Hedley Junction

[Tyson Rayles]

Great layout!

[sailormatlac]

Thanks Mike!

Here are a few more pictures from our latest open house. A friend of us brought a Kaslo M420 he built and it pulled the consist back to D'Estimauville just like it used to be in our time frame.







Other pictures from the open house:



That station is too much shiny to my taste! ;-)











Matt

[sailormatlac]

The track scale structure is now complete. I'm quite pleased with the final product and can't wait to place in on the layout.







Matt

[Rscott417]

Really enjoying your layout progress. Your scenery even in the early stages is terrific and the track scale structure is just another example of that

[Twist]

Hi,
Fantastic progress on your layout....that 420 look great. I also like the Industries with the backdrop photos. It´s looking very nice.

Regards,Chris

[sailormatlac]

A few select recent improvements including new woodchip car loads (finally) and the new track scales installed. All done in one evening. I'm also thinking about reworking a little bit the track arrangement in Clermont to better fit our needs.











Track scales:











Matt

[MasonJar]

Amazing Matt!

In the fourth picture (the first one of the wood chip cars in service), how are you doing those trees? Are they part of the backdrop?

Thanks!

Andrew

[sailormatlac]

Amazing Matt!

In the fourth picture (the first one of the wood chip cars in service), how are you doing those trees? Are they part of the backdrop?

Thanks!

Andrew

Yes, they are part of the backdrop.

Matt

[Prairie Trains]

Is your track scale modeled after a prototype? If so what time period would this have been used in?

[sailormatlac]

Is your track scale modeled after a prototype? If so what time period would this have been used in?

The short answer is yes. The original structure was built in 1954 and torn down around 2007. It was located on St. Lawrence Cement plant in Villeneuve, QC. The scale house is quite near to the prototype. The track scale itself is modelled from bad satellite photos, insurance maps, pictures taken from a nearby road and few archives photos that shows very little thing. Thus, consider is a good approximation but not an exact replica. I used other sources to fill the gaps in my informations.

Matt

[Ralph]

The wood chip loads, the track scale and structure...terrific stuff!!!

[Prairie Trains]

Thanks for the information Mat. The scale I am modeling was built around 1960 but it was a beam scale where yours appears to be electronic. The old beam scale had two sets of rails, one live and one dead to run over when the scale is not in use. With electronic sensors I guess they would not need that. The one I am modeling may have been built long before and just moved when the new yard was built. I'll try to post some pictures of what I am doing under a new post.

[sailormatlac]

Thanks for the information Mat. The scale I am modeling was built around 1960 but it was a beam scale where yours appears to be electronic. The old beam scale had two sets of rails, one live and one dead to run over when the scale is not in use. With electronic sensors I guess they would not need that. The one I am modeling may have been built long before and just moved when the new yard was built. I'll try to post some pictures of what I am doing under a new post.

Robert, my prototype was indeed built in 1954, but the only pictures where I can see the scale in detail are all from the 1990s and 2000s. The plant could have upgraded the scale over its life time. But that said, I would be surprised is was a gauntlet type like the one you are describing. Looking forward to see your model and prototype!

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Quick scenery update in Clermont yesterday. There's still a lot of thing to tweak, but it seams we are near a solution.







Matt

[sailormatlac]

The track scale is now working perfectly.

Meanwhile, we decided to scratchbuild working grade crossing signals with brass tubes & wires, LEDs, Kadee spacers, a CD-ROM drive, a speaker and a 555 module to control flashing lights. So far, so good. I would have never thought working with brass could be that easy.





We will experiment with toggle switches to manually control the signals. The layout doesn't handle a lot of traffic and that's manageable. If we want to upgrade to IR detectors later, it will be possible.

A few very crappy videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70euKOokLR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWOxV86KVHE

More details about the building process on the blog.

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5 other signals to build!

Matt