Construction Journal Archives
April 8, 2009
Dwight has made great strides in getting the mountain completed. We sprayed the castings with diluted acrylics tonight and the result was amazing. We also grassinated the top of the mountain.
Dave is working on installing final wiring and Tortoise installs on Coyoti Flats.
March 24, 2009
Dwight was madly 'Hydrocalling' his mountain and snowshed. It's looking awesome. We tried the wrinkled brown paper idea to see how it looked and it worked really well!
We also completed all the wiring on Dave's first section (Except for the Tortoise)
February 24, 2009
The 'Grassinator Mk II' is being used to put some grass on Dave's abandoned siding next to his cattle pen. We blended two different static grass colours and it works very nicely. We need to mention that Dave just was awarded the NMRA's 'Golden Spike'! Justly deserved, too.
Dwight's step-mom, Val, said we weren't getting our photos up quickly enough, so these progress shots of McKay's Curve are for her. As you can see, Dwight is doing a bang up job of scratchbuilding a snow-shed and tunnel.
January 14, 2009
The 'Grassinator' is up and functioning. We build a static grass machine using a few ideas from Joe Fugate and another site. The results are quite good, as you can see from the photos below.
December 10, 2008
Dwight finally got enough nerve up to begin the hydrocal scenery.
December 3, 2008
A tale of three bridges! We've all been working on bridges. Dwight is just beginning the install of his MEW Deck Girder bridge. Dave is putting the final touches on his second road bridge and I am completing the addition of water to my Fourth Coulee trestle module.
November 19, 2008
Dave is trying out different layouts for Coyoti Flats. The new town will sport an interesting mix of structures that Dave is importing from his home layout. The plan is to build city blocks out of 0.060 styrene and the roads out of either 0.040 styrene or builders felt. We are still noodling that decision.
Dwight and I are working on constructing the bridge abutments for his deck girder out of styrene.
November 12, 2008
Dave started work on the new 5' long center section of Coyoti Flats tonight. Its going to make a major change to its configuration, lengthening all of the storage tracks as well as allowing Dave to build a neat, little prairie town.
Dwight has built his little 50' MEW deck girder bridge and we've cut the rail out for installation. He's planning on building the abutments out of masonite and painting it concrete gray. Should look sweet!
I'm working on the creek on Fourth Coulee. I'm trying a method that Ron Morse published in Narrow Gauge Digest. It uses Future Floor Wax for the water and aquarium filter material to create white water rapids. In the photo below, I've just tried two little tests of the white filter material and it definitely looks promising.
October 21, 2008
Its been a long time getting there but we finally have the new web site up. Sorry for the long gap in reporting, but it will get back on track(pun intended.)
We completed laying the flex track on Dwight's McKay Curve tonight. Next step will be to cut out the top plywood where the stream and lake will be going.
Dave is busily installing new bases for the structures on Coyoti Flats. He is also designing a new 5' center section that will make the module 13' long.
July 11, 2008
We started out with good intentions _ honest we did! Dave had printed out the requirements for Alberta Free-mo 2008 and we started going through the list and then, for some reason, we got sidetracked. We�re blaming it all on Dwight! He said that he would like to ballast some track and I happened to have a module just ready for that. So we did. Meanwhile, Dave had built this neat little road bridge and he thought that if we were ballasting, he might as well be installing his bridge. So, next week we really have to get to our punch list.
June 30, 2008
Work has been rather hectic, so I haven't been as timely with the posts as I should be. Dave and I joined our buddy, Rider on the trip to Chilliwack 2008. Phenomenal show! We met tons of special people from the Calgary Freemo group and they were most helpful. Thanks especially to Tracy, Lorne and Doug! I�ve added a special page of photos from the show. You can certainly see where my interests are. About 90% of the photos were from the Freemo layout. Dave and I are madly scampering to get our modules ready for Alberta Free-mo 2008. Last Wednesday, we ran trains across all the sections that are making the trip. We did encounter a problem with one of the turnouts. It looks like we might have to swap one out. The photos are starting to show rather complete modules! About time.
June 6, 2008
This week we were working on wiring up the modules. We got all the DCC Loconet cable crimped and connected to the UP5's on Dave's module. Mine will just have a straight 4' cable. We also wired our first Cinch-Jones connection. I can see why everyone's switching to Anderson PowerPole connectors! I ordered some goodies from Scenic Express. Hopefully it will get here before Big Valley. I am really looking forward to going to Chilliwack and seeing Freemo up close and personal for the first time. I'm hoping to hook up with Doug Soeder of the Calgary club and get all the scoop on Big Valley. I'm also going looking for some BCR rolling stock.
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Well, after taking far too long, my trestle is almost completed! You can see from the photos that I still have to complete the abutments and one more bent. Hopefully, before our next building night, I will have it ready for installation. Dave was madly pouring Hydrocal all over the top of his module. He figures one more night and it should be ready for painting. While cleaning all the structures off the section that was having the hydrocal job, Dave placed the structures on the other section and I think it looks better there than in the original location. We still have wiring of the Cinch-Jones plugs to do on all our modules. That�s a fairly high priority! We�re waiting until after Chilliwack 2008 to see how other groups handle the dual height legs.
