4/24/21
The last report was quite technical and there were more colorful developments this week in addition to DCC documentation. One of these included a major step in helix construction. George has worked diligently for several weeks to wrap a fascia around the lower frame of this part of the layout. This fascia wrap created a tunnel almost 15 feet long and covered up Larry’s hard work on the rock liner. George’s framing included uprights to support outside edges of the subroadbed. On the lower level these uprights also provided a router guide allowing us to use a laminate bit to route out windows. These windows can be used for viewing trains inside the tunnel and good access to the tunnel interior.
We had a sneak work session to rout out these windows. Larry and I did this on Saturday because we knew it would be extremely dusty and noisy. Gabe, a 6th grader from Redmond, Oregon came by to visit. Larry was cleaning up from the routing job and he drafted Gabe into running the “suckulator”. Even though we put him right to work, Gabe said he wanted to come by again.
Not only has great progress been made on the south helix but also our drive-in movie has found a home. With great frustration and challenge, Doug successfully modified existing framing in Corvallis to fit the theater module into a corner. We’ve been concerned about how we might locate this icon. For those of you who don’t know, this diorama was made by member Lyle Friese who has since passed on. The featured film, 3:10 To Yuma, was the movie playing when Lyle took his wife on their first date.
We have mystery dance steps with directions appearing on the floor between George’s Gorge and Eagle Point. It may be that CSME is the first model railroad club in America to have foot placement dance diagrams affixed to the floor complete with labels for “L” and “R” feet. During lunch this week a lively discussion developed about who the author of this artwork might be. Doug quickly defended himself against any allegations advising all present that it wasn’t him because he couldn’t spell “L” or “R”. Current evidence points to Lonnie.
Hopefully this progress report reads a bit easier than the last one and provides some exoneration for the infliction of such a highly technical document upon the membership.
Corvallis Society of Model Engineers 