We start work on the "Test and Development" sections.


  More "Test and Development".

  One months worth of work!

  Open benchwork, risers, spline sub roadbed, & homosote.


  Work on the yard starts.


  A view of the yard area.


  Joe Servillo's idea for our 20' long lower yard. (Large Wide file)


  The yard showing the 2% grade to the mainline.


  More yard area.


  The yard will continue under the mezzanine.


  Test trackwork is started, but no trains yet.


  Its really dark so, Barry puts in more lights! The track has been removed.


  More Yard is added. The 2% grade to the second room can be seen.


  Closeup of the entrance of the 2% grade into the next room.


  We're in the next room! Well the Sub-Roadbed is anyway!


The Main line comes in from the right, with the branch line to
the coal facility coming off of it, and coming towards the camera.

We are only inches above the floor here, but will be at 30 inches
above the floor before the next corner (and yard).

  Another view of the main line coming into the 2nd room.


  We move through the second room, and into the third room.


After the branch line to the to the coal facility is past (bottom right), the main
line continues over a bridge (scratch built by John Willits), and into the third
room. Just after the bridge we come to our first siding. It will be twenty feet
long, and remember this is still on a 2% grade. We still have a lot of work to
do on the building!

  Moving into the third room, with our first siding showing.


  The start of heading back to the 2nd room, for more elevation gain.



  It's time to start testing our track work!


    
Joe's BNSF Modern Power (I think they are SD somethings)

    
Joe's Great Northern F units. Yes, we did clean the tracks before running!


An SP AC-12. We also tested the track with a Yellowstone.

Pleased to say we had no major problems!

  The East end of the Yard.


    

With more yard inplace we had a demonstration of North Coast Engineering DCC.

    

  We start work on the helix. It will go up 2 revolutions from the first room, to the second room and


  down 3 revolutions to a future staging yard.


    

More work gets done on the helix

    
Each level of the is being held in place by wooden blocks, we have yet to finish the permanent braces.

  Looking towards the Lower Yard, from the helix.


We "Test" our yard, and a few new DCC equipped locomotives"

    

It was a lot of fun!

Further testing of our "Test and Development Section" revealed some alignment problems, and
we decided to re-do a section from the sub roadbed up.

      

All of the track in this area has been re-done, and will soon hidden beneath the layout.
      
The re-worked track is now under what will become an oil refinery

Meanwhile, work on the helix continues,
      
The upper two spirals are on the main line, while the bottom three will go to the future Port St. Joe.

Our coverage of the second and third rooms continues from a while back;

  Moving into the third room, with our first siding showing.


  The start of heading back to the 2nd room, for more elevation gain.


Well work has also progressed there, albeit a little slower,
      
Our first siding is in the second and third rooms. The track continues around a big horseshoe curve and
heads back to the second room. More than half of the uprights in this room will be replaced with
proper "Benchwork" in the future.

Leaving the third room for the second and heading for the first, where we will will have another
horseshoe curve!
      




More to come!

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Copyright © 2003 - 2004 Amtrak Employees Model Railroad Club
Floor Plans © by Barry Draper & Joe Servillo
Images© by Joe Servillo
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