Tag Archives: buildings

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.

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 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 4 2003

Progress over the autumn has continued slow, mainly as a result of spending time on society business. However, the pace has now picked up and progress is more obvious.

This is what we have been up to:
To start with here are some general shots taken on our Open Day in early November. Paul has continued to build switches (pointwork) for the front of the layout and he has been joined by Chris in this. Chris has started on the pilings that hold back the track after the wall has collapsed. Steve has finally started on the next (third) building on Susquehanna Street and, finally, we have acquired an RS3 and S1 to add to our F3 and SW9 – with some dull-coat and weathering these will fit in well when we model the early fifties.

Quarter 3 2003

Progress over the summer has been exceptionally slow, mainly as a result of vacations and having to spend time on society business. Chris has also been very busy building lighting gantries for the MMRS – however, we are certain that normal service will resume as as soon as possible !!

This is what we have been up to:
Steve has finished (except for the shop interiors – which Ian is doing) the first two buildings on Susquehanna Street. Paul has been busy too, building switches (pointwork) for the front of the layout; here he is being carefully supervised by Bill, our tea-bar manager. Paul has also painted and decalled an ATSF switcher into CNJ livery.

June 2003

Here’s the progress in May and June together, as May was rather slow. Paul carried on cutting holes for switch motors and wiring the switches in the storage yard, and has now completed it. Steve carried on laying sidewalk and Ian carved a tunnel mouth, required to get the track off the LH end. Chris and Steve cut away some of the riverside wall as in the prototype and Chris planned out the bridge and built the buttresses. Chris (with Paul’s help) spent most of May and June building lighting gantries for the club layouts. Steve has been building the first store on Susquehanna St. from plasticard on a perspex frame. This will be the subject of a separate article shortly (it looks better in the pictures than in real life!).

April 2003

Chris has been reshaping Mount Pisgah as it abuts onto route 209, introducing more polystyrene shavings! Steve has started to lay sidewalk from 3mm MDF in Susquehanna Street. Ian and Chris have used brick plasticard on the river wall and Ian has added the capping stones to the wall at the side of route 209. Finally Paul has started to permanently lay and wire the staging-yard track.

Photos include Ian cutting capping stones from plastistrip and glueing them along the top of the retaining wall

January 2003

Over Christmas Paul relaid the main lines and much of the yard track according to the Templot plans, leaving spaces for the pointwork (switches) except on the main lines which where temporarily laid through to allow us to run trains. Paul and Chris cut up the temporary Flagstaff mountain so that it could be permanently mounted – the gaps are over the baseboard joints. A tunnel has been introduced to allow the track to run off the modelled area at left. Steve started tracing photos of Susquehanna Street on his computer – using Adobe Photoshop to “straighten out” the images and PowerPoint to trace the outlines. Ian and Steve started to remount Mount Pisgah, starting with route 209 which has been built in plywood.