Works around Jimtown

Jimtown Scenery Commences

Jimtown is to the east of the southern wall which can be seen adjacent to previous work. BJ has been at it again putting the scenery base in for the residential and business side of town.

The town will be to the south of the yard which will contain two small silos and a general freight industry.

BJ has been busy putting in foam upon which 3mm MDF has been glued to allow buildings to be placed. It is intended to use HO scale buildings in the foreground and N scale in the rear to give a diminishing appearance.












Chris has been busy building some plaster kits I bought from Walthers quite a while ago. When we opened the international mail were found that some of the plaster sections had been broken in transit but Chris has done a fantastic repair job and most people could not find evidence of the breakage.I now have an opportunity to show off his excellent work.






Trial building arrangements

We tried different arrangements of the buildings to see what seems the best order for the street fronts. We decided in the arrangement in the second picture.






Bridgework

While we were busy doing the town scenery considerations, Rossco was addressing the track work for the bridge between Jimtown(eastern side)-Adamsville (northern side)of the layout.

The bridge between Jimtown and Adamsville locale is where Rossco has joined the sections of track forming double track across the bridge base. Details were shown in the 7th August update. Now the next task is to glue the tracks to the base with contact cement. Then the structural elements will be applied.



Joining the tracks on the bridge means the track laying on the upper level is complete and ready for test running - This means the onus is ow on me to finish the wiring and control panel.

Keep up the good work boys - If I did not have your support the outcomes would be less significant.

Iron Hill - Old Mine

When Adam my son was one year old (some 25 years ago) I built a Campbell Scale Wooden Model of a Mine Head. I lost the wheel house in my house moves and the mine head axle and wheel were gone to. I had always wanted to have a special area where this structure that I thought - one of my better early constructions - would have pride of place. Three layouts later if finally has a home and looks somewhat different to my basic structure! BJ has fixed it up for me.

See below what I gave him and the results that ensued.



And what came back...









When it was put back in its home it looked as if had been there for years. BJ your artistic work on my technical bare bones structures make a huge difference!







I'm so happy with the results.

Wiring, Power Districts and Control Panels

Wiring

Chris and Bob continued work at Picard Junction and along the Bottom Level on the Western Wall. We had to "pull the plug" Monday night when we found that there was a missing link in the understanding of implementing the point wiring strategy at Picard Junction. Wire 1 goes to point 5, wire 2 to point 6, wire three to point 7, and so on for wires 1 to 12 NOT wire 5 to point 5, wire 8 to point 8!!!!!

Chris and I labeled all the wires next morning to stop and further confusion - I was all because points 1 - 4 are fed by going around the room the other way as it's a few metres shorter.




















Power District Works

Power Booster 1 - Power District B
Bottom half revamped to include the additional block watchers for the hidden staging.






Power Booster 2 - Power District C
The pre-wired panel has been mounted inside the helix ready for the block section wires to be terminated in the terminal blocks.

I was pleased when I activated Power Booster 2 for the first time and the test loco crossed the Power District flawlessly.




Power Booster 3 - Power District D

Additional Block Watchers arrive




Control Panels
Bill spent Monday night terminating the wires from Picard Junction at the bottom level control panel terminal strips - Until I "Pulled the plug"!

Note the last photo taken Tuesday after all cables labeled!

Hornertown City Buildings

Barry has been working on the "City Classics" building facades ready for the mounting on 16mm MDF to give depth when they are positioned close to the backdrop at Hornertown on the bottom level. He removed the flashing from the castings and ensure surfaces were flat and smooth. He them assembled them.

Open Cut Mine Face

Well about twenty years ago when BJ was living in Whyalla some members of the current Monday Night Group visited Iron Knob and we inspected the iron ore loader loading the ore train which ran from Whyalla Steelworks to Iron Knob daily. Apart from being told we were trespassing by a staff member who affronted us we managed to get a 1/2 gallon ice cream container of actual iron ore. The first two pictures show the sifted product which has been in storage for all that time. It has made me reflect on just how long it has taken me to get around to completing the intentions of twenty or so years ago.






BJ started adding the real iron ore both stones and dust to the plaster face forming the open cut mine face.













The iron ore was then glued in place using normal scenery techniques.







The finer aspects of strata were hand brushed on to the "rock face".







The finished product - I'm impressed.





The only thing left to do is dress up the edges and apply the black border paint.

Another great job BJ!