TLOC
Well-Known Member
Good morning on a lovely Friday morning. It’s 40f degrees now per the app and heading into the mid 50’s. The downer is the winds are strong at 15-20 mph and are gusting up to 40! There is a wind advisory issued telling us the winds are very strong at times!
I am heading out at 9 for a building session 5 miles and 17 minutes away. I also have quite a few weathered box cars completed for the layout owner. I know today’s plan is to test all trackage, signals and switches on the second deck after a 1pm lunch. We will test run the 3rd deck also but without the connections between the 2 decks. In the morning we will be finishing some raised flooring (crazy mushroom layout) and 2 drop bridges on the 1st level. There is about 20’ of 1st level framework put together but not installed yet, but it will be today. That will complete the 1st and second levels minus the NOLIX connection. The drywall base and cork road bed will also get installed before lunch on that section. The Penisula to be built yet (Summer) is being held off until all 2nd and 3rd decks are operational and in a few sections the base scenery in. The Penisula is actually the NOLIX but with observable trackage. The decks go from 40” to 56” to 80” which is why the raised flooring is being built.
I will also bring the unapproved but really worked over paper mill plan the owner, myself and a former locomotive engineer at a Paper Mill have been working together online. It’s a 1-1 plan on butcher paper and we are going to lay it out on the framework today. The plan has become very collaborative and today will be shown to the rest of the Crew for the 1st time. It was to be operated as a “turn” job but the thoughts now is that there will be a plant locomotive based at the mill. The “turn” will just do pickup and deliveries to the Paper Mill yard. After final approval (hopefully today) I will start building the structures. Since the layout is set in 1965 there will be quite a few brick fronted buildings but the water lab will be a old wood structure. I’m not building the water lab but most of the rest of the mill is mine to build. His goal is to have the layout operational by Thanksgiving including signals. I think with the normal building crew of 6 that’s easily within reach. The computer guys have all the signaling coding completed just need to keep installing and testing as we move along. The 2 signaling guys and the owner are retired geeks. I will have 31’ of background paper mill structures done by Labor Day based on 6 hours a week. The add-ons to the back ground buildings like the digestor building, the coal fired power plant, the shipping building will take much longer, but I’m looking at Easter 2026. Once the basic structures are complete there are a couple of the Crew that will add some details I will not add like the lights and interiors where they can be seen. I am not going to install the trackage. The track crew will follow the plan as will I.
The owners wife retired as a project manager from a large locally based but national construction company. She has a project list we are all working with that any of us can bring up on our PC’s, laptops or mobile devices. The goal is to be able to be a host Madison based op sessions for the inaugural 2026 Madison Operating Layout Group meet in May. RiverRail is also hosting their meet that month but that is for the LaCrosse, Reedsburg and Baraboo layouts. Same with the Thursday building sessions at the layout being re-built an hour north of me. He will host for both groups! Lots of layouts and building of layouts going on in the area. As Willie said the other day, if I move to Texas there are not that many layouts in the Wimberley area! I would miss this but I doubt a move is coming…
Enjoy the day
I am heading out at 9 for a building session 5 miles and 17 minutes away. I also have quite a few weathered box cars completed for the layout owner. I know today’s plan is to test all trackage, signals and switches on the second deck after a 1pm lunch. We will test run the 3rd deck also but without the connections between the 2 decks. In the morning we will be finishing some raised flooring (crazy mushroom layout) and 2 drop bridges on the 1st level. There is about 20’ of 1st level framework put together but not installed yet, but it will be today. That will complete the 1st and second levels minus the NOLIX connection. The drywall base and cork road bed will also get installed before lunch on that section. The Penisula to be built yet (Summer) is being held off until all 2nd and 3rd decks are operational and in a few sections the base scenery in. The Penisula is actually the NOLIX but with observable trackage. The decks go from 40” to 56” to 80” which is why the raised flooring is being built.
I will also bring the unapproved but really worked over paper mill plan the owner, myself and a former locomotive engineer at a Paper Mill have been working together online. It’s a 1-1 plan on butcher paper and we are going to lay it out on the framework today. The plan has become very collaborative and today will be shown to the rest of the Crew for the 1st time. It was to be operated as a “turn” job but the thoughts now is that there will be a plant locomotive based at the mill. The “turn” will just do pickup and deliveries to the Paper Mill yard. After final approval (hopefully today) I will start building the structures. Since the layout is set in 1965 there will be quite a few brick fronted buildings but the water lab will be a old wood structure. I’m not building the water lab but most of the rest of the mill is mine to build. His goal is to have the layout operational by Thanksgiving including signals. I think with the normal building crew of 6 that’s easily within reach. The computer guys have all the signaling coding completed just need to keep installing and testing as we move along. The 2 signaling guys and the owner are retired geeks. I will have 31’ of background paper mill structures done by Labor Day based on 6 hours a week. The add-ons to the back ground buildings like the digestor building, the coal fired power plant, the shipping building will take much longer, but I’m looking at Easter 2026. Once the basic structures are complete there are a couple of the Crew that will add some details I will not add like the lights and interiors where they can be seen. I am not going to install the trackage. The track crew will follow the plan as will I.
The owners wife retired as a project manager from a large locally based but national construction company. She has a project list we are all working with that any of us can bring up on our PC’s, laptops or mobile devices. The goal is to be able to be a host Madison based op sessions for the inaugural 2026 Madison Operating Layout Group meet in May. RiverRail is also hosting their meet that month but that is for the LaCrosse, Reedsburg and Baraboo layouts. Same with the Thursday building sessions at the layout being re-built an hour north of me. He will host for both groups! Lots of layouts and building of layouts going on in the area. As Willie said the other day, if I move to Texas there are not that many layouts in the Wimberley area! I would miss this but I doubt a move is coming…
Enjoy the day
