Huntington Loco Fuel Tank

BJ has been at work again

Starting with a morning coffee followed by a visit to the local hobby shop to collect some hardwood the construction commenced. Totally scratch built in what seemed like a few hours was the tank stand and tank.

Pipework is being added prior to painting.

Below are some pics of the construction work and trial assembly.

The stand



The four sides










The tank




The stand over the track




The assembled product








Final product after painting






Note the pump house and suction pipe for connection to delivery tank car.



A great job BJ!

More of the same this week

Upper Deck Control Panels

Turnout wiring to local control panels at Iron Hill and Stanvac was commenced this week. Chris pulled the wires and terminated at the turnout terminal strips and I terminated the other ends at the panels, terminated the AC power, installed the CD units and tested the turnout operation.











Chris wiring turnouts at Iron Hill






Rossco fine tuning the track work

Rossco continued the process of making sure the rail gaps at joiners were even and correct for the time of year - some rails needed shortening slightly to avoid summer expansion - copper sleepers were added where necessary at joints to ensure curvature is maintained at joints.








Barry trying Scenery

Barry has commenced the placement of styrene foam and the subsequent basic shaping of the proposed land form. His work is under the direction and watchful eyes of BJ my scenery guru.







Hunting Tunnel works continue

BJ added some more details around the tunnel mouth.








BJ in his "laid back supervising role"

Tunnel Portal works continue + wiring

More work on the portal and some progress this week on wiring turnouts and main control panel for the top level. Testing operation from the panel and fine adjustments for best operation after terminations.


Huntington Tunnel Portal

BJ continues detailing the portal










Main Layout top level control panel termination strips

Six turnouts left to wire! They are all close to the panel location.




Main Layout Booster 1 Wiring Top Section

A Digitrax PM42 provides four power districts and five Block Watchers provide the block sensing for signal inputs.

Huntington Tunnel Portal

I painted the inside of the tunnel black whilst BJ cut up the lumber for the portal.




Using 0.5mm card as a base BJ added planks one by one followed by the stringers for the side sections and roof. Then the assembly including the bracing was put together as shown below.








The trial fit






Grade crossing boards installed

Huntington nearing completion

The "Ugly" fixed

BJ placing the work crew on the new work platform





A closer look




Grain trucks arrive at the silos






Trees ans shrubs added in car park





View past the yard office






Trees ans shrubs added around turntable pit