Progress during April

April has been a busy month with my wife winning a job in Pt Augusta (330km from home) so there has been some packing up and purchasing things to furnish her new unit in Pt Augusta (this also had to be inspected). I celebrated my birthday, endured Easter, Anzac Day & Mother-In_Law's birthday.

The Monday night roster seems to be working with a few members having things rearranged for a while for various reasons. School holidays interrupted the Tuesday team as well with Chris being away and BJ having his son home.

Never the less some great things have happened and some progress made on the layout. So let's have a look at what has been achieved.


Fleets Loop Track Wiring

Well this was the first area where construction and track laying commenced and all tracks are in the same Power District so 2 power buses for 4 tracks was the go until... The introduction of block occupancy detection. As these tracks are hidden and block detection introduced it now requires a power bus per track. Chris has been modifying Bob's earlier work to add two additional buses and change the feeders accordingly.

Chris has nearly finished .. but not quite .. two tracks have "shorts" so some detective work is still required as they all worked ok before.....


Stirling Branch

This was my "first attempt" at trying the principles behind Joe Fugates scenery technique of using Vermiculite, Patching Plaster, and Portland Cement. The finish on the first batch finish left a bit to be desired but the second and third got better! think the texture will allow a better outcome than the wall plaster I have used previously.

It was in the cutting where the Branch departs inside Lewiston Loop.

Onka River Valley

Work has started on the river valley between Adamsville and Jimtown. It will be the most complicated and challenging scenery construct on the Upper Level using Joe Fugates "Vermiculite" mix. I was low on masking tape so I used some excess packing tape over shaped styrene foam to form the base for the mix. I thonk it turned out quite nicely. Have a look below.

Iron Hill

The ore storage bin that receives ore from the mine has been installed along with the conveyor house. The structures and conveyor received their final weathering once placed and secured.

The mine goods platform has also been installed. All mine supplies like machine parts, lubricants and other consumables are unloaded here.

Jimtown

Milk van and farmers truck vehicles have been added.

BJ has been constructing the cattle yards from raw materials and whilst the loading ramps and remainder of the cattle are to be installed you get a good idea of what I will end up with. I have put some thin perspex in front to protect BJ's work.

Bottom Level Backdrop Painting

Barry got busy for me on my scheduled Monday night and he completed about one third of the Lower Level backdrop.

Fascia & Throttle LAN Wiring

Chris and Bob worked on the Lower Level fascia then brought the Throttle LAN through for later termination.

Bill Hunting learns Operations at Huntington

Bill spent the night learning how to operate his namesake town. A few workers disappeared at different times to "help and advise!!"

Trestle Building

I'm building my first trestle using Joe Fugate's methods. A couple of progress photos are below.

Thanks guys for your continued help and advice it is greatly appreciated.

I will be helping my daughter with some house renovations which will distract me for a few weeks so progress during May / June might be a bit slow.....