April 8, 2005... Peter Sierson, Tom Staggs and Steve Wright descended on the Beckett residence at 9:30am and left a built and foamed layout ready for track at 4:30pm.
Supervision was given by Barry Beckett.
Tuesday May 17, 2005, construction continued:
We were almost stopped before we got started! This sign was put up right before Barry's road!
But we snuck in 6 construction workers and began at 9:00 am.
Barry decided that he was not going to have the dividing backboards
so we had a clear work area.
The first thing was to install (tape) the 1-1 printed layout on the foam.
By cutting along each track we were then able to outline the track plan on the foam itself.
Then the Cork was laid down over the lines.
We had to go out and buy more of these.
We figured out we had more than 1850 push pins on the layout when the cork roadbed was finished.
Time was around 1:00 pm
While the cork roadbed was drying the buss lines was pulled through pre drilled holes under the layout.
Six holes were sawed into the layout sides for the loconet panels.
The loconet panels were installed and the loconet was pulled thorough the pre drilled holes.
A shelf for the DCC equipment was built and hung under the side of the layout.
Finally, the cork adhesive was dry enough to pull the pins and start laying the track!
The track was laid, corners first. The 60 turnouts
were positioned and welded (soldered) in as they were reached.
Feeder wire holes were drilled.
Then each track had its feeder wires soldered to the buss line.
Trains were running, controlled by DCC, as the team walked out at 10:00 pm
Team consist: Joe Butler, Mike Curtis, Joel Gilchrist, Jimmie Guthrie, J.P. Ralph, Tom Staggs,
supervised by Barry Beckett and his Financial Officer Diane
BeckettAgain the construction team started at 9:00 am
All the remaining track was soldered together and glued to the cork.
This included: the inside main, the yard, passenger yard, 3 coal yards, icing facilities, and passing sidings. Spurs for other industries, such as a gravel pit, grain storage, oil refinery and feed mill were laid off the branch line.
The six bridges across the river were soldered in.
Varnish on inside main.
Here
are some pictures of a walk around the layout
Team consist: Joe Butler, Mike Curtis, Joel Gilchrist, Marquies Holland, J.P. Ralph, Tom Staggs, Steve Wright
More to come as this layout continues to be built.
Barry's home page