Ties, Rail and Barnacles

3/23/21

We would like to thank all of you for your continued support and cheerleading.  When a Progress Report is issued and you take time to respond to it, to get in the spirit of the report, to compliment the work and workers, it is noticed.  It is also greatly appreciated.  It means that someone actually reads this stuff and our work is for a worthy cause.

Comments about progress reports are often discussed during the workday and particularly at lunch.  Conversations around the 4’ X 8’, socially distanced, lunch table often times soar to intellectual heights heretofore unknown in the annals of model railroading.  Not only are member comments discussed but also details of upcoming work, specific design parameters, sources of materials and methods of construction.  Massive amounts of detailed engineering specs are shared and evaluated.  And then, after the French fries have disappeared, we resume work or go home to take our naps.  

George and his wire caddy

Progress to date has been great.  Larry has completed his rock wall tunnel liner around the base of the helix and he is ballasting pre-painted track within the tunnel.  Design work has started on the helix fascia including the “windows” to showcase Larry’s work.  George is the point person on this.  We also ran out of 1/8” Masonite and large pieces of ¾” plywood.  This meant off to Home Depot for additional supplies.

Gene reports wire drops are almost complete on the mainline.  We used existing drops where possible and then added  new ones per Randy’s electrical design specs.  Patrick continues working on the Corvallis area and Doug keeps up the effort in Eagle everything.  Jaymes J, a new member, came by for a bit on Monday.  He’s very interested in all phases of model railroading and wishes to help and learn.  Welcome Jaymes.  We’ll be happy to provide on the job training.

Doug works on the Eagle Point trestle

With framing and mainline trackage about complete, layout construction is ready to move into new phases.  We can start thinking about wiring and scenery patches.  Wiring will come first and we have been doing some planning and purchasing for that.  George made a rolling wire caddy that holds up to 9  500’ spools of 12 gauge stranded wire.  We can move it around from booster location to booster location and roll out whatever wire we need.  Boosters will be decentralized so they can be installed near the areas they power allowing us to keep our  wire runs to less than 30 feet in each direction – 60’ total.  There will be 4 power districts per booster each having its own color code. Most wire connections will be made using suitcase connectors – authentic 3M brand rather than cheap knockoffs.  Terminations will be made with spade connectors and terminal strips.

Documentation for layout wiring will be designed so all can read and understand it.  It will be readily available in the layout room and demonstrations and clinics will be provided for those interested.  In this way we hope to have several members able to maintain and trouble shoot the layout electrical system. 

Eagle Point trestle awaiting ties, rail and barnacles

During lunch today Gene brought up the idea of using station names different than actual locations.  For example, Eagle Cove is not a real place and therefore buildings and details need not match a prototype.  It still looks real but we don’t have comments like “gee, that’s not how I remember it”.  It requires new names for Corvallis, Philomath, Blodgett, etc.   There probably needs to more discussion among club members.  To change or not to change, that is the question.  If change is in order, then, to what?  Care to provide feedback via e-mails?  Let ‘er rip.