Boston Mountains Sub-Division

After a couple of days off I started weathering the parts for the bridge. Did the piers, pylons, south lift tower and the Kato bridge with the north tower. Currently working on the main span and have the first coat of paint on the walkway. Will finish that up in a little bit and start weathering the main span. I will post photos of everything later on.

Joe

 

This afternoon I finished the weathering on all of the bridges and the other parts associated with the project except for the building in the center of the main span. Will do the building when the winch end plates arrive in the mail any day now. There will be additional pieces installed on the lift towers, like the winches and walkway on top of the towers for the maintenance crew. Later on will install the safety ladders and stairway to the center building along with a walkway around part of the building. The parts are ready to install on module 05 and then install the track. After that I want to do some electrical work to get a train running on the tracks that I have installed so far. Can't wait to see a train go across the bridge, will try to get a video.

Joe

 

Today I'm working on the building in the middle of the main span. Installed a door on the front of the building and after dinner will paint and weather. Will post a photo when it's done.

Joe

 

Today I finished painting and weathering on the building in the middle of the main span. Also made a platform for the building using a couple pieces of scrap foam 1 1/2 inches thick to insure clearance under the platform when I was installing it. Now it's ready for some handrails and a stairway from the platform to the walkway on the bridge.

The winch end plates should be here any day, we haven't received any mail for three days now. They are coming from Montreal Canada and the guy that made them said it should only take about five or six days to arrive. It's been about ten days and I wonder if the virus has something to do with the mail being slow.

Joe

 

I wish the best for you and your wife. These are tough times.

In times like these, look around and keep your family close.

And keep up the great work...

JFM

 

Thank you for your compliment Tom!!!

I'm getting ready to set up the bridge on module 05 and start installing track. Will keep an eye out for any miss match in track alignment and support, should be pretty close. This has been a very fun project to work on and now it's time to get up from my recliner to make stand up progress. LOL

Joe

 

I got to work on the layout quite a bit today, the bridge is installed and so is the tracks. Still have to adjust the height of the main span and south tower. Also make some pieces of support structure for the track under both towers. Will work on all of that tomorrow afternoon. For the remainder of tonight I'm cutting feeder wires to install tomorrow and if all goes well will run a train.

Joe

 

Nice! Get those trains running!

 

Installing the feeder wires has provided to be a bigger job than I expected, the mainline track has 14 sections of track. Most of it is flex and a few turnouts but had to cut some of it out when I replaced module 05 so ended up with 4 short sections. Didn't get as far as I wanted to today but will finish tomorrow. I was looking forward to making a video today, sadly it won't happen until tomorrow.

Joe

 

Didn't get to work on the layout as much as I wanted to today but progress was made. I got all of the feeder wires installed except for four that are located where the north tower and main span meet. Called it good enough for the day around 9:45pm after a couple of hours of work. The four wires are in a really tight spot because of the bridge structure and I was starting to hurt from standing so I decided to stop before I made a critical error. Soldering iron and plastic don't get along with each other very well. Haha

Joe

 

Yesterday I wasn't able to work on the layout but I made up for it today. I finished connecting the feeder wires together and did a couple of test runs with a short train. Still have two spots that I need to fix before I make a video. Have decided to run a passenger train for the video because I went to N scale to be able to run passengers. Look for a video tomorrow afternoon or evening.

Joe

 

I received the winch end plates in the mail today, they're perfect for the bridge project. Think they were held up at the border because of the virus, Stephane, the guy who made them lives in Montreal. Will build the winches tomorrow afternoon and post a photo. Today I'm working on the layout to get it ready to video, in the process of installing my hand held throttle that I built several years ago. The layout should be ready early this evening.

Joe

 

Finally got the video done, I had one turnout that was given me a hard time. One of the feeder wires kept giving me trouble.

Joe

Maybe this will work better Joe.
Tom Holley

 

Thank you Tom for your help with the video.

I don't know how to copy and paste on my phone and we don't have internet access for my laptop. All but a few of my post are done on my ZTE Blade smart phone, next time I want to download a video will go to the library to use their computers.

Thank you again Tom.

Joe

 

Today's I made the winches, installed the building in the middle of the bridge and did scenery on module 05. Will run the cables for the bridge and install the counterbalances plus touch up anything that needs it tomorrow afternoon. Today was a great day progress wise, the bridge project has really got me in the mood to work on the layout more after a period of stagnation. My legs haven't been bothering me too much lately and I take a few breaks to help rest them.

Joe