Upper Level Work Begins

1/5/21

The CSME work crew for this week was Doug, George, J erry AND John stopped by as well as Gene. John has taken point on the bathroom fan and trim finishing projects. That’s great. Gene said he had gotten “really bored” at home and needed some of the Doug and George show – he got it. He also brought lunch so he can come back anytime.  He says he wants to start on track laying.  That’s a good thing. 

We began work on the upper level moving from south to north or from Blodgett to Nashville. Some of the framing for the new Blodgett area became quite creative since we had no wall for attachment and had to do it with cantilevers, brackets and posts – none of which will get in the way of operation in Philomath.

George went after the last two chunks of old layout and produced some useable scenery sections, stringer and riser stock, and trackboards – plywood, cork, and flextrack.  Some of this material is available to club members for free. For example, we have about 90 lineal feet of “L” girders that are not pretty but certainly serviceable. They are laying under  Philomath in a bundle – come and get them but put back what you don’t want. Also, the scenery hills with a foam/screen substrate are pretty stout and can certainly be moved, cut and fitted, and installed on a new layout. They are sitting in Corvallis. This foam/screen  technology was imported to the club by Larry Vogt and it’s too bad we can’t use them in the new layout. The major rock casting walls want to stay at the clubhouse for a bit since we  may be able to fit those into place.

Some of our framing had to be done from  outside. Neither rain nor snow nor cold nor  salamanders nor tree frogs can deter our intrepid  workers. “Model Railroading is fun”. 

Doug is still working on Eagle Cove and Eagle Point. He’s laying the groundwork (pun intended) for some more of his famous “arte de ferrocarril”. We’re all looking forward to what he has in mind. He put a new blade in his oscillating saw and now he’s like a wild man. He already chopped a big hole in his old scenery and claims he’s going to put  bridges across the chasm. He says he likes the new blade because the old one was so dull it made a lot of smoke – it did! 

A typical scenery section carefully excised by George. These are available to club members on a first come first served basis and the cost is minimal — $0.