Construction photos from 2006
Note- think of this as a running log of our work in photo format. Since we often shoot photos a couple times a month it will be pretty long at the end of the year and for people on dial-up modems it may take a minute to load. Thanks to Andy Inserra, Ron Miller, and Dave Bayer for their camera work. Enjoy!
January 23rd
Winter break is over and we're back to work!
Above and below, prep work on the track for ballast, Ryan runs the vacuum over the track...
Photos don't do it justice, the track looks so much better with the airbrushed weathering!
And here is Dan starting the ballast work. We're using this photo as future ransom...
Free Mo work!
When we are busy we're really busy. We cleared the tops off two modules, the club one and Mark's to prepare for the coming of one unified set that can operate together or alone. Below, Mark's before and after....
And below is the club one - soon there will be track!
Feb. 14th
The culvert area takes shape...
Duplainville Public Works gets around to start paving the industrial area
Progress on the dairy
Dan's professional ballast work makes everything look so much better
Feb. 21st
The paving crew wraps up most of the work and even adds some greenery to the area between the tracks and the pavement.
The culvert is now ready to keep the local waterways open!
The mad dash to the finish - Dave, Mark, and Bob have been rewiring the Free-Mos for the big World's Greatest Hobby show this weekend, they are just about ready!
Feb 28th
The paved unloading area - shared truck and train docks...
Another view of the culvert
March 7th
Check out the new fascia!
It is really looking sharp.
April 4
The latest task - turn more wall space into sky blue!
Dan got the dumbwaiter open...
And up on the 2nd floor is the elevator - it took us three years to figure out how to open it. Or was it just due to the thought that rabid squirrels might come flying out at us if we opened it up?
April 11
Track painting continues!
And our modules are together again! 15 feet of module layout is now up on the wall...
April 18
Ryan is hard at work painting the sky blue walls...
New customer Quad Graphics shows up! The building should be open for service soon...
Dan continues ballast work into town...
April 25
Ron Miller took these shots over the last couple weeks...
Bob shows how plants really are grown, contrary to what he teaches in biology...
Mark does work on the locomotives...
"Oh look at that, aliens are pushing that train!" "No dear, you're just seeing things again..."
Dan and Ryan show just how close you can be to still move two trains. In other words, they forgot to check with the dispatcher to see who had the line and just barely avoided an unplanned meet on the mainline...
And today Bruce the Elephant has gotten loose once again and is having some fun at the expense of the truckers in Duplainville... Yes, that is a GG1, and no, we don't know how it got there since so far as we know the UMTC doesn't have overhead lines.
May 23
Summer break has arrived!
Work continues on the wall along the windows to support the expansion...
May 30
Progress on the painting - the sky got a lot of touch up work to patch minor issues created during construction. Meanwhile, Bob brought more Soo boxcars to test
June 6 - aka 666 day
Lots of good progress! Despite the doomed date we got the supports in on the window wall - next week it gets the deck!
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June 20
Plenty of work, new roadway gets started [and no doubt we'll be moving faster than MnDOT's Crosstown rebuild project...]
The corner gets its deck completed and is ready for track
And the river has water!
June 27
More roadwork tonight!
And the other corner is underway - we expect to wrap it up the next work session...
July 11
We have a new room! Yes, that is right, we now have a lounge/workshop next to our main room - this old storeroom is attached to our room and was un-used. With a little asking around we were able to secure it for our workroom!
Beginning to move in - the lounge above, the library below...
A whole new look for that side of our room!
We did get some work done tonight - new track onto the back wall [below] and the corner work to get to the free-mo modules [above]
July 18
Ron is the first to use the workbench as he tries to fix a problematic grinder...
The DCC locomotives are ready for next weeks ops night.
And notice anything missing? Ron's workbench [above] used to reside out here! The before view, below. See if you can find the table under that mess!
August 8
Tonight Scott Kotnour came in with his camera - here are a number of views from around the layout!
Sept.
This month we had some heavy road construction. The crew from RM Construction [with the help of Bruce the Elephant] helped extend the roadway from town to the local highway...
Before the road expansion this is how it looked.
Bruce the Elephant and the front end loader operator try to figure out what to do with the lone house on the site...
"This man is a 5'11" ape descendant and someone is trying to drive a bypass through his house."
Bruce isn't real happy here - that station wagon isn't doing so well. And what is with the inside of that house?
Right, well, that wasn't supposed to happen... I guess those new-fangled plastic Home of the Future houses are sturdier than expected...
The graders are hard at work...
The view from the highway
Laying the Class V...
Prepping the roadway...
A bit of glue to hold the gravel in place
The magical glue bottle at work
Their magic to a wonderful road - pack it down with old 20' sea containers!
Re-vegitating the landscape
Scrap styrene covers the roadway for scenic work
How to apply grass without coating the road
The road dries and the scraper leaves for another job site
Our material - real, MnDOT quality Class V road material ready for sifting.
Ron, the lead roadway engineer, shows how not to sift the road gravel. A great idea on how to reuse old brass track somehow goes wrong [not sure why, not enough duct tape maybe]
A much happier Ron a week later when he has a much better set of sifters!
Sept. 5
A bit of railfanning...
Great look Dan! Ron took this one so if you want revenge you know who to be talking to...
And a bit of road work in town...
Oct. 3
Some scenic shots from around the layout...
Oct. 24
The wall branch line is underway! Braces hold the glued boards to the wall - so far it is a sucess!
How the brackets will look when completed...
Nov 14
Work continues along the wall...
Dec. 5
The corner takes shape...
The transload area fence work starts...
Dec 12
The local train works around D'ville...