Category Archives: 2004

Quarter 4 2004

We have speeded up this quarter – Chris has moved on to building the bridge over the railroad (and over the river in the prototype). Paul has continued with the wiring, and has now finished all of the boards – a high quality piece of work. Steve has inserted pairs of ceramic magnets from Radio Shack under the trackwork at the front to act as uncouplers, and is working on the 4th and 5th buildings on Susquehanna Street. The photo extravaganza below was mainly taken on the open day at the start of December. Other bridge photos have been added in a special bridge page under the Projects heading.

Quarter 3 2004

We have plodded on this quarter – Chris has continued to focus on building replacement lighting gantries for taking club layouts to exhibitions and finished them for the exhibition at the end of October. Paul has continued with the wiring, and has now finished most of the boards on the front of the layout as well. Steve has continued scenic modelling on the “Lehigh River” at the front of the layout and has made good progress. The photos show some of this: The river stones starting out – a mixture of Woodland scenics cork and other light modelling stones laid into dilute PVA and, after some painting. First spray-painting with tan, then darker grey, and finally dry-brushing with light grey. The river finish is temporary – finalising it more at this stage would result in damage as areas behind are modelled. There will also be a lot of greenery added later.

Quarter 2 2004

Progress has slowed a little this quarter – mainly as Chris has been focusing on building replacement lighting gantries for taking club layouts to exhibitions. However, Paul has plodded on with the wiring, and has now finished his sixth board (all in the storage yard) – the wiring really is beautiful if you like that sort of thing. As I write he has started on the front boards. Steve has been doing some scenic modelling on the front wall and making a lot of noise carving stones out of plaster with his mini-drill. The photos show all this:

Photos include: Firstly Paul and the rewiring – by early June, all the four rear baseboards and the end boards had been wired and tests have ensured that trains will run. In early June, all the baseboards were re-assembled and the layout looked quite good. Paul started on the wiring of the front boards later in June. Steve worked on the wall along the Lehigh river – more details can be found on a project page – the river wall.

March 2004

Progress also continued well in February and March. Chris put finishing touches to the turnouts and trackwork on the front of the layout and Paul removed, wired and replaced two baseboards as he starts the laborious task of wiring the layout. Although we will use DCC eventually, he is wiring for standard operation at the start with four blocks. Chris has also built and placed a model weighscale (see archive photo #707).

Photos include: The wiring (I didn’t get the exciting photos of Paul actually doing it) is, as usual, quite inspiring! Chris starting on the finishing touches at the baseboard joints, and an open view of the layout without the backboard – removed so that baseboards can be taken out and wired. The (non-functioning) weighscale built by Chris (see photo #707)and a caboose under construction by Steve.

January 2004

Progress picked up in January and the photos show this. Chris and Paul forged ahead with the switches on the front of the layout and they are now all in place (although not wired or motored) and working! Even Steve has had a go at laying switches in the staging yard to provide new storage sidings – he has also finished most of the work on the third building.

Before we focus on the switches, here are the three buildings so far completed, Chris and Paul showing that laying switches is a very serious job, and three old HO hands assessing progress!

The completed switches as laid in January by Paul, Steve (some only) and Chris.