Week 179

Week 179

Sunday, December 31, 2017 thru Saturday, January 6, 2018

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2018 during Week 179

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Working on Melrose Park downtown and Metra Station...

Since Melrose Park is at ground level I'm going to need to remove the 2" pink "filler".

After cutting out the perimeter it's ready to be scraped out.

Now for the clean up.

Quite a mess.

That's better.
Now ready for the new 1" base.

Another perspective.

I saved some transport protective material from church and this will be a perfect new base for the town of Melrose Park.

Another perspective.

Monday, January 1, 2018

Happy New Year!

More on Melrose Park...

I had to extend the table to make room for the station platform on the south side of the tracks.
Note the clamps in place.

Clamps are gone and the strip of wood now secure.

I had to trim the white filler material, but now I'm ready to apply adhesive.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

No train activity today.

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Train Day - Train Crew
Jordan Osborn stopped by to say, "Hey".
Carlos Baez and Dean Hatzis came and strategized our next steps.
Here's what it looked like...

First, we'll take a look at the progress Carlos Baez has made on the retention pond.
Each time he sends me a picture there's more details added.

This picture gives you a closer view.
Nice work, don't you think.
Dean Hatzis said, "Did you have a professional help you with this?"

Question: Guess what came in the mail today from Amazon?
See last picture for today's answer.

We started our afternoon at the East Power District checking out Melrose Park Downtown.

Check out this major buckle.
I'm going to need to go around the layout and cut out some rail to make room for the winter wood expansions.
Such a bummer!

We've checked out the interstate Highways 290 and 294 near Berkeley and Proviso Yard.
Now Carlos Baez is checking scale distance for the diameter of the doll rods Dean is holding in his hand.
We figured it would be about 2-3' in scale feet.

The 3/4" doll rods will be used for the columns supporting Chicago Downtown over Union Station.

Carlos Baez and Dean Hatzis checking out Chicago Downtown.

And finally, we finish up by talking shop talk.

Answer: James and Natalie Crockett's Christmas present to me this year.

Thursday, January 4, 2018

Carlos has been working on the RR at home.
Check this out...

This is the BEFORE water picture.

This is the AFTER water picture.

Carlos is working on the stream coming from the pipe.
Hard to see in this picture, but pretty obvious in the next.

Friday, January 5, 2018
Now Carlos is getting serious.
Check out the active "stream" of water coming from the drain pipe.

More details being added...

Will the retention pond be used for recreation?

Or will the retention pond be used as a construction site?

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Now for more slow progress at Melrose Park...

10am-11:30am

I like working in the dining room because there's much more light and space.
First I had to darken my lines for the area to cut out.

Then I laid out the paper that I will use to cut out the "asphalt" base for roads and parking lots.
And the concrete sections I will use for sidewalks and the building bases.

Here's the outline I will use to cut out the concrete sections.
I will first use the large pattern to cut out the "asphalt" to also use as the base for Melrose Park.

Now we've moved downstairs and removed all the buildings to expose the subbase of Melrose Park.
You can see Week 178 to see how I got to this point.

Here's the pattern I made upstairs in the dining room to check to see if the buildings will fit as planned.

Not bad.
I'm ready for cutting out the "asphalt" and "concrete" sections using the patterns.
More to come...