Week 61

Week 61

In preparation for our weekly Train Crew Session I thought I'd get some prep work done beforehand.

Chronological Order
beginning...

Sunday, September 6, 2015

I forgot to take a picture of me painting the intermodal crane, but here's the paint box I used.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Labor Day

The next day, I finished painting the hand rails and ladders and then attached them to the crane.

Here are some very cool pics...

 First shot highlights the top ladders and engine control side.

 Moving around in a counter clockwise fashion, I was impressed how this picture turned out with the black background. I only had lights on in the South Power District. 

The rest of the layout was in the dark.

 Continuing around counter clockwise another shot of the operation.

 Moving out a bit to catch a picture of yard activity, I took this picture.

Finally, with the stacked containers in the foreground, I took this picture looking south.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Train Crew Day
Attendance in order of appearance
Curt Berg, Ed Nelson, Dean Hatzis, Josh Jones, Jordan Osborn
Carlos Baez MIA working 3rd shift this week.

 Josh Jones and Jordan Osborn work on the Metra/West Chicago yard parameters.
They were taking measurements for the track needed to finish laying the track.
They also took notes on what switches we needed to purchase at the Train Show this weekend.

 Another "cameo" shot of Josh and Jordan.

 On the other side of the layout Ed Nelson and Dean Hatzis spent the session troubleshooting the switching problems at West Proviso Yard.

 Dean and Ed removed the old cork track bed and inserted the thicker mainline cork to even out the track.

 Another view of Josh and Jordan working on the measurements.

 In the meantime, I took some time to hook up the DCMaster Command Station.
This system interacts with the Dash-9 to activate the bell and horn.

Here's how it was hooked up to the power pack and the track.

This video shows the Dash-9 heading into East Proviso Yard. At .46 you'll hear Dean acknowledge the engine derail right on queue at the location where he and Ed were troubleshooting.

We decided we'll replace the switches next week after I buy replacement switches at the Train Show on Sunday.

Josh Jones taking measurements at Union Station for track needs.
He also wrote down the number of switches needed to build the terminal yard.

Hopefully this project will be able to get started soon.