Great Northwestern Railway

 Mesa City has always been a favorite place for crews to work.  Off the main and plenty of switching, it attracts those who enjoy just working a local with some quality throttle time.  Since the expansion of the GNW, on-line industries have been lower priority as the focus was to get the layout running.  Well, now it is running, and I could turn my attention back to creating some industrial spaces. The geometry of Mesa City changed enough that the main did not really run through it anymore.  But... the main TOOK the real estate to go over it, thereby killing the former switching area.  However, the area where the former dispatcher's office was located is now reallocated for a new switching area: Mesa City East. Connecting to it was a bit of a challenge.  There is a set of shelves along the back wall that is more or less permanent.  I integrated the paint booth exhaust duct into the framework, so besides removing all that, I would have to a lot of ...

Yes, it's been quiet on the blog, but work certainly has been happening!  Of note, the C-19 bug allowed for more evenings and weekends at home to tackle a massive project.  Let me explain... The layout is double decked, without a helix to get between the decks.  Well, actually, it is TRIPLE decked at the staging yard, so there IS a helix to get to that from one end.  But there are no helixes between the visible decks.  This was done to allow the operators to really follow their trains from point to point.  But even with a "no-lix" connection, it also means there has to be a transition from where the connection between the lower deck and the upper deck... which means the scenery for some of that run will have to be associated with the lower deck, and then later with the upper deck.  That makes for an interesting scenic transition. The way this is being handled on the GNW is having the lower deck include the first portion of the ramp up in the scenery wi...

The radio silence does not mean that progress has not been happening!  In fact, the main deck benchwork is complete and track is quickly being laid.  Here are some highlights and commentary: Before building everything out, I set up a temporary mockup of the elevation the main deck will be set at.  Recall there was some adjusting during design on this.  Looks like it is working out! Next set up backdrop supports along the peninsula. Framing of the main deck proceeding.  I built them off the layout, then set them in place.  Screwed to the wall and then temp supports for the front edge. Pieces coming together! I tried joist hangers on the previous buildout and really like them.  Did so again on this expansion.  They look flimsy, but in reality, they are rock solid.  Recall the lateral support comes from the back edge, not the front.  These just provide vertical support.   A couple more examples of the ...