine along the branch line. The majority of the coal mined here is sent to the main complex to be crushed. Most of the ties have been glued down, filed and painted. Next will be the addition of the rails.

: May 10, 2008 The branch line bridge is in place. The plywood will be a river that curves off to the upper left, this will help disguise its joint with the backdrop. You can also see the road heading back up the hill.

: May 6, 2008 The plaster cloth is done on both sides of the river now. The areas between the coal branch and backdrop have yet to be started, as we have not decided on a bridge for the road yet.

: May 3, 2008 The coal branch passes through a tunnel after crossing the river. To allow easy access to trains in the tunnel incase of derailments, we cut openings into the facia. While they are a tight fit, it will allow access, just in case. We chose to leave the openings uncovered and detail the interior of the tunnel for visual interest.

: May 3, 2008 This is looking into the tunnel after crossing the river. You can see the unpainted plaster rock casting on the left and the painted tunnel wall on the right. The track gang still has some work to do down here!

: April 26, 2008 The cardboard web has now been covered with plaster cloth. You can also see the base for a road coming down the hill and under the bridge. This road will cross the branch line and then cross the river and head back up the hill on the other side. This scene will have three bridges in it!

: April 15, 2008 Cardboard web covered in plaster cloth is being used as our main scenery base. Here we have the cardboard web in place at the large bridge over the coal branch. The coal branch staging entrance has been completely enclosed and can be seen under the web behind the main.

: April 15, 2008 While all visible track on the branch line is hand laid, the hidden track is Atlas flex. This saves time and effort. The lower track is part of the coal branch, and is hidden inside a tunnel. The facia will have cutouts to allow access incase of derailments.

: April 12, 2008 The spline approach to the bridge has been widened and the new track is in place. The curve approaching the bridge is much smoother now.

: April 12, 2008 The rework on the summit curve has also been finished. The curve here is now smoother and more consistent. The longer cars operate around here much better and look better too, as there is less overhang.

: April 8, 2008 An electrically charged meeting of the electrical committee minds! Paul, Curt, Stan, Geoff, Ian and John.

: April 8, 2008 A switch building session. Chris and I helped some of our other members learn to build switches using our fast tracks templates. Some switches turned out better than others! Carl, Myles, Fred Sr. and Chris, I, as usual, am behind the camera.

: April 1, 2008 Chris has added some of the cardboard strip webbing around the branchline staging entrance. The cardboard serves as the base for the scenery. It will be covered with packing tape and then plaster cloth.

: April 1, 2008 The ties for the coal branch wye have been glued down. There will be a small mining town built around the wye with a station in the middle of the wye. The wye will not go anywhere and be used mainly to turn steam engines.

: April 1, 2008 Geoff using a Kadee spiker to spike rail along the coal branch.

: April 1, 2008 Here is the coaling tower for the helper pocket being test fit to the scene. The tower will be raised so that double stack cars can run under it.

: April 1, 2008 The summit loop track has been re-laid, so we have a working loop again!

: March 29, 2008 Most of the branch line ties are glued and sanded now. They have also been painted, a little too dark, but we’ll address that with some weathering later on.

: March 29, 2008 Here we find Curt hand spiking some rail in the cement plant. Almost all of the rails are spiked in the cement plant.

: March 29, 2008 The facia board is inplace along the helper pocket. The openings cut into the facia are for access to the branch line track in case of derailments.

: March 29, 2008 Here we find Mike and Al working on the coaling tower track for the helper pocket.

: March 29, 2008 Vic and Geoff work on spiking rails on the coal branch.

: March 29, 2008 Larry stains ties on the coal branch.

Photos from Nov. & Dec. 2007

: December 20, 2007 The hand laid diamonds in the cement plant are almost done. The frogs need to be cut and isolated. The gaps will be filled with epoxy, filed and painted. Nice work Geoff!

: December 20, 2007 Track has been laid across the temporary bridge. Once the scenery in this area has been finished we will put the actual bridges in place. 3 85′ Micro Engineering deck girder bridges with a 150′ central valley Truss bridge in the middle. It is going to look sweet!

: December 20, 2007 Phase 1 of construction includes only about half of the bench work, so to create a running loop in phase 1 we had to build this temporary connection track between legs 1 and 5. The temporary connection will allow us to get some trains running right away to start testing track work before ballasting and scenery really get started.

: December 20, 2007 This bridge will pass over the branch line’s wye track in a small, as yet un-named, mining town.

: December 8, 2007 This is the top of the mountain. On the left the track has leveled off after climbing a 2.5% grade, the helpers cut off at the siding and glide back down the grade to await the next job while the train continues around the curve and begins a gentle .75% grade back down the other side. Or at least thats what will happen when we finish the rest of the track work!

: December 1, 2007 All the main line spline for phase I is glued in place now. The next step is securing the spline to the risers with screws and then sanding the top smooth. We’ll have cork and track on it in no time!

: December 1, 2007 Another view of the spine work around the summit of the grade. We actually ran out of clamps glueing this section of spline, over 30′ of spline glued at the same time!

: November 27, 2007 Track work for the cement plant is moving forward slowly. All the Fast Tracks switches have been built for the facility and some track is in place. We have also started laying the first of two diamonds in the plant.

: November 27, 2007 Spline work for the main line around the mountain is moving along nicely. Most of the risers are in place and a single track width of spline is down. This section needs to be double width to accommodate a passing siding. You can see the spline for the coal branch below the main spline.

: November 27, 2007 With spline and track in place, some of the backdrop board is going up. We are using 1/4″ masonite glued to 2×2 risers as our backdrop. The seams will be filled and sanded, then the whole thing will be painted. Some areas will use commercially available backdrops, but most will be hand painted. This is the first curved section of backdrop to go up.

: November 27, 2007 With the plywood in place along the south wall, we were able to lay some cork down for the coal branch main line. The final track plan has yet to be agreed apon, so no ties will be going down for a little while yet. But we will sand and paint the cork so we’ll be ready.

: November 20, 2007 Some of us are getting impatient to run trains on the new layout, so we hooked a Zephyr up to some of the track and ran an engine back and forth a few times. We’ll just say it was for track testing purposes!

: November 20, 2007 The first section of hand laid track on the coal branch! It may only be 3′ long, but it is nice to see anyway. We are trying to get the track in this area down so that the scenery team can start working in this area. There are several bridges to be built, so the sooner they can get started, the better.

: November 13, 2007 The spline for the coal branch around the end of the fifth leg is in place. This section of track will be in a long tunnel under the WMRC main line. This track is on a 1% grade through the tunnel and levels off when it exits the tunnel and passes by a Pulp and Paper mill. After the mill it will start climbing again to the same level as the WMRC main line at an interchange yard.

: November 13, 2007 The section along the south wall is dominated by the coal branch, with the WMRC main line partially hidden by trees above. This section is mainly flat, so we used 1/2″ plywood as a base to build the track and scenery on. The foreground of this picture will have a small mining town with a wye extending under the WMRC main. Further down will be a small yard with a coal mine and flood loader at the far end. All the track work in this area will be hand laid.

: November 13, 2007 We plan to hand lay the track work for all industrial areas as well as the branch line. Our club is all about learning and having fun, so this is a great opportunity for our members to learn about hand laying track. This is the cement plant, the plywood base was built first and the track centers were drawn on it. Next we glued down our fast tracks laser cut switch ties and then glued the standard ties following the center lines drawn on the plywood. The next step is a light sanding of the ties to ensure a flat even surface to spike the rail to and staining the ties. The track goes on after the ties are stained and ballast comes last.

: November 10, 2007 We have been using Fast Tracks jigs to build our own turnouts. The jigs are very easy to use and are going to save us a ton of money on switch costs. They also eliminate the availability issues we had trying to get Walthers switches. The switch building kits come with a scale billboard sign. We’ve temporary placed one of the signs on the Cement plant power station.

: November 10, 2007 All branchline and industrial track is going to be hand laid. Here we see the newly installed and stained ties on the coal branch climb from staging. The ties were cut by Curt, glued to the cork roadbed, the tops were sanded smooth and then they were stained. The next step will be spiking the rail down.

Photos from Oct. 2007

: October 30, 2007 It is official, the Windsor and Midwestern Railway Company is born. Geoff did some lettering and weathering on the small bridge next to the Cement Plant. The scene is a long way from finished, but every small step forward is great.

: October 30, 2007 The first building has made its appearence on the WMRC. This is the power plant that serves the cement plant and nearby town. The raised section behind the plant is for the coal unloading chute.

: October 30, 2007 The spline is finished for the coal branch climb. Sanding and cork are next, with ties for hand laid track soon to follow. You can see WMRC GP38-2 100 posed with a coal train on the helper siding in the background as well.

: October 30, 2007 The spline for the coal branch at the other end of the south wall is also in place and awaiting sanding. The area between the corners will be flat and have a coal mine, small town, small yard and a wye. The sub-roadbed here will be made of 1/2″ plywood.

: October 30, 2007 This is WMRC GP38-2 #100 posing on the helper siding with a string of loaded coal hoppers. I look forward to the day it can be Running instead of posing!

: October 23, 2007 The spline is nearly finished for the coal branch climb. The clamps will soon come off and the sanding will begin.

: October 23, 2007 Some of the hard working Benchwork Crew taking a much deserved break. This is the fifth leg of the layout and is main mountainous scenes. The main line has reached its summit and is starting back down gradually, while the coal branch will start a gradual raise to meet the main at an interchange yard on the fourth leg. The benchwork for phase 1 is basically finished now. The other teams have some catching up to do. Track work isn’t far behind, as we hope to have a functional loop before christmas.

: October 23, 2007 This is the coal branch bridge being test fit. The WMRC Main Line crosses over a large trestle here with this small branch line bridge under it. There will be a small roadway bridge over the river here as well.

: October 23, 2007 The pink insulation foam is the beginnings of a coal ramp for the power plant. There will be a hopper for dumping coal into under the tracks here with a conveyor into the power plant.

: October 23, 2007 The first section of backdrop has been put up. This is the divider between the north and south stagging yards. We are starting to get the backdrop in place so we can begin some of the preliminary scenery work.

: October 20, 2007 The support brackets and risers are now in place for the coal branch as it climbs from its hidden stagging yard to the first coal mine.

: October 17, 2007 The riverbed next to the cement plant is really starting to take shape now. The stone work on the bridge abutments was carved into the plaster base and then given serveral washes of black paint. The river bed and banks are also plaster with serveral washes of brown and black paint. This is only the base coats of paint, there is still a lot of work to be done before this scene will be finished, but it is nice to see some colour appearing on the layout!

: October 17, 2007 The cork roadbed has been glued down and painted from the helper pocket at the bottom of the grade to almost the top of the grade. We have also started laying track along this section. This is the mainline track in the helper siding at the base of the grade. The siding track will be added soon.

: October 17, 2007 This shot is looking south up the 2.5% grade to Summit (actual place names have not been decided yet, but we always refer to the top of the grade as Summit, go figure) This also shows the process of building sub-roadbed using spline. At the top of the picture you can see bare spline, still clamped to let the glue dry, as you follow the spline toward the bottom of the picture, you can see the sanded spline with no clamps, the painted cork glued down, and finally, the track glued down. Track weathering, ballasting and scenery are still a long ways off.

: October 17, 2007 Welcome to ‘Summit’, the highest point on the railroad. This curve is about 6.5″ above the staging yards and climbs a 2.5% grade to get here. The grade south of here is a much more reasonable .75% and starts at about the fourth clamp from the left. You’ll notice we’ve used ‘7’ shaped risers around this corner, this is to provide more room for the coal branch track that runs through a tunel around this corner underneath the main line.

: October 17, 2007 This shot illustrates how we are creating super-elevated curves. For those of you un-sure what I mean by that, a super-elevated curve is one where the rail on the outside of the curve is higher than the rail on the inside. This is a prototype practice with a number of benefits including faster train speeds, more comfortable ride and less track maintainance. The benefits to the model railroad are mainly cosmet, but those large three axle engines are less likely to jump the track. We super-elevated the outside rail be glueing a piece of strip styrene between the cork and ties under the rail. You can see the white styrene strip under the bottom rail in the picture. We used .020″ styrene, which is about 2″ of elevation. Prototype super-elevation can be over 4″ depending on train speeds.

: October 9, 2007 Spline work on the Helper Grade along the south wall of the room is nearly done. We put in over 20′ of risers and spline in one evening. Using spline made it very easy to incorporate gental curves in the track work. The next step is to screw the spline to the risers and then sand the top of it smooth. Cork and track will be going on soon!

: October 9, 2007 This shot shows the small bridge between the South Staging yard and the Cement Plant being test fit. More plaster work and carving needs to be done before this section will be ready for paint.

: October 8, 2007 The first section of spline sub-roadbed leading from the branchline staging yard under the large bridge is now in place. Part of the spline will be cutout to make room for a small bridge over the river but under the large main bridge. We started this section of spline so that the scenery team could start creating the river bed and gorge walls.

: October 8, 2007 This picture shows the spline for the siding track being added to the main line spline. We first glue the inside pieces for spline in place and then glue more layers on working our way to the outside untill the sub-roadbed is wide enough for the tracks. It is time consuming, but gives very nice curves and lots of flexability for scenery.

: October 2, 2007 We used cloth dipped in plaster to create the sides and bottom of the river bed. Wood blocks were positioned to support the bridge. The wood blocks were then covered with plaster and will be shaped to look like the bridge supports.

: October 2, 2007 This is the main line sub-roadbed extending north from the cement plant around the bend. After the spline was completely dry, the clamps were removed and screws were put in to secure the spline to the risers. The top of the spline is not very flat, so a handheld belt sander was used to smooth out the top. We ordered a large roll of cork and cut it into strips to make roadbed. 2″ wide strips are used on the straight sections of track and 1″ wide strips are used in the corners because they bend easier. The cork is glued to the spline.

: October 2, 2007 We put some of the risers in for the helper siding curve. First we roughly drew the track centerline on the cross supports to have a general idea where the track would go. Next we attached the risers along the centerline. We messured the run between risers and calculated how much rise was needed for our grade. Once the risers were in place, we clamped some spline together to determine the actual curve. We put screws into the top of the risers along the inside of the curve and build the spline out from that. One of the nice things about spline is that it creates easments by it self. In this picture the mainline spline is glued, but the siding track is not done yet.

: October 2, 2007 The tables and supports for the branch line staging yard are done and in place. The tables for the staging yard are not attached yet so we can lay the track before putting them in. This will make doing the track work much easier than trying to reach into that narrow gap. The branch line runs from this staging yard, under the WMRC main line twice and will interchange with the WMRC on the fourth leg of the layout. The branch line is mainly a coal line.

Photos from June – Sept. 2007

: September 22, 2007 This is the spline road bed for the north siding switch for the helper district at tbe base of the grade. We are experimenting with how to best spline the switch area. This is our first attempt, and we’ve learned a lot. We plan to make some minor changes for the next switch as the roadbed here is wider than needed.

: September 22, 2007 All the staging yard switches are in place and spiked down. We chose to save money by not powering the switches here. Instead we mounted hand throws into the facia of the layout and used metal tubing to guide the throw wire to the switch. This picture isn’t very good, but you can see the hand throws in the foreground and the metal tubing arcing up to the swiches.

: September 22, 2007 The first scenic element to be started is a small river and bridge between the south staging yard and the cement plant. Here you can see the cutout for the river bed. The switch to the left leads to the south staging yard.

: September 22, 2007 With the sub-roadbed finished for the cement plant, the main line could be extended into the inside curve. This curve will eventually be 180 degrees and lead back up the next leg of the layout, but for now it only goes halfway and will be connected to the last leg temporarily. This will alow us to get this section of track up and running before we have to remove the modular layout to make room for more construction. It will also allow us to test the track work before adding ballast and other scenery.

: September 3, 2007 The benchwork along the south wall is now done. This area will feature a branch line serving several coal mines with the main line elevated along the back drop climbing the mountain. The main line and the branch wrap around the corner with the main continuing its climb and the branch stub ending at another mine.

: September 3, 2007 We are going to experiment with ‘Spline’ sub road bed. This small piece of spline is the approach to the large bridge that the main line used to cross over a river, road and the coal branch.

: September 3, 2007 After waiting all summer for switches to come in from walthers, we have given up. We decided to handlay our own switched using the Fast Tracks Switch Building System. Please visit our Fast Tracks site to learn more about this easy to use system. The switch in the fore-ground leads to the staging yard, while the one behind it is the siding/loop track. The switches are Code 83 #8’s

: September 3, 2007 This will be our portland cement plant. The plant was drawn to scale on the computer and then transferred to cardboard in HO scale. The cardboard template was cut out of plywood to create the sub road bed. The plywood cut out will be fastened to risers on the bench work and then we can start laying the track. You can see the scale drawing of the cement plant here.

: July 20, 2007 This is the basic track plan for the whole layout. Most of the industrial tracks have yet to be added. Most are still in the design phase. We have decided on industry types, just not track plans yet.

: July 20, 2007 This is the Limestone Quary track plan. The quary is served by two railroads. The WMRC will serve most of the facility, bringing in coal, fuel and equipment and lifting hoppers full of crushed limestone of various grades. A second railroad will switch from the right dealing only with hoppers for crushed limestone. The plant includes crushing and washing buildings as well as large storage piles and a coal fired power plant. The main line passes over the edge of the open pit on a large curved tresle.

: July 20, 2007 The Cement Plant occupies an area nearly 16ft long. This plant is HUGE! The plant is a dry portland cement supplier. Limestone and Clay, Gypsum and Coal all arrive by rail. Dry cement is packaged and shipped by Truck, Boxcar, and Covered Hopper. An small on-site coal fired power plant provides electricity to the facility and to near by homes and businesses. The front edge of the scene will be an old run-down dock. The facility was also serviced by ship in the past. The main line will cross a small bridge over a river to the left of the scene. The river will serve as a scenic divide between the plant and the staging yard to the left.

July 3, 2007

The double track loop around the staging yards is glued down now. We used thin strips of styrene to elevate the out side of the curve. The electrical team has begun soldering feeder wires to the rails in place now so we can start weathering the rails and ties in preparation for ballasting.

: June 23, 2007 This is the Southeast Corner of the layout room. This is the start of the helper district and the grade up the northern side of the mountain.

: June 23, 2007 This is the first leg of the layout. Each leg is 48″ wide with a divider running the length of it. This leaves about 23″ of space on either side to work with. The divider will not always be centered to allow more or less space on either side depending on the needs of the scene. The right side of the leg is the northern end of the layout and the left side is the southern end.

: June 23, 2007 This lowered area on leg 1 will be a large trestle over a river and road. There will be a second smaller and lower bridge below the trestle where one of the interchange railroads crosses the same river. The red wire marks the location of the trestle.

: June 23, 2007 This is the north staging yard. Each yard track is 12′ long. The yard tracks are Atlas Code 100 on cork roadbed. We paint the cork grey to seal and blend with our ballast better later.

: June 23, 2007 This is the loop track and passing siding that run around the north and south staging yards. These tracks allow for continuous running when not operating. The main lines and sidings are Micro Engineering Code 83 track. We will be using walther’s code 83 switches on the main lines. (if our order ever arrives)