Several liberties had to be taken in order to fit the railroad into the available space. Some of the sidings were moved to the opposite side the track and shortened. The Elk River Coal and lumber branch was converted to a 3 foot gauge rather than the original standard gauge to allow operation of smaller equipment and tighter curves. The main line to the B&O interchange is currently the hidden staging area along the left hand side of the plan.

 The sub road bed is in and some of the turnouts are being installed. The turnouts will be operated with manual ground throws modified to power the frog using a double pole double throw slide switch mounted below the roadbed. More information and photos on this later. The area below Widen is the B&O interchange and the town of Clay. Clay has some small local businesses that will require freight service from the BC&G. This area is reached by taking the turnout just past the entrance to the Dundon engine facility and following a long down grade around the layout ending at the interchange. A cutoff just before the interchange leads to a reverse loop that will return to the upper level.

                               July 15 2011 Widen yard track is down

The track has been laid and some mock ups of the proposed structures have been constructed using the Evans Design graphics program. I have

 found that the program makes a very nice looking building that give you a chance to see if the size and design will fit in the space allowed. This is a real help especially when you are planning on scratch building the final structure.

The turnouts are mounted and the 

ground throws are installed. An auxiliary contact has been designed to allow the movement of the actuator bar to energize a DPDT relay. The relay controls the power to the frog of the turnout and allows a set of contacts to control signal LED's.

                                 August 12 2011 Widen sprouts hills and a mine
The basic size for the Rich Run Mine has been mocked up and fit to the space available. The area behind the mine has the hills added and enough flat area is available to build 3 to 5 company houses. The area across the tracks from the mine has had a warehouse set into the space where the company store will reside eventually.

The mine is a combination of several types of siding with tin sheet being the main covering for the largest portion of the breaker house. The sheets are 32" x 72" with a 

2 3/8" corrugation. That is a lot of sheet metal. I am making the individual sheets from heavy duty aluminum foil that I cut to size and emboss the corrugations into using a special tool that I made from and old computer cord strap, a piece of 1x4, some old garage door opener guide, a file, and a lot of imagination. The end result works pretty well and it is possible to make about 6 sheets a minute. By the time I have enough I should be a lot faster - cutting out paper dolls somewhere.

 

            December 1 2011 The rough plaster goes down in Widen

The hills behind Widen are starting to take shape. They have a rough coat of texture and a few shrubs in place. Still need to cast the tunnel portals and install them so I can finish the rock cuts and start the next section toward Clermont.

The mine is sheeted with the tin siding and most of the external structure is completed. Just the roofs and details need to be added.

The buildings are on hold for the time being since I have a Pennsy freight shed that I am detailing out for the spring regional convention. After the convention the building will get a new name and become the Clermont Creamery.