N Scale Progress
December 22nd
Thanks to all the eager helpers the long awaited new club N layout is well underway. Enclosed is a few action shots, mind you the guys outside might still be frozen to the saws. Everyone that showed up contributed, even the one person who came in from Winterpeg to enjoy our warmer temperatures !
The wood was all cut and the legs were assembled with some feet attached. All pieces were audited/measured this morning, (2 pieces were cut too short, (X1 & K4) and 1 piece (L2) was not cut at all !!) I can’t blame the guys on the saws when I told them what to cut !! it just means these short pieces will need to be recut and the short versions will become risers or leg braces.
new-n2For those that missed the excitement, each piece that was cut has a unique Letter / number combination to match the benchwork support layers in the track plan (for those with Xtrack cad the plan is enclosed). Each pile of wood in the N area represents a module .. the jigsaw puzzle still needs to be assembled .. so please don’t mix up the piles, the assemblers are confused enough already.
The next build session will be after our visit from the Jolly guy in Red and some of the important family socialization events. The material that was in the N area has been moved either near or under the HO, so if operating in the Meat Packing and Pulp & Paper areas in the next week or so please take care as to not trip, once a module or two are built we might be able to move under a module.
January 3rd,
Today we started by dragging in some plywood and homasote (roughly half what we need overall) with the intention to start cutting it for the upper deck but plans changed. It made more sense to run wires in the upper deck before we start putting on the plywood so Dan and I went to Sayal in Markham to get the wire while Brian tended to a plumbing chore he’d been avoiding. (From looking at the log in sheet apparently Ross dropped in to help with the plywood while we were in Markham … guess we forgot to issue a revised memo with the change of plans ? Sorry Ross). On our return trip we stopped in to see Randy in person to verify his decent quote for cork, track & switch machines. Upon returning to the club with the wire we got busy and Norm stopped by to assist. Each colour combo has a different meaning (power district), I hope I remember the colour code when we start the final wiring !
January 6th
Today we cut a bunch of risers and installed them to hold the upper deck plywood in place. The homasote for the upper deck has been traced out using the cut plywood pieces as the template but it was way too COLD to drag them outside to cut them with it just being just Brian and myself here this morning. (After all the HO guys don’t want us cutting it inside and creating a free instant winter scene). All the wires have been run and hung awaiting neat termination on a terminal strip.
Our town seems to be on the most bowed piece of plywood going and as such the center of town will have a street called High Street or maybe a park called High Park. Our flex track, switches, switch machines, etc have been ordered and should be coming in next week.
n-scale5I’m back to work on Monday, so the layout update frequency will likely slow quit a bit. For me working on the layout will be limited to evening and Saturdays, the whole working for a living is highly overrated… It would be so nicer to collect from OMERs instead of paying into it.
We hope the weather improves for next Saturday to be warm enough to get our upper deck homasote cut outside and installed inside. We would appreciate a few extra hands next Saturday to help with the dragging of homasote outside for cutting. (weather permitting)
January 8
Most of our cork roadbed, track, switches, Smail switch machine order is sitting in Daily Hobbies, I saw it with my own little eyes tonight (somehow the supplier forgot to send rail joiners though, good thing I over ordered when I built my code 55 layout a year ago). We at the stage where we will be hopefully trading an invoice (once Randy creates & prints one, I think he has incentive now as our order taking up a good chunk of his games room.) for a cheque soon so we can take delivery.