Stock Car Chronicles, The really tedious job.

The worst is over.

All the tension rods and the bracing timber overlays are done. As well as the lettering boards.
All those tension rods make for a really striking model, and there's no simple way to replicate them. 16 pieces of wire have to be cut and secured in place and then all the brace caps need to be deflashed, trimmed and secured. Takes about an hour a car.
Next is grabirons. Lots and lots of drop grabirons, but that should go fairly quickly.
You can tell the end is in site when the box starts to look empty of parts.

But first I have to put them aside for a day or so, while I finish another project now that the mail finally delivered a missing part.
Happy New Year all. And thanks for reading.

Stock car Chronicles, Brake rodding

Well that went quicker than I'd feared it might.
All 15 cars now have all the underbody brake rods added.

For this task, I did not use the kit supplied cast resin brake levers. Who wants to take the time to clean them up? Instead I used etched levers that I sell through Yarmouth Model Work. With them being 0.005" thick brass I can also easily add clevis' on the brake rods.
I like to use Tichy turnbuckles with one end cut off to represent the clevis that is present on the ends of brake rods. It's a nice detail and makes for a very secure connection between the lever and the rod. And it's quick to do.
The other added touch I do is the bit of chain on the hand brake rod connecting to the brake cylinder. I bend a small loop in the end of a piece of wire, add a length of scale chain and close the loop. The chain is secure to the brake lever with a "U" shaped bit of thin wire and the rod is secured into the truck bolster. All told it takes about 15-20 minutes to add all those details.
Now for some would question adding so much detail to the underside of a model, where it may not get seen. Well, more and more layouts are being built at eye level and who amongst us hasn't squatted down to look at models at track level? That's when those details really show.
Also, I know it's there and I kinda enjoy making the effort.
The side tension rods are next, wait till you see what that does for the look of this car.

Stock Car Chronicles, Brake parts

Well it's back to regularly scheduled programming, which today featured AB brake parts for the stock cars.
The Westerfield kits included cast resin AB brake parts, which I chose to not spend the time deflashing and fiddling with. Instead I used Tichy AB brake parts. The Tichy parts are a tad undersized but much nicer to work with. I assembled 15 sets of parts in about an hour.
I also chose to alter slightly the mounting arrangement for the triple valve.
I made a simple platform from 3 pieces of 1X8 styrene, which I found goes in quicker and simpler than the various brackets Westerfield provided.

0.010" wire is used to plumb the parts together. The layout of the parts is a tad uncommon. Usually the triple valve is on the same side as the cylinder, but a little variety never hurts.
Probably tomorrow, the brake rigging will get started. Wonder how far these cars will get before the year's over?

It was a productive Xmas Day

With no kids and family far away, "traditional" Xmas activities are a non-starter around here. So what better way to pass the day than building a roundhouse?
The St Thomas yard requires a roundhouse, but since I'm modeling the post steam era, a functioning roundhouse is not required. So I chose to truncate much of the structure to save on layout space. I'll have 2 stalls open for SW-8s that call St Thomas home and an open air track and the rest will be up to your imagination.
I started with laying out the floor, orienting against the backdrop and centering off of the turntable.
With that laid out and cut it was to the bench.

It took careful geometry to get the doors centred and square to the tracks. From there I cut Evergreen Board and Batten to form the exterior walls, using photos to estimate the actual dimensions. With the long wall determined I cut partitions using the exterior wall as a guide. One partition per bay, to help support the roof panels which will come later.
With the cutting done and square in hand the partitions were glued in place.

From there the door headers were cut and glued in place as well as the only set of posts and beams was created and glued in place as well.

Now I have to sit down and create the 9 pairs of doors, and paint the interior.
The roof will be simple enough, just a lot of careful cutting.
For now it sits in it's place of honour waiting for another "me day".

And now back to work. Stock cars await me.

Stock Car Chronicles, painted interiors

To date, I've built over 100 resin stock cars. These are the first that I've painted the interiors on. I feel that it's rather tricky to see the interiors, but the client desires rule.

There was a protracted discussion as to what colour to paint the interior. There seems to be no definitive documentation about whether the NYC  painted the interiors, left them as raw wood, or kept them lime washed. All were know practices by different railways.
In the end it was decided to paint the interiors the same as the exteriors. For this job I'm using Tru-Color NYC freight car brown. It's a good paint that goes on well, dries quickly, and is a gloss finish. All good points for me.
The only thing I don't care for is the acetone base. Even with a professional spray booth, acetone can be rather powerful stuff.
With this done, the floors can be installed and the hours adding details will now begin.
Well not "now", more like tomorrow.

WTF doesn't even begin to cover it!

I've been playing around with various options for yard ballast.
The "cinders" I've been using isn't quite doing it for me.
I did a little online searching and came across the use of "sanded grout" as a ground cover. I liked the visual results I saw in the photos. So I bought a box and started playing with it.
I found that just bonding it down with water and relying on the integral bonding agents to be inadequate. Thin Weldbond left a shiny surface which was not acceptable.
So I bought a jar of Acrylic Matt Medium. Thinned it about 3-1 and this is the result.

What is all this white crap?!?!?!?
I'm not sure where to go next with this. Can I even cover this or do I have to rip this section of track up and start again?
I've never heard of this happening with Matt Medium. WTF?

Stockcar Chronicles, First major hurdle over

The most daunting task in building resin stock cars is cleaning the flash from between the slats on the sides, doors, and sometimes the ends. For the 15 car build that task is now over. And it went better than I had hoped.
It wound up taking about 40 minutes a car over 2 days to clean the 15 sets of castings. And it generated that largest pile of bits of flash and dust I've seen here.

My sanding "station" is a sheet of 1/4" plexi with 80 grit paper glued to it. There are some who will tell you that anything rougher than 200 grit is asking for trouble. But I've done over 100 stock cars now and have a feel for this task.
One does need to pay attention. There's a very real tactile experience involved. As the flash starts to get to the thinness desired, you can feel the difference in the resistance through your fingertips. The big take away for this job is to not "zone out" when sanding. The hours of sanding in a circular motion can lull you into a semi-comatose state if you're not careful.
Another important aspect of tackling a job this big, is to be organized.

Every kit and it's contents were numbered so as to be sure to not mix the parts from one kit to another. There are always minor variations from one resin kit to another, that's just the nature of the beast. The best way to avoid fits when assembling the body parts is to keep the parts together as they were cast.
Next step, assemble the bodies and roofs so I can paint the interiors.

Take that Hydro One!

It may be a case of tilting at windmills, (a Don Quixote reference), but I'm hoping to save some money in the long run.

I just purchased 30 4' LED replacement tubes for all my florescent lighting in the basement. They are purported to draw 1/2 the power of T-8 tubes. Given that Ontario has one of the highest electricity rates in North America, anything I can do to reduce my bill is a good idea.
The tube on the right is one of the LED units. It's a little warmer than the old T-8 to the left, but I'm okay with that.
And they aren't cheap! 30 tubes cost almost $900.00 after taxes and that was with a deal from the supplier. But given the fact that 1/2 of them are on upwards of 12 hours a day, I should recoup the expense in a year or 2.
The best part is the fact that the actual tube is plastic, not glass. I can go back to dropping things again without fear of shards everywhere!

Stock Car Chronicles

There`s no doubt in my mind that a few of you loyal readers would enjoy following along as I tackle this 15 car build.
So here we go;
Weighting stock cars.
Stock car models are always a tad tricky to weight. There`s all that openness to contend with. So my usual solution of 1/2"nuts glued inside the body is not an option. Zinc plated hardware looks nothing like pigs or cows.
So I did a little online searching and bought a sheet of lead from http://www.rotometals.com/.  A 12" x 24"x 1/16"thick cost me $15.00 plus shipping. That's lots of lead for this and future projects.
Since it's non-ferrous I had no concerns about cutting the lead on my trusty old paper cutter.

A pile of 1" x 5" strips was cut up and secured onto the cast resin floors.

I have found that the best method of securing weight in models is to use silicone sealant. It remains flexible and yet sticks to almost everything. And it will resist any shocks, like what the post office can provide when I mail the cars to the owners.
So we'll let that sit and cure for at least a day. Which will leave me to pursue to other tasks.

Does it look daunting yet?

And that's just a warmup

4 lovely Westerfield ATSF stock cars finished and ready to ship.

These 4 represent a nice cross section of some of the stock cars used by the ATSF over the years. And as always, the Westerfield kits are a nice experience to build.
Some people are scared off of resin stock cars due to the sanding required to open the slats, but with the right head space and some good sand paper it's not that bad.
Good thing I feel that way, as next week we tackle this job;

15 NYC stock cars for one client!
We'll see how I feel about stock cars after that. Hope I'm done before Xmas.

The results of my endeavours

I truly do not get enough of these kinds of photos,

These are 3 cars I just built for a client. Here they are freshly unwrapped and posed on the layout that will be their new home.
Just a nice feeling of completion is being enjoyed.
Nice looking models sitting in an expanse of excellent scenery.
What could be better?

While you weren't looking,

I snuck in turntable.

Between various other tasks, I've been pecking away at the turntable.
I purchased a 75' table from those fine fellows at Diamond Scale Products. Turntables are one of those things that can give you fits if they aren't well made. Good thing the Diamond Scale units are.
This is not the first one of these I've owned over the years. The old Palmerston layout had one of these as well and it worked very well. And it continued it's service on Rich Chrysler's layout in Simcoe. It has since moved on, to where I'm not sure.
I've also seen larger Diamond Scale turntables on other layouts and they perform well. Good enough for me.
There's a lot of fiddling to get the pit to sit at the right height. Not sure what the thinking was for the height of the pit walls, but I know how to cut holes and shim things to get the desired results.
I will be altering the wiring from the suggested process, but I'll cover that later.
For now, with the pit in it's hole, I can finish up the ties and rails to the turntable and move onto other things.

Too much of this,

Could leave you looking a little like this;

A little bit of the 1000 yard stare.
Spent the day assembling S scale brass car sides for a coach and a combine. There's a sub-side and 2 overlays for each side. All of which required tinning, careful positioning and final assembly with the resistance soldering unit.
These are rather nice kits from MLW Services. I've built 2 of the combines before, for Trevor. However the coach is new to me. Not a big leap from the combines.
Doing work like this is a nice departure from resin, and it certainly gives a whole new appreciation for those who scratch build brass locomotives. Like my pal Mal Houck.

And they do stand the test of time

I just boxed these guys up and will be mailing them back to their owner in the Yukon.

3 very nice tankcar kits from Southern Car & Foundry.
Tank cars in resin can be a challenge if the pattern maker hasn't paid very close attention to some of the trickier details. In this case Jon Cagle did not cut any corners.
These are very nice kits to work with and are still available through SC&Fs website.
The only deviations I made from the instructions was to not use the styrene strips for the tank straps, but rather I used brass stock and soldered 0.015" wire to the ends which then passed through the clamps. A far more secure method in my opinion.
The BOAX car was lettered using decals from Black Cat Publishing.
This also proves that I'm not just working on the layout.
Wait till you see what comes out of the shop next...

Now that I've had a shower...

Some benchwork/roadbed work was in order.

This is what will be the east end of St Thomas. In reality this is about a 1.5 mile stretch, compressed into about 20' of track length. It's all the space I wish to devote to this. I think it'll work quite well though.
Where the level and the drill are will be a number of homes, close to the R.O.W.. The curve is out towards what was then undeveloped land in town and the clamp is resting upon where the CPR interchange will be.
I've stolen an idea from Tony Koester, and will have an active interchange option through the backdrop. I may even go as far as encasing the end of the interchange spur in a house to help the scenes all tie together the way I want.
I know I'm making progress. I'm thinking about how I want to break the layout up into circuits for DCC.

Am I becoming one of those guys?

We've all encountered them.
The model train enthusiast, who is in desperate need of some personal hygiene. They seem to populate the weekend train shows that crop up in community centers. They seem to have chosen to switch the yard rather than shower.
I usually shower just before dinner, after a day of whatever work has thrown at me.
Yesterday afternoon, after a long day of working on resin stock cars, I got involved in spiking more track down.
And I really got into the whole "Zen" of the process, when my wife came down and asked if I was showering before dinner. Without thinking I responded, " I'm busy spiking rail."

I did, in the end, shower before dinner.

End of an Era

I was just informed via email, that my long time friend, Doug Rochefort, passed away this weekend.
Doug was the owner of Dougs Trains. A delightful hobby shop dedicated to model trains solely.

Doug had been suffering with a variety of ailments over the last little while, but to his credit he never really let any of that stand in his way. He remained a dedicated shop owner to the bitter end.
Doug was also instrumental in my evolution into a custom model builder. He channeled a pile of projects to me in the early days of my career and I will be forever grateful for his support. Mind you, I can't look at another Intermountain grain hopper again. Must have built over 100 of those when they first came out.

I'm going to miss Doug.

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday..

One of the great joys of this hobby, for me at least , is the friendships that grow from shared interests.
One of my best friends in the hobby, lives 2.5 hours away and yet Trevor Marshall and I always find ways to share this hobby. With each other and others.
It's also joyful when new friends get made as a result of internet dialogues and such
Yesterday, I drove into Toronto and met up with a new friend, and took him to Trevor's for a few hours of operations on the Port Rowan branch. With trains successfully dealt with it was off to Harbord House for a delightful lunch and then we ran out to Credit Valley Railway for a hobby shop fix.
All of this was new for our guest. While he'd been in Toronto many times for work, he'd not yet been properly exposed to the model train world that exists in the "Big Smoke".
Our guest was Michael Gross. Well known actor/director.

Here he is, with Trevor, switching Port Rowan and enjoying Trevor's stunning layout.
We all had a great day, and I can now add another soul to my list of "train buddies".
Hopefully Michael's work schedule will permit him to visit my house soon.

Well now that they're out of the way,

Benchwork can resume.
We're getting a new kitchen, which involved some electrical and gas line work. Which prevented me from building any more benchwork until that work was done. Now that the contractors are out of the way regularly scheduled programs on back on track.

This bit represents the east end of St Thomas, out as far as the CPR interchange. The prototype is dead straight, but I have no choice but to make the whole thing turn as you can see. Basement just isn't long enough.
The view block that will be created by the backdrop will help reinforce the sense of distance from the station to the interchange. Tricky things to convey in model railroad context.
You can see on the right the crossover which will be interchange track and the end of the double track yard limit.
This is the scene I hope to jam in at the crossover.

 Now to fiddle a bit with the actual roadbed and get the look I'm after.
Later dudes.

Yes, I'm feeling very pleased

Over on the Resin Car Works blog, a review of my Wabash 12 panel boxcar kit has been posted.
It's hugely satisfying to read positive comments about the work we put into the kits.
 http://blog.resincarworks.com/wabash-12-panel-welded-box-car-from-yarmouth-model-works/

I do have to point out one thing though. Much of the credit has to go to Aaron Gjermundson, who lives in North Dakota, also known as Baja, Saskatchewan.
It was he who created the patterns and did the resin casting. Without his massive talents, none of this would have happened.
Thanks Aaron.
And thanks to Craig Zeni for the delightful review.

So here's the way it works around here

Yarmouth Model Works and Elgin Car Shops are my 2 businesses. And they are solo efforts. I have no staff. It's just me. And I can get very busy.
Along with those 2 businesses, I'm also a stagehand/entertainment rigger. I work mostly in London at the Budweiser Gardens. The work schedule is erratic at best. But I enjoy it and it suits my temperament.
So on the rare occasions when I don't ship orders out straight away, there's usually a good reason. And if there is a delay, I try to email the client of such a delay, but I don't always remember to.
If you find that I'm not responding quickly to an email, it could be that I'm on the road to an RPM. Or in the midst of a 20 hour work day for some touring show. Or even, heaven forbid, I'm taking a little me time.
Be patient. I always honour my commitments.

If you've placed an order and don't see it within the timeframe you were expecting, please do send me an email. I will respond.
And orders have been lost in the mail.
But if you are going to email me with a concern, at least give me some time to respond before you initiate a dispute through Paypal. That's just not cool.
Frankly it's rather insulting to get an email asking about an order and 2 minutes later getting an email from Paypal telling me that a dispute as been initiated and the funds are now on hold.
Just saying people.

Finally!

My bulk order of precut ties arrived today.
With the inventory replaced now I can glue down the final runs of ties, which is holding up trackwork in the St Thomas yard.

Once the glue has set I'll sand and stain and then I can drop in the diamonds and get everything tickety-boo.
The leads to the turntable will have to wait for the actual turntable to be here. I'll need room for the jigsaw to do it's brutality.
At this rate, I'll be hauling trains from staging into St Thomas before Xmas!

Slow and Steady

Is the watch word when laying track.

We've been very busy this week with the tour of "Dirty Dancing" at the Budweiser Gardens. But we have had most mornings off, so I've been able to get some yard tracks laid.
This is the 3rd layout I've built with handlaid track and finally I've gotten my act together and I'm adding drop feeders to the underside of the rails as I go, rather than soldering to the sides of the rail. A much neater appearance. And it just requires a little bit of focus to make sure that nothing is missed.
The other new thing is these;

3 point track gauges from Fast Tracks. They are now available in most scales and gauges. They are not obvious on the website, but the Fast Tracks website is undergoing a massive rebuild and they will be more visible soon enough.
In the meantime you can find them here;
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/Trifecta-3-Point-Track-Gauge-HO-Code-83-p/tri-ho-s-me83.htm
Now for those of you who are paying attention, you'll note that the gauge is for code 83 rail. I'm using code 70 through out. What's up you ask?
Code 70 and code 83 have the same head width. Simple.

My Worst Fears...

Did not come to fruition.

The 2 O scale cars you see are being decaled and will soon be on the way to their proper home.
Both of these cars a rather old Chooch kits. The MILW car kit dates from the mid-80s!
In both cases I was very much concerned about the decals.
The MILW car came with conventional water-slide decals. Being as old as they were I was concerned that they would fracture and turn into many little pieces when they were immersed in water. For those decals I took precautionary measures and coated the decal sheet with MicroScale liquid decal film. The product basically adds a layer of film over the old decal, holding it all together.
The D&RGW car was another matter. All we had for this car was dry transfers, which are notorious for having a limited shelf life. For those I took a different route.
I took a sheet of clear film, sprayed a coat of flat over it. ( A needed step for dry transfers. They don't adhere well to glossy surfaces.) Then I simply transferred the desired lettering onto the clear film by rubbing with a pencil, and then sealed it all with a coat of liquid decal film. The old dry transfers went onto the decal paper with nary an issue.
From there it was a simple matter of decaling in the traditional manner.
I still can't get over how massive the 50' D&RGW car is, especially compared to an HO car below it.

Turnouts this day!

First one installed!

Feeder wires added before spiking and gluing into place.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The Fast Tracks system is brilliant! Thanks Tim Warris.
It was so much fun and easy that last night, after getting the first one in, I got three more added in the yard ladder.

The only grumble moment in all this is the spikes. The Micro Engineering spikes have over-length heads, which require clipping to work properly with the system. It's a good "in front of the TV project", but it wear's thin quickly.
And the other bit of completion is the Kettle Creek trestle.

With the walkway and railing in, brakemen can now safely work the trains on the west end yard lead.
There's much scenery to be added here before the trestle is finally secured in place. It'll be awhile, a few other things to do yet.

Another Naperville in the bag

And as always, I had fun!
While the actual attendance was down from years past, 250 total, I have few issues with last weeks RPM.
I got to see my friends from across North America. That alone makes the trip worth it for me.
Joe D'Elia has chosen to not continue hosting the show, but rather hand those duties over to Mike Skibbe of the Modutrak group. I've already spoken to Mike about options for next year and we have plans for some stuff already. Sorry no preview yet.
There has been some online grumbling about some of the clinics not satisfying some attendees. For those I have a message:
I firmly believe that RPMs are contributor driven. If you're finding the quality of the presentations aren't up to your personal standards, step forward on do a clinic yourself. Or encourage someone you know to do one. We all have something to share, and all have stuff we can learn. Standing on the sidelines and kvetching accomplishes nothing.
Speaking of friends and sharing, here's a couple of my friends operating on Bill Darnaby's layout last Wednesday.

Bill Welch awaiting his proper departure time from New Yard

And Jerry Hamsmith here has ventured forth from the operators position to sort out some minor disaster on the line.
Just the day of operating with these guys made the 7 hour drive well worth it.
I'm constantly intrigued as to how this hobby relies so much on camaraderie amongst  people who spend so much time alone in their respective basements.
As Bill says 'Onward!'

Naperville, Ho!

Actually it's Lisle, but who's counting?
Tomorrow morning it's into the van and a drive across Michigan to the suburbs of Chicago. For the 22nd Naperville Prototype Modelers Meet.
This annual event is a high light for me. I get to see and chat with friends that I've made over the years attending this fine event.
I'll be operating on 2 fantastic layouts as well. Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route and Robert Hanmer's GN/DMIR/SOO layout.
I've operated on Bill's layout before and it's always a treat. A tad stressful but well worth it. There's a lot going on and I still consider myself a novice with TT&TO operations. I live in fear of making a mistake there.
Robert's layout will be a whole new experience for me. I have no idea what to expect.
And of course there's the clinics and the bar.
Lots to do.
See you when I get home.

Only 10 more to go,

And I'll have enough for the St Thomas yard.

Yes, folks turnouts!
That's a pile of 12 you see. All built in Fast Tracks fixtures.
I need to add electrical wires to the frogs and the stock rails and then spray paint the pc board ties and then I can actually lay these bad boys in place.
Had a bit of an object lesson when I started these the other day. It was taking me about 45 minutes to build a turnout. Far longer than I remember it taking a few years ago. And I felt that I was working too hard filing the rails for the frogs, points and notching the stock rails.
So I wandered over the hardware store and bought a brand new 10" mill file.Turnouts now take 20-25 minutes a piece. Terrifying what a sharp file can do.
I do so little work in metal that I forget what a sharp file can feel like when it's being used.
Won't forget that detail very quickly.

And then there were three

 I spent a few hours today assembling the other 2 required diamonds. Here's the trio sitting where they will live. I have to paint them first, as well as add in all the regular ties required before gluing these guys down.

While fiddly, they weren't that hard to build. Just lots of little pieces of rail to create the guard rails and the inner bits of load bearing rails. The rails laid across the 75 degree diamonds are there to hold everything together until all is secured in place.
Wiring these would be a challenge but Hex frog Juicers can be used to help control polarity through the various frogs. Not that I need to do that. The L&PS run may not get wired. Depends how brave I'm feeling.

One down,

2 more to go.

The first of 3 diamonds that need to be built for the layout.
It is doubtful that I would have had the chutzpah to take these on without the benefit of the Fast Tracks assembly jigs. They really make short work of the otherwise very tricky trackwork.
I've also spent far too much time in front of the monitor today. I finally pulled together the 2 PowerPoint presentations I need for Naperville. Yes, that RPM is a little over a week away.
I'll be talking about Prototype Modeling from a Canadian perspective for the "Friends of the Freight Car" dinner and I have a clinic in reserve should a presenter have to bail at the last minute.
I really enjoy the RPM meets. I get to meet up with friends and like minded modelers from all over. We share stories, ideas, prototype history, etc. The meets, I firmly believe, are contributor driven. Without clinicians to share, these events are nothing. Consider presenting yourself one day soon. You may have that nugget of info that someone was looking for.

Tried something new,

And it worked!

Got some ballast down today.
The last layout and my old Free-Mo modules used Woodland Scenics products. I wasn't completely thrilled with the way the Woodland Scenics ballast behaved. When I applied the glue, I would wind up with an inordinate amount of  "floaters". Which would have to be scrapped off once the glue had set, prior to laying rail.
Turns out that the Woodland Scenics ballasts are made from crushed walnut shells, which would explain the floaters.
This time I turned to Scenic Express and used their line of crushed stone ballasts.
The mainline is ballasted with their fine light gray while the spurs are being done with their light cinders blend.
The dust in the cinders has darkened the ties considerably, and I'll have to find a way to address that. But generally I'm very pleased with the results.
AND NO FLOATERS!
I only do a preliminary ballasting so has to prep for laying the rail. Once scenery is in, I'll come back and clean up the edges and such.
I don't ballast turnouts before laying the track, since I've had nothing but trouble in the past gluing points shut.
Onward!

Little bitty bits of wood II

It's starting to look like a railroad!

3,500 ties so far. Glued down, sanded and stained.
Think I have to buy more ties soon.
Ballasting has started, and once that is done out comes the rail.

All Better Now

The bridge is now sitting as it should.

The rails rest on the ties and on the bridge bearings.
I had to toss the cast metal bearings from Micro Engineering and cobble up my own, but once they're painted black, they'll mostly disappear.
It took about an hour to trim the footings for the piers and reglue them back into place.
My thanks to all who offered up suggestions to resolve this issue, with one notable exception. Chris is clearly still suffering after affects from the caulk in the eye incident in the Train Masters TV studio earlier this year.
With things back on "track", the actual rail and ties were glued down and the first acid test performed.

The bridge seems to support Tilley. That's good news.
Now for the next step.

All this strip wood will become the walkway that ran the full length on the north side of the bridge.
That'll be finicky.