Deadlines

I seem to get more done under a deadline. The stress is terrible but I push a little harder to get the task done if I know I have a date to meet.

This last weekend I had invited some of the operating crew from Gary Siegel's L&N EK Division to come by and see my progress. Gary is about ten minutes from me so it was an easy stop on the way. Gary's layout is amazing and I enjoy the previledge of operating on the layout on a regular basis. See http://www.pbase.com/rbarnes11/lnekdiv for some nice photos of the layout.

.

I had hoped to have trains running. Not quite. I still have some track to lay and some turnouts to install. I modified my old brochure, cleaned up a little more, and put out some photos of the prototype so the visitors could at least have a feel for what I am trying to do.

Here is a photo of a short intermodal train crossing the Santa Ynez River bridge at Surf..

One of the tasks that I worked on was installing the profile sections on the roadbed. The roadbed is 6 one inch strips of 1/4" masonite. The profile is one of these 1 inch strips cut at a 45 degree angle. One is glued to either side of the roadbed. Here is a photo of a cross section of Roadbed that was removed from the lower level.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Here is a photo of a section of track at Surf with the profiles being held in place with clamps until the glue dries.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Here is a photo of some of the ties and track in place at Surf

.

.

.

Here is a photo of some of the track feeders being fed to the tracks for the track power.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

All the track feeders are now in for the main line on the second level.

I did not get trains running but 13 of the operators came by and toured the layout-under-construction. Next deadline is the local club on May 11. They have been very patient and I am running out of videos to show them so I will have to attempt to get trains running - at least on some of the layout.