'Been far too long since I last posted progress on the layout, mainly because
of travel, work hours and the fact that from April-October I was totally
inactive as I helped a friend design, build and gather antiques for an Irish
pub in town. Now it's up and running and, with the help of the Pines & Prairies
gang, have been making up for lost time.
(I've posted pictures of some of the progress in the folder "Doyle.")
Last year began with two sessions by our resident Renaissance Man, Dave Jasper,
who laid down on the job to paint the backdrop for a new downstate Illinois
village. He polished off the 2-day job with a pint of Guinness! The village,
bisected by Rt 66, is still under construction and will feature numerous Bar
Mills, Pine Canyon, Banta and Twin Whistle kits.
The next job tackled on Christmas week was born of necessity to find a storage
track 16-feet long for the full-length California Zephyr which I was fortunate
to obtain from Bob Hogan. While I had a new 4-track Coach Yard in the former
lowly Wine snd Storage Room, building two additional tracks which would curve
around the back of the room would gain me 16-1/2 feet. Enter the Demolition
Gang, Kieska and Kemp, experts at blowing holes in cinder block walls. Three
hours later, one hole was widened for the CZ track and another created at the
end of the room will provide another 17 feet of storage through the Boiler Room
and also a long lead from hidden storage to a Bowser 24" turntable. Thus steam
powered can be turned from either the Chicago Yard or hidden storage. All
diesel power entering Chicago will cut off snd go directly to the Diesel Yard
across a Lift Bridge over the Chicago River. Coaches will be shoved into Union
Station by a Q 0-8-0 and NW2. The turntable has already been used to
successfully turn a Q 2-10-4 and send it back to the Yard for its next
assignment. And the house is still standing despite losing some more cinder
blocks!
Ken and Tom Lennon visted earlier this month to jawbone about the design of the
Frieght Transfer Yard which sprawls beneath the Chicago skyline. It's a smaller
yard, designed as a special purpose yard, not classification or such. It will
distribute fresh goods to the downtown area via an REA and freight house, serve
the Borden's creamery and Meadow Gold cold storage plant, have a TOFC ramp and
minimal storage for the power and cabeese of the transfers that work there.
Various roads will work this yard, including C&NW, Indiana Harbor Belt, and
Milwaukee Road. Major passenger trains and and fast freights will parade
through the scene on the main track. Fitting the Q into a crowded urban area
has required some unique track planning and construction and that's where Ken,
Tom and Doug Hodgdon's expertise has been invaluable. Ken has completed one
curved turnout at the throat and has nearly completed the second. relatively
short order. Outgoing transfer will use this track leading to a working bascule
bridge and on to their assignments. Several more custom turnouts may be needed
to complete the yard but Ken is a Poster Child for Fast Tracks and can build
even curved turnouts in relatively short order.
The Pines & Prairies guys may not take much time to post because we're usually
busy building, not dissecting daily minutiae on the List. But I'm grateful for
the their expertise, always learn something new, and appreciate the
comaraderie. And I'm wise to their tricks - when they send me to the garage on
some trumped-up mission to find some tiny tool, I can count on some new hole
suddenly appearing where minutes before none existed. But who can't use more
storage?!
More later from the frozen but brown landscape of Minnesota.
Steve (Doyle)
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