Great Northwestern Railway

It's been a temporary setup from the start.  A couple short metal filing cabinets and a scrap piece of plywood.  Add to that an old laptop and that was it - the dispatcher's office!  But a few op sessions quickly showed it was uncomfortable, limited in working space, and looked sloppy.  What to do? The good news is that using the temporary setup showed what was needed for the functionality of the office.  It's a small space - a repurposed hallway that used to go to the kids bedrooms... the same ones that were removed for the layout.  I did not want to remove the hallway as at some point, this will have to be converted back to living space.  So the idea was to cut a single piece of 3/4" plywood into the proper shape, finish it, and set it on stringers attached to the walls.  The desk itself then would have plenty of legroom under.  Experience showed the desk needed a side-table to store the car-card/train packs.   I elected to use bi...

The hallway will soon be cut off since benchwork will be going in.  The "hall" will become a dispatcher's office.  So figured I might as well get on installing a door for the office.  I always liked what my friend Dave did on the Castle Rock & Pacific  - a split door to allow handing out orders, but enough of a barrier to keep the riff-raff out.  Still needs a board as a table top between the upper and lower sections.  And of course, the framing needs some finishing.  But feels good to get this done.

So the past few weeks have entailed demo, rewiring, drywall, mudding and texturing to prep the room.  Last time I built out the layout, I got impatient and left the ceiling bare joists and unfinished walls.  And I am paying for it now with dust and a less-than-welcoming environment.  So this time I want to do it right... and maybe get back to the other half of the room with some retrofit work... later. Walls and ceiling repaired, textured and painted.  Installed some ceiling outlets to provide 'drop' cords for power when building.  Also included some switches for layout power and lighting.  Even a couple ethernet drops for who-knows-what.  The old bedroom carpet came out next (after 15 years and 4 boys, that stuff was nasty!).  But, leaving in the pad.  It'll be nice under whatever I put down for walking surface, probably foam tiles. First piece of the new layout is installed as well (!!!!).  It is a segment of the old layout that wa...

Not only is Mesa City gone, but the staging under it is gone now as well.  As is the passenger depot at Valley Gate, which will be relocated. Needless to say, that tight area there is a lot more spacious! And... the wall along the back side of Valley Gate has been cut back.  SO much nicer to have clear access there! Next step: 120VAC wiring.  Already well under way...

Walls of the 2 bedrooms are coming down, preparing the area for expansion. A date on the back of a sheet of drywall tells of the time when I put these walls up.  My how time flies! Next comes demo'ing part of the existing layout.  Emptied the staging yards and moved as much over to the remaining sections as possible. Cerro Vista and Warm Springs are definitely looking like storage yards now! Pic of the last train run on GNW Phase 2, moving off to storage. More to come as work progresses!