Basic Layout for 1999 (year 2)
Click on any of the images to see a larger version.
The first thing you saw on the last page (year 1) was a very new and very plain
pond. I thought it was only fitting to start you off with a picture of the pond as it
looks in year 2. The pond has wintered a COLD season and is now showing how alive it has
become, you could say that 1999 has been a good year with plenty of growth. I must admit,
this year has been a very busy one both at work and at home. Our kids are not all babies
anymore (a problem in my mind), with the oldest involved in every sport that can be played
up to and not stopping at the Boy Scouts. The next oldest, a girl is following in her big
brothers footsteps too! The train's suffered many set backs this summer but progress was
still good and fun.
Remember this view from last year? The bottom of the layout in the foot of the
"L". It's become the main play area when testing trains. At this point all of
the roadbed has been laid and the entire layout has been graded.
When started, there were area's that would have made for some bad trackwork. In one area
(towards the rear of the picture) the ground level changed as much as 9 or 10 inches in
less than a 5 foot long area. We used a Water Level to survey all
area's that have track about 3 times before the final roadbed was finished.
I
failed to get a good picture of the long part of the layout, the "L", like last
year. I promise year 2000 pictures will be better. At any rate the long side of the layout
is the neatest to look at in perspective. When you have your eye down at track level you
get the feeling that there are miles of mainline stretching into neverever land. Long
train's run true and there are only a couple of spots where the car's rock back and forth
on occasion. Right now it's the most perfectly strait double mainline you could ever find
but before I eat those words we'll have to see how much frost heave mother nature throws
into the equation next spring. Believe me, my fingers are crossed!
Well the heavy part of the outdoor construction for 1999 has pretty much ended for the year but there are plenty of projects still under way. Both tunnels are still sitting in the basement awaiting their turn to be installed and the mountain has had minimal work done to it throughout the summer. I really had planned on getting the mountain all set early in the year but things worked out a little different than planned. All of the planned trackwork is down with the exception of a stone viaduct (it's down here too, in the basement) and of course the trestle for the front side of the pond (yep, it's down here too). Along with the obvious visual changes there are a few unseen tasks that have been completed. One of those being the 1,200 feet of cabling that will provide power to the track via the new 100 channel Train Engineer from Aristo Craft Trains, power for the full lighting system planned for the towns, accessory wiring, track routing controls and of course spare pairs of wire just in case something should fail. All of this is routed in underground conduit that leads to the back of the house where there will be an environmentally protected control center. Yes, this year was a good year. Full of fun, work and plenty of Mountain Dew! Maybe now would also be a good time to give my wife a good ata boy. She has put up with a lot of my, well you know, for a long time and she still supports me to no end.