Late Posting This Week

I'm quite late posting this week, 'cuz I ran into computer trouble last Monday.  The hard drive failed on my laptop, so it's been out of service since then. My computer guy said something about the "boot config", and is rebuilding the drive.  Or at least trying to.  I didn't think I'd be posting anything at all this week.  But I'm using my adoring wife Linda's computer now, although it's kind of not the same and I haven't been able to sign in to my email yet.

Anyway, here's what I think is a real nice picture of modelers George Dutka and Don Janes on the platform at the Sarnia station last Monday, the 19th.

George arranged for us to meet up down there.  Have a look at the models these two brought along.

That's Don's RS-10 in the foreground, and George's Alco and FOS models behind.

I took a trip out to the local Lowes to get a piece of MDF to mount the structures for the bakery building kitbash on.  I bought material that's 1/4" thick this time, reasoning that it should be less flexible than the thinner product that I've used before.  This should make things just a little more secure as I move the models to and from the workbench to the layout.  I've cut a piece of the MDF to 8" wide and 48" long for this industry.

As in the past, the idea is to assemble this model as a sort of module that will be able to be easily lifted out for cleaning or upgrading or whatever, and could even be replaced with another different industry on another piece.

I wanted to try to have this industry with 2 spur tracks running along the front of it, so I'm going to try that idea out.  Here's a look at things as they currently sit, just roughed in on the layout. Next step will of course be to connect the tracks to the GTW line.

You can see the 1/4" MDF, which I think should match up in height nicely with some cork roadbed leading up to it. The silo and transfer building, an open-air loading dock area that I've scratched from materials I had on hand, and the (as yet roofless) main building.  I'll post more photos of the open dock next time.

I'm a little unsure whether I like this or not, as it looks like there might be a little too much trackage in one area.  That's the JSSX line on the left, the GTW in the middle, and then the new spur(s) on the right.  I'm going to try it out this way first though.