Category Archives: Progress

Quarter 4 2007

We continued modelling in the Autumn (Fall) as before, focusing on completing buildings. These first photos show the layout at our Club Open Evenings in early December. The Athearn Genesis F3A/B unit in the foreground of the first photo has DCC sound – but without DCC the volume is loud and rather irritating after a full evenings operation!

Steve has continued working along Susquehanna Street and several more buildings are nearing completion using the perspex core technique previously described – although painting will now be left so that all can be painted and detailed together. Paul has also now finished the fire escape on the Hooven Mercantile building – which again needs painting.

Chris has continued with the marathon project of the station building making very extensive use of jigs – and including pre-printed windows (more successfully than on the Ironworks), brass tubing for platform shelter supports and the wooden core of the tower. The model is being built on a section of platform that will lift into a slot on the baseboard. All other work has been done with plasticard:

Quarters 2&3 2007

We continued the year still working on two of the large buildings. Chris has made fantastic progress with the station building – the circular tower has been built on a wood core made by a friend. The supports for the awning are made of brass and much use has been made of jigs and templates.

Steve has finished a second version of the Mauch Chunk Iron Works but is not so pleased with it – but it will have to do for now. The windows will be replaced once some etched brass frames can be made.

Paul has been quietly working away at the staircase for the Hooven Mercantile building modifying three etched brass kits and making a fantastic job of it. These photos don’t really do it justice.

Quarter 1 2007

We have started the year well working on two of the large buildings. Chris has moved on from redrawing the plans of the station building to modelling it – a true labour of love; The circular tower will be built on a wood core made by a friend.

Steve, meanwhile, is using the perspex shell technique with the Ironworks – currently looking much cruder (but wait and see!). The dark-blue window frames have been printed out onto overhead film to make the windows and then painted on the inside with thinned grey enamel to simulate dirty factory windows. They are attached to the plasticard wall with liquid poly with the rough side (printed onto) outwards. For once the walls were painted before assembly.

Paul has been fettling the freight cars – specifically replacing all the wheelsets with metal wheels and getting the Kadees sorted. An important if tedious job.

Quarters 3&4 2006

Unfortunately, very little visible progress was made during the second half of 2006 . Time has been taken up with getting the pointwork functioning properly after the ballasting and several points have been rebuilt. Paul has also been doing sterling work in getting the rolling stock running more reliably and has also replaced most of the wheelsets on our freight cars with metal ones.

Chris spent a lot of time researching and redrawing the plans of the Mauch Chunk station building in AutoCAD (please contact us if you want the files) in preparation for building it this year. Steve has started on the Mauch Chunk Ironworks.

The photos below were mostly taken at our open day at the end of November and also show a Hallmark Babyface (wrong prototype – I know) painted for us by Blake Tatar. We hope to make some modifications to the roof vents to improve it’s appearance as the CNJ version.

We wish you all a Happy New Year for 2007 and happy modelling!

Quarter 2 2006

We have made some very visible progress in the second quarter this year – painting and ballasting all the track. Steve has done most of this with help from Ian and Chris for the painting. First stage was to undercoat the track with primer. We used a can of plastic primer for the plastic ties and a metal primer for the “circuit board” ties on the switches. We followed this through with a can of “fender primer” to turn them all grey and then finished off adding a little brown with an airbrush.

We used a mixture of black coal dust (from the bottom of a coal bucket) and almost white coal/wood ash – mixed to a dark grey; these were sieved thoroughly before use. We applied this over a layer of white glue, smoothed it out carefully and then sprayed with Isopropanol (IPA) as a wetting agent and then dilute white glue (about 30% in water with a drop of detergent added). Some touching up with a dropper was required in one or two places. Finally we are slowly painting the track sides rusty. Other natural materials were used in off-track areas.

Quarter 1 2006

As with last year we have made good progress in the first quarter – but it is again mostly invisible! Paul and Chris have just finished wiring the control panels for the switches and they work! We tried them out on the Open Day on Sunday 10th April and ran trains up and down all the tracks.

Steve is struggling with the sixth and seventh buildings on Susquehanna Street and Alisdair is working on the eighth. Ian is building the interiors and has so far completed two.

Quarter 4 2005

As usual, in the fourth quarter progress has slowed because of the time taken to organise the Merseyside MRS exhibition at the end of October (see photos). Paul and Chris have continued to work with the looms of cable leading to two point control panels – one for each end of the layout. The control panels have been drawn out and early 2006 should see them built.

Chris has also raised the “Merseyside standard” lighting rigs so that they are high enough above our rather high baseboards. These have been positioned as shown in the photos below. He has also been busy redrawing plans of the Station building in AutoCAD in preparation for building it (remember, he is an architect!). These will be put up on the site when complete for all to use.

Some of the photos show a (hopefully) increasing similarity to prototype pictures of Susquehanna Street – only another 10 buildings to go there!

Finally, we would like to wish you all happy modelling in 2006.
Take Care
Chris, Alisdair, Steve and Paul

Quarter 3 2005

Again in the third quarter we have made good progress. Paul and Chris have now finished wiring the switches and switch motors on the front of the layout – and have now connected them up with looms of cable which will lead to two point control panels – one for each end of the layout. We intend to operate the layout with two operators, one at each end, and one controlling the eastbound tracks and one the westbound tracks. However, the wiring looms will be flexible to that both panels can go at one end, or a the back, or at the front. We’ll see what works best

Chris has also nearly finished the Hooven Mercantile building – he’s even modelled the back. He only has to do the characteristic fire escape on the side to complete it and we have all the parts for that now.

Steve and Paul in particular are now spending a lot of time in preparation for the Merseyside exhibition at the end of October – we’ll put links in to the photos of that if you’re interested.

Photos include: Hooven Mercantile in all it’s glory – built by Chris (& us all relaxing).

Quarter 2 2005

Once again in the second quarter we are making good progress – once again it is mostly invisible! Paul with the help of Chris has continued to wire the switches and switch motors on the front of the layout – a tedious but essential job that has caused much debate!

However, more has been going on – Steve has now built the fifth building on Susquehanna Street and Chris has started on the Hooven Mercantile building. Steve has continued with the rock face above the road on the RH side and has finished carving and painting and weathering it.

Photos include: Steve’s fifth buiding; Paul and Chris have been wiring up the switches; Chris has been building the Hooven Mercantile building like a true Architect (he is one); And the rock face – it will look better with vines and bushes, I expect.

Quarter 1 2005

Once again in the first quarter we are making good progress – once again it is mostly invisible! Paul with the help of Chris has been wiring the switches on the front of the layout. Steve has been finishing the magnets for automatic uncoupling.

Steve has also rebuilt the fourth building on Susquehanna Street (the previous version just wasn’t up to scratch). Chris has added the handrail to the bridge and Steve has rebuilt the wall between the road and railroad, and then painted and weathered it. The rock face behind is being started using rock moulds.

The photos show some of the CNJ rolling stock that we have now accumulated on our Open Day at the start of May. We now have F3s from Stewart (AB – tangerine & blue), Athearn (A – green and yellow), An RS3, SW9 and S1 and RS12 (the latter two not actually seen at Mauch Chunk) and an FM H15-44 in blue with tangerine stripes. You can also see the weathered coal hoppers (Steve’s) and the filled hoppers (Paul’s). None of our steam is running on this day.