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 ...

 Mesa City used to connect the layout across the western wall of the room.  The western wall was, as you may recall, removed to make room for the expansion.  It was ruthlessly demolished... and much sadness ensued.  ( https://greatnorthwesternrailway.blogspot.com/2017/12/and-just-like-that-mesa-city-is-gone.html )  It was one of the nicest areas of scenery, as well as a wonderful switching opportunity.  So I kind of put Mesa City out of my mind as a pleasant and yet sad story.   Fast forward about two and a half years and I realized a fatal flaw in my track plan.  Mesa City was not only a great place to watch and switch trains, it was also the place for handling coal cars for the generating station as well as turning commute engines.  Something had to be done!  Surveying the area, it turns out there WAS enough space for a wye and maybe a lead for switching.  Grabbing a couple pieces of plywood which, ironically, were from the s...

LIGHTING Progress has been slow but good on the GNW.  First, added lighting under the deck of the upper to light up the lower.  It was always kind of dark and murky under the upper deck, and it really needed something to brighten things up.  Four 15' strips of LEDs and a new power supply were added and it made a huge difference! Lighting was simply hot-glued under the upper deck.   Compression terminal blocks distributed the power.  Of note, I needed to add power feeds to BOTH ends of each string.  Voltage drop along each string was enough that the LEDs were noticeably dimmer on the far end without.   Here is the new power supply - an Ebay special.  I located it mid-point between the two pairs of LED strips. LED Power Supply Some before/after shots. Looking east before lighting Looking east after lighting. Looking west before lighting Looking west after lighting.  Quite the difference! ...

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 ...