White Hills Junction Extension, Part 2

Tuesday, September 7, I hosted the South Coast Society of Model Engineers again. Five fellow members came to help out on another railroad construction project. I had several tasks on my list but we ended up only working on the extension.
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The White Hills Junction Extension that we had constructed at an earlier work session [see the post from August 19, 2010 http://spsbsub.blogspot.com/2010/08/white-hills-junction-extension.html ] was set up and attached to the layout. Flex track was placed on the extension, trimmed, rail joiners attached and soldered. The now-single-piece of track was aligned to the existing track in Lompoc using a taught string and then glued in place using white glue. We raided my wives pantry for cans of soup and beans which were placed on the track to weight it down while it dried.

Meanwhile, Joe Heumphreus had worked on the electrical connection from the power bus under Lompoc. He had the connector in place with the feeder wires attached by the time the track was secured.

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Lompoc connector

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Extension connector and feeder wires below extension (not in place).

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Holes were drilled for the feeders which were tinned and fed up from the bottom. The rail was tinned and the feeders were soldered onto the rail. Bruce turned on the Power and our youngest member was given the honor of running the SW1500 (sound-equipped) from one end of the 8 foot extension to the other, blowing the horn and ringing the bell. Success!

Here are a couple of photos taken after the construction was complete.

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Yes, we are working in the dark! Mike Lopez (in the cap) handles the throttle, Jim Felland holds the light, while John Ryan watches on the left.

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Jim Felland and Joe Heumphreus watch, while Gary Siegel hides (smiling) behind Joe.