1701 University HO Layout Building - 2005

Construction photos from 2005

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. Enjoy!

Jan 27th

The future home of the Yard

The future home of the Yard - with the A/D tracks, classification tracks with tracks like No Class, Lower Class, Skip Class, Upper Class, and What Class? Andy might have gotten into the markers and tape again it looks like...



Entering the world and leaving Chicago-land on the bottom, the upper deck is making a good cover for that area...



Home of the shops soon on the middle level, the blue fascia to be removed when the river is in place...



A flying view of the progress...



The creek on the lower level...



Trucks pass on the pick Highway 10-27

And one more view showing the new joists getting ready for level two - lots of ongoing progress!

Feb 14th


We have light! And no more oversized fascia on this side at the river...



Night time on the layout...



The river scene with the fascia cut to size...

Feb 25th


And now the river is starting to get a coat of maroon over that blue...



What's this? No more framework under the layout! 19 yards of black fabric and some Velcro and it looks a lot better...

March 4th


The fascia has been cut all of the way around now, time to get working on bringing the scenery to life it looks like!

Mid-March


Say hi to Dan - he is trying to retrofit all of our manual switches with better throws [and as of the end of March he and Ron had them all finished - well done!]



Dan hard at work trying to get a little more wood out of the way of the new switch throws...



Bob is seen here thinking "gee - wonder what happens if I connect these two wires..."



Here's the river...

March 30th


The hills around the farm are coming along....



Rolling snowy white hills - ok, so they will be green but not just yet...



Wow - what a change! The river looks so much better and it is still dry...



A local Great Blue Heron wonders what happened to the water...

April 8th

A look at the culvert along the back of the farm...

May 24

The homosote is all in and painted - tan on the yard side, green on the rest... Track plans get tacked down next with cork and finally track to follow!April 21

The middle deck went in today!



The view from the far end...



The yard before tracks...



The start of the yard [ok, so just a couple of switches but still - it isn't that far away!]

June 28

More scenery work on the lower level...

July 12

TRACK FOR LEVEL 2 IS STARTED!!

After weeks of cork laying, switch building, and more - the first 12 feet of track is laid tonight - and more coming next week!

July 27

Track work is practically done! Well, the big yard is yet to come but the mainline is going along well!

August 16

New scenery work!  The farm and forest grow thanks to the "Andy-squared team" [Ron, you will pay for that name  - Andy ]

The new unit, ILS RS11 does industrial switching...

Aug. 30th

Upper level trains run for the first time!  No DCC yet but it is wonderful to finally have trains up there!

Sept 6th

Upper level testing continues w/o the DCC or Helix connected...

Oct 18th

Lots of progress, but wiring just isn't photogenic!  Good news though, that wiring paid off because tonight our first train ran all around the lower and upper level, complete with a dizzying trip up the helix!

Dan sits trapped in the helix as the first test train exits on the upper level with Missabe 129, an ore car, and caboose!

Dan is still in the helix as the UMTC business train works its way into the helix before the final connections were made.

Left to right we have Nate, Adrian, Bob, Mark, Dan, and Ron all working and getting ready for that first train...

Now that we know trains work Mark [with Dan and Ron] start setting up some trains to run more testing on both levels...
 

Dec 20th

A bit of a railfanning adventure here with the new C628 entering service today plus a run-by of the historic Soo Line F units... Thanks to Scott Kotnour for tonight's photos.  All seen in D'ville, at the tower, or at the farm. 

 

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