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2005 Progress - Year four >  Q1 2005 | Q2 2005 | Q3 2005 | Q4 2005

Steve finished the magnets for automatic uncoupling and rebuilt the fourth building on Susquehanna Street (the previous version just wasn't up to scratch).  Chris has added the handrail to the bridge and Steve rebuilt the wall between the road and railroad, and then painted and weathered it. The rock face behind was started using rock moulds.

We have now accumulated quite a bit of rolling stock F3s from Stewart (AB - tangerine & blue), Athearn (A - green and yellow), An RS3, SW9 and S1 and RS12 (the latter two not actually seen at the prototype Mauch Chunk) and and FM H15-44 in blue with tangerine stripes. You can also see the weathered coal hoppers (Steve's) and the filled hoppers (Paul's)  - left above.

In the second quarter we continued to make good progress - once again mostly invisible!  Paul with the help of Chris continued to wire the switches and switch motors on the front of the layout - a tedious but essential job that produced much debate! 

Steve built the fifth building on Susquehanna Street and Chris started on the Hooven Mercantile building.   Steve continued with the rock face above the road on the RH side and finished carving and painting and weathering it. Rolling stock continued to arrive.

In the third quarter further good progress was made:  Paul and Chris finished wiring the switches and switch motors on the front of the layout - and have now connected them up with looms of cable which will lead to two point control panels - one for each end of the layout. We intend to operate the layout with two operators, one at each end, and one controlling the eastbound tracks and one the westbound tracks. However, the wiring looms will be flexible to that both panels can go at one end, or a the back, or at the front. We'll see what works best

Chris nearly finished the Hooven Mercantile building - he even modelled the back.  He only has to do the characteristic fire escape on the side to complete it and we have all the parts for that now.

Steve and Paul in particular are now spending a lot of time in preparation for the Merseyside exhibition at the end of October - we'll put links in to the photos of that if you're interested.

As usual, in the fourth quarter progress slowed because of the time taken to organise the Merseyside MRS exhibition at the end of October (see photos).  Paul and Chris continued to work with the looms of cable.

Chris raised the "Merseyside standard" lighting rigs so that they are high enough above our rather high baseboards. These have been positioned as shown in the photos below. He has also been busy redrawing plans of the Station building in AutoCAD in preparation for building it (remember, he is an architect!). These will be put up on the site when complete for all to use.

                     

Some of the photos show a (hopefully) increasing similarity to prototype pictures of Susquehanna Street - only another 10 buildings to go there!
                          

We accumulated a few items of reasonably prototypical locomotive stock - diesel and steam - over the last couple of years.  All due for painting and/or weathering at the hands of Ian and ourselves in 2006. Here is a partial roll-call:

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Last modified:  August, 2008