….It seems the winter rebuild is already under way. Much more extensive that originally planned of course.
What was planned was a “dressing up” of the large Nelson yard. It’s a dark wall with a very long, 6 track yard. Fine when it was out of view of the public but now it offers the one of the best views in the building. So add some scenic backdrops and a few up to date buildings and we’d be good there. But then there was the operating trolley, a big job in itself, and a highway overpass that took hours, and without warning Nelson became a PROJECT.
Penticton was always sort’a on the list but now we will remove a length of track so we can build a fully functioning down town street scene, install a better station, remove a scenic hillside with all the mess that entails, move the turn table pit (Not my job. Not my job) and rebuild the roundhouse. Next summer when everyone is out enjoying the beach our scenery folks will still be inside working full time on that one.
Look! My G gauge work bench is fully occupied with HO stuff already so nothing at all is being done on my own layout. The club got a real good deal on a box of 15 building kits from Woodland Scenics but even with less track Penticton each building has to be reduced to 1 1/2 inches deep so they fit the area. Course if we eliminated, or vastly reduced the roads, the buildings could be finished in days. Hmmmm.
Some of the buildings will be used at Greenwood.
Greenwood? That wasn’t a part of this rebuild!!
Well it is now. We are adding 6 to 8 inches of ‘benchwork’ to peaceful little Greenwood so we can move the tracks and create a town complete with station, section house, industrial facilities, paved streets with x-ing guards and probably some noisy engine facilities.
The fine people of Greenwood don’t deserve this.
So, if your in the neighbourhood, and you have your toolbox with you, we expect you to drop by and lend a hand. I expect we’ll need 40+ hours to install, test and prove the updated Yardmasters before Christmas. If that works it will take weeks just to remove the old relay system and clean up the wiring mess it left behind. That 150 foot bridge over Wilson’s Canyon has to be replaced (more scenery rebuilding) and some lighting has to be built and installed on 8 feet of facia. We also need to buy or build a very reliable CPR passenger train or find some replacement 6 wheel trucks for what we have. A thousand miles and they’re completely warn out.
This never ends. <VBG>