September 1, 2021

Several weeks ago Rick reattached the fascia just east of the swing gate. The next three feet of fascia was hanging in the wind so I went to work on it. The gap in the first section was covered with blue painter's tape and expanding foam inserted from the bottom. The second section was secured with adhesive and clamped in place. I left this to set up for 48 hours.	David resumed his painting by putting down the first mountain paint layer through the Alaska Marine Lines section.	Next he turned around 180 degrees and applied the first layer of finishing touches on the mountains of the double track section.
I resumed work on the area south of the Port of Whittier. After placing painter's tape over the track to protect it I cut landforms into the Styrofoam, added a plaster rock and then applied a thin layer of Hydrocal. Once the plaster dried I applied paint, Woodland Scenics grasses, rock chips from Seward, talus and diluted white glue.	On train night Rick returned six locomotives with newly installed Keep-Alives. He took the remaining six locomotives home to complete the fleet's Keep-Alive installation. At lower left is the first round of my attempt at scenery.	Ted installed the south backdrop leaving only one of the three cold air returns open. My HVAC repair guy informed me this was starving my unit for air. Rick and I removed the backdrop and made measurements for cutting two access holes for the blocked cold air returns. I have a layout tour on Tuesday so we chose to wait until Wednesday to cut the holes.
Rick did a test run on the Wilderness Express railcar and found the couplers were too low. I will order a pair of under shank couplers to correct this height issue. We spent the rest of the evening running trains and having fun.

 

September 8, 2021

Rick works on the barge table movement mechanism at home. Shown here is the barge table glued and clamped.	The barge mounting screws are installed and ready.	The barge is mounted and moves from side to side. The vertical height adjustment is not yet made.
Rick puts the barge in place in anticipation of the upcoming tour.	The end view of the barge.	I begin working on the mountain for the southeast corner of the layout.
David stops by on Monday and resumes painting.	He finishes the entire interior with the exception of the Flint Hills Refinery at left.	East view of inner scenery backdrop.
West view of inner scenery backdrop. Chances are he will continue to tinker on these paintings.	On Tuesday John S., his wife and two grandchildren stop by for a tour of Alaska Railroad of Clayton. Fun was had by all! Terry completes the tour by giving out homemade train cookies.	Later in the morning our twin grandsons invade the train room. Grandson Cody asks me to run the "log train". Here is a video showing it crossing under the Alaska Railroad bridge.
The "log train" also has quite a number of cabooses on the end. The twins count ten cabooses, but I am sure from the video your count will differ.	Rick cuts the backdrop covering the cold air returns. These pieces will be saved so David can recreate the scene in paint on the cold air return's grill.	Rick removing the cut backdrop.
All three cold air returns are now open. My HVAC system breaths a sigh of relief.	Rick removes a thin strip from the barge board for a better fit.	Rick then sands the end of the board smooth. He also makes height adjustment to the front of the barge.
As shown in this video passenger cars pass smoothly from the Whittier yard to the barge.	This video shows Rick's GP40 taking ultradomes off and back onto the barge.	Our foreman is completely exhausted from all the work and takes a short siesta beneath the Whittier yard.

 

September 15, 2021

The barge is mounted on a lightweight board which will warp over time. These four pieces will be a support for under the barge platform.	Here are the four pieces put together. Rick glued and clamped them after the above photo was taken.	Monday afternoon rolled around again and David popped in for some painting. He focused on the TwentyMile bridge section using a drone photo taken by Frank Keller. Frank flew the drone out over the water and took the photo looking back at TwentyMile bridge.
Terry once again fixes a wonderful meal with Jackie furnishing a top drawer salad bar. Terry completes the meal with a homemade apple pie using fruit from our apple tree.	Rick makes final adjustments for the barge platform,	Clamps hold the lattice structure in place for final mounting. Rick then spends considerable amount of time make adjustments for both the lattice and barge platform. Once everything is in place he finds the east end of the barge is a smidge too high. Final adjustments will be made another time.

 

September 29, 2021

The corner fascia at the Portage depot has taken quite a beating over the last year. The top of the fascia joint has chipped away and the boards separated two thirds of the way down. Rick built and painted a wooden protector which fits over top the joints. Without a doubt, this corner protector will take a licking and keep on ticking.	This week's work centered on barge operations. As Rick transferred a coal car consist from the Whittier yard to the barge he noticed the cars derailed or their flanges rode on top of the rail. The straight edge of a level reveals the rails are warped.	An NMRA gauge reveals the rails are out of specification. Our best guess is expansion and contraction has caused warping of the rails. Rick took the barge home and found he couldn't release a small section of the rail to straighten and put back into gauge. He removed a rail and found it bent it even more. The best fix will be to replace all five tracks with new flex track.

 

 

 

Feel free to contact me at john@alaskarails.org
Page created 9/4/17 and last updated 10/11/21