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The bridge section is starting to look like some of the river crossings in Alabama with crops growing in the flood plane and wild scrub plants around the edge of the cultivated area.
(The beverage in his hand is a Dr. Pepper soda, not an adult beverage.)
At the other end of the section, we continue to build up the hill for a cut and a road bridge crossing the track. It looks pretty rough now, but will be trimmed to a contoured slope with structures when finished.
It becomes like a jigsaw puzzle finding scrap foam pieces of the right thickness to cut and fit together to form building blocks.
The bridge and roadway shown here are not the ones that will be used in the finished scene.
We did not get a lot done this week.
We had our annual club business meeting and election of officers. Yes, a couple people were railroaded into holding office, but we needed a greater diversity of officers.
About 80 % of the main line track is laid, but we literally ran out of track and more is ordered.
Last weekend, the McWane display director visited the layout. He was impressed with the progress we have made on the bridge sections. There are some problems with space and protective barriers for the holiday train show, so he has asked us to display only the bridge section as a "things to come" teaser for the patrons to see this year.
Attached is a picture of the current "farm" end of the bridge section of the AG&W.
The upper bridge corner has been base coated for scenery, including the cut where the track runs through it.
Approximately 90 % of the main line track has been laid. The track over the bridge is being weathered and aged to match the old rusty bridge.
This is a case where appearance is everything. We certainly do not want shiny new tracks on that beautiful weathered bridge, especially since all the other track will be weathered.
We finally located the ballasting material to be used on the layout. It is a fine grain marble material we acquired several years ago. As you can tell in the background, we are not as well organized as we should be.
I'm kinda embarrassed to tell you there are no pictures this time. All the little electrons leaked out of my phone battery, so it refused to work.
All it would have shown is more trees added to the woods near the bridge.
We had a visit from the Display manager at McWane in our club room. He was surprised to see all the things we make, like bridges, trees and bushes, for the layout. He thought we just bought pre-made structures or scenery and planted it. He was impressed with our progress, but had some bad news. We will have to use the glass barriers from another display that will limit us to showing only the two new bridge sections this year.
Instead of just a static display, we figured out how to add a temporary track on the ends and backside of the sections. We can run a short , light train during the weekend when members are on duty.
If things work out, I'll get pictures.
I will be out of town on Saturday when we usually work on the AG&W. I dropped off some material for use on the layout this week by the scenery crew.
While there, I took a picture with my fully charged phone camera this time. You can see a barn in the foreground and a tugboat and barge on the river. More trees and shrubs are were added along this side of the river bank.
This pic is the final look we will present to the public at McWane this Holiday Show.
The barn has been added to show that this is a working farm scene. The shed in the post last week is too low to store machinery like a tractor.
This shot is looking from the river edge, back toward the field.
There may be a different look next year as more scenery work is done on the layout.
Cool layout. One thing i don't understand though, why are your cross overs for the main station (on the double track mainline) so far away from the station trackage? As a rule of thumb all switches at the stations are layed out, so all tracks can be accessed from all inbound tracks, and vice versa. Really the exception would be if it's an island type station with two mainlines coming into the complex with sidings on both sides of the stations.
Cool layout. One thing i don't understand though, why are your cross overs for the main station (on the double track mainline) so far away from the station trackage?
I cannot really give you a reasonable answer for that track plan. I was not part of the track planning, but I can tell you the the track on the layout is not following the published track plan. The structures have changed in size and location from the original plan. This is truly a work in progress.
The Holiday show opened to the public on Saturday, Nov. 22rd. McWane provided this sign for the two bridge sections of the AG&W on display.
The water in the river was poured and hardened to a mirror finish.
The Black Warrior River is a dark green , murky water river in western central Alabama that is being modeled. The gray foam behind the section is a temporary track to have trains running for the public, rather than just a static display.
I had the late Sunday afternoon shift to answer questions, point out features on the displays and keep track of the young mothers wearing shorts and tee shirts in the museum. I had one young man ask where he could buy a bridge like this one for his home layout. I had to tell him it would not fit on his 4 x 8' layout.
After the Holiday show, after the layout teardowns and return to storage, the AG&W was reassembled and work started again.
This past Saturday, the final modular section was put in place, hinges attached to the adjoining sections and the track attached.
Finally! We have a complete loop of track around the whole layout. We have run trains over the completed sections, so no major problems are expected. A diesel engine made the first lap without a hitch, so a few cars were added to make up a real train.
Murphy rode the train. A low coupler hose found a track nail that was not flush with the track.
The car was removed and the track nail was adjusted to be flush with the track.
The train continued with several added cars for several trips to see that there were no more trouble spots.
No pictures today.
We had an open house for people who had expressed an interest in joining the Wrecking Crew and learning about model railroading.
One of the things we did today was have a short clinic on soldering tap wires from outside the track rails to the main power bus cable under the layout. One of the volunteers to solder was a 12 yo young man who made a great solder connection.
Looks like 5 people are serious about joining the club.
We also continued to lay cork for sidings and turnouts.
Another Saturday excursion to the AG&W, where we put several probationary members to work on the layout. A young man expressed interest is laying track. We are putting down track on some sidings and here is a turnout being installed on a long siding.
With a little gentle guidance, our young friend snips out a couple ties on each end of the new turnout to allow rail joiners to be installed. After installing the track, it all has to be nailed
It is amazing how fast young people pick up construction techniques. He watched track installation last week and nailed down the turnout andflex track correctly by himself under the watchful eye of an expert. This is what a teaching club likes to do.
This week had activity in several areas, mostly track work and scenery..
In the foreground of this picture, we are test locating several structures. In the background, sidings are being installed for this commercial area.
Not all our new trainees are too young to shave.
If you are going to be a scenery guru, you should dess the part. He is leading several people to install a coal barge unloading facility, seen in the lower right corner of the picture. A better picture is in out future
An additional operation layout is in our future in-the-basement and will not be for display. Now is the best time to cut the main track and install a turnout before the scenery is done in this area.
We had some more visitors this week, three boys and their mother. They showed an interest is everything we were doing.
The boys were especially interested with laying track and installing switches.
All three learned to lay cork, set switches and properly position rail joiners.
Later, they helped place dark polyfil fiber on the new hill placed as a view bock to the coal barge unloading terminal.
This area is across from the bridge and farm shown previously.. The brown dirt base is what the scenery lead calls "cuppa base". He mixes a cup of baked real dirt, a cup of sculptamold, a cup of brown latex paint and a cup of white glue. He paints this mixture over the foam. It then dries to a hard, durable skin that ground cover and scenery is applied to in layers. The dark covering looks like shadows under brush, shrubs and trees.
I was matched with my skill level by reclaiming the pilings off the old layout for the coal terminal dock. I got to chip off the old plaster and glue.
Got involved in a real life project that delayed picture posting on the layout.
In the mean time, the AG&W completed negotiations with Southern railway for track usege rights into Mississippi and Louisiana via this bridge.
Part of the problem is that there is a 130 ton limit on this bridge. Southern cannot run loaded coal trains to New Orleans over this bridge, but can return empties over this route, saving over 250 miles per trip.
Adding rock faces to the hill
Around the corner is a river coal loading facility.
Below, young modelers learn too lay in turnouts to sidings.
Where do we live? We have not quite decided yet. We are starting to place buildings in locations to check placement.
About 98% of the track work is finished. Still working on a few sidings, but there is no monkeying around getting the sidings installed.
Notice who is doing the work and who is supervising?
Gotta check the track by running cars over each foot of track to make sure there are no problem spots.
As we start placing buildings, we have to get new buildings assembled. This Young modeler is putting a left hand twist to keep everything in alignment.
Some models are being salvaged from other layouts and need repair and re-assembly to take their place on the AG&W.
We have abut 11 young people from 7 to 14 years old that attend our work sessions on a regular basis. Not all attend the same Saturdays but they keep showing up to learn different aspects of the hobby. The two girls are as enthusiastic as the boys. The parents must accompany their children to our sessions which makes attendance irregular for other family priorities.
We had to have a rule in place for parents to accompany the kids as well because many started using us as a babysitting service. One parent got carried away and came back over an hour after we closed! Lol
