While I was in North Carolina running trains with this little guy...
The rest of the Casey Jones High Railers were finishing up laying track in the new dog leg expansion project we started back in February. At the end of the April 16th work session trains were able to run on all tree main lines. A temporary bridge was installed where the trestle will be built. Here are pictures from the April 9th and April 16th work sessions.
April 16th
Well despite my absence on April 16th (or maybe as a result of my absence
) The rest of the CJHR guys finished installing all the track on the new dogleg expansion. Here is the completed temporary bridge. Sides were added to prevent derailing trains form confirming the laws of gravity.
Here are pictures of the completed curves.
Notice the expanded area of the curve module in the last picture. Mike decided to make a final check of the clearances in the curves as they entered the old section of the layout. As originally laid out our curve in the outside main line was way to close to the center main line. Articulated engines and 21 inch passenger cars would collide with engines and cars on the adjacent track. A filler section had to be added to the curve modules in order to achieve the clearance we needed between the two tracks.
Well that is it, the new dog leg was completed. This weekend we will start wiring and painting the new modules. The next area to be re modeled will be stub yard. A curve will be added to the stub yard which will allow the yard to follow the curve of the new dog leg.
The April 9th work session is below along with pictures of all our work dating back to the day in February when we first laid out our new dog leg design.
April 9th
The second main line was completed along with the installation of the final cross over from the outside main line to the center main line.
Mike and David working on the second cross over
Here is the finished second cross over. Also have a look at the worn out cut off wheel. With no full service LHS in our area we have to get all the use possible out of our cut off wheels. The sectional O72 track you see was used to help form the inside main line O72 GarGraves curve.
Here is the work to complete the center main line track.
Fritz, Phil, Frank, and Fred worked on building the temporary bridge where the trestle will be built. As you can see there was a considerable amount of deliberation and contemplation in the thought process needed to mount a 1X4 board.
How many Casey Jones High Railers does it take do hold a drill and drive a screw straight through ties, road bed and bench work? Actually 4 if you count David who is behind the camera. 
Here are pictures of the Casey Jones High Railers expansion work on March 26th 2016
We installed all the cork road bed in the dogleg curves and completed laying the track for the inside main line. The day ended with the first run through the partially completed expansion area. Here are a few pictures and a video of the first run on track one.
Laying the cork - it took a couple of times to get some of the clearances correct, but all of the cork was laid in the new dogleg curves.
A Forum member form Cordova TN, Daryl Jacobs, has been following our posts. He contacted me a couple of weeks ago and asked me to set up a visit to see all of the layouts. He is an N Scale guy so I hooked him up with Ned Savage who gave him a tour of all the layouts. I think he will my join the N scale group. Daryl is on the left.
Laying Track
Our goal was to complete all the track in one main line of the new Dogleg. We Did it! By 2pm we ran the first train through the dogleg and across the new bridge module.
The final connection and first run through the new dog leg on the inside main line.
Our Casey Jones Chapter TCA train show is next weekend. We will be back to work in a couple of weeks.
Hope everyone had a great Easter.
Richard and the Casey Jones High Railers.
Saturday March 5th was devoted to the final construction of the modules connecting the old layout to the new dog leg expansion.
This module was built to allow scenery to drop below the level of the track and allow for roads or culverts to pass under the track.
Fred is finishing up a new module connection to the old ice platform modules.
Here are pictures of the final construction of the bridge module needed to incorporate the bridge we acquired from the NJHR group into the new dog leg.
On March 12th the "Gandy Dancers" reported to work The work on road bed and track began.
Mike and I worked on converting the ice dock siding into a passing siding allowing trains to run reefers through the ice dock tacks for icing the reefers. Ballast and road bed had to be chiseled out. New road bed was added and the # 4 switch allowing the run through for the icing platform siding was added. Next we added a cross over connecting the outside main line to the middle mainline on our layout. On the old CJHR layout the outside track was really just a separate oval on which we had planned to run any make of trains, and avoid any problems that may have been caused by vintage trains and modern Ross switches. As part of this expansion project we decided to add the cross over in order to allow trains in our expanded stub yard to work their way out of the yard and eventually end up on the outside main line. The two Ross #11 switches we used on the cross over were originally part of the upper level on the NJHR bridge.
Fred (out of camera shot) and David worked on road bed and track installation on other dog leg modules. Franks was given a day off on March 12th. His grandsons were in town. Frank brought the grandsons by to see the layout and make sure the rest of us were working. Fred can bee seen behind Frank working on track.
March 19th started out violently with a shoot out between Gandy Dancers David Sutter and Fred Bugg
David's staple gun jammed and Fred's drill was unloaded- no drill bit. Cooler head prevailed. Frank and I quickly settled the dispute and put the two dandy gandy dancers back to work.
We were able to lay all the straight track on the new modules, except on the outside main line where a trestle still needs to be built next to NJHR bridge
Hay guys, this section of GarGraves looks straight to me! - Fred is on top of quality control.
Hay David, does the track look straight enough for you?
Here are a few pictures of the finished product.
Well, next weekend will be dedicated to bending and laying the curve tracks. It does not look as if we can use pre formed curves, so we will be using the belly bending method. 
Happy Easter week to all,
Richard and the Casey Jones High Railers.
February 27th work session
Today we attached all the modules from the old layout and new module together. Here are a few pictures.
Our first task was to finish mounting the bridge to the two adjacent modules.
Here is the bridge with the framing for the water feature completed.
I learned from Phil Irish, our member who procured the bridge for us that he purchased it from the New Jersey High Railers. Very Nice work NJ high Railers, this is one nice bridge indeed.
We completed the two modules needed to finish connecting the old and new section of the layout together.
We had to build a module almost 8ft long to fill in the last section of the layout. This module was built to allow scenery to drop below track level. Culverts and small girder bridges will be built into this module.
Risers will be added to the module next Saturday in order to bring the track level up to meet the existing height of the layout.
Adjacent to the bridge we plan to build a dock scene with a freighter. We are planning to use this freighter built by my late father in law H.H. Judkins. It is an RC ship that has been "moth balled" for over 20 years. We will have to ease it into dry dock and do some refitting along with work on the rigging. it a vey nice model and I believe he may have scratch built the freighter.
After one more Saturday hopefully we will be laying track.
Thanks and have a good week.
Richard and the Casey Jones High Railers.
2 20 16 Work session
Our upgrade / remodel of the Casey Jones High Railer Modular layout has entered into the construction phase. Our first two work sessions were dedicated to finishing the legs for the new modules. Levelers were added to the legs and the new module legs have been installed. Yesterday we finished reinforcing the new legs. We had also planned to build two spanner modules necessary to complete the new dog leg and install the bridge between the two new modules. However , we hit a glitch. While installing the bridge between the two new modules, we discovered that the curve modules at either end of the bridge would leave little or no clearance for articulated engines to come out of the bridge and clear the fascia on the modules. The solution was to build a two foot spanner module for each end of the bridge. This would allow the needed length necessary for an articulated engine to clear the fascia when going into a curve.
Here are a few pictures of the work session.
David and Fred install the last of the literal braces on the new module legs.
Mike and I are working on installing the bridge before we realized we had a clearance problem.
Building the two spanner modules for the bridge
Here are the finished spanner modules that were added to the bridge. The third track on the outside of the layout will cross a trestle that will be built next to the bridge. Although we did not get around to building the two spanner modules needed to complete the layout, the two new spanners on either side of the bridge did give us 4 additional feet in the over all length of the new dog leg.
Next weekend we will finish attaching the bridge and build and install the last two spanner modules need to connect all of the modules in the dog leg together and to the original layout.
Hopefully we can start laying roadbed and track after next Saturday.
Have a good week!
Richard and the Casey Jones High Railers.
After years of running trains in a "NASCAR" oval the Casey Jones High Railers are following the example of other outstanding modular layout clubs seen on the OGR Forum. We are starting the expansion of our layout to include an "L " dog leg. Here are a few pictures of our first design for the new layout.
Our Magic Box control panel has been moved to the outside of the layout in order to expand the scenery opportunities around the city scene and hill top train station.
We are moving the curve section with the country story and extending the layout by moving the icing platform modules to connect with the access bridge. Also in this picture you can see that a curve has been added to the stub yard allowing it to expand into the new space formed by the dog leg. Mike and Frank are making out our shopping list of things we need to buy.
The old curve module containing the country store will be used to make the left turn of the dog leg. The stub yard extension into the dog leg area can be seen on the right. Fritz is lining things up.
The dog leg will turn back toward the original layout with a new bridge / trestle scene that will extend to the floor. We hope to include a ship passing under the bridge. Fritz and Zee are admiring their work. Oops, I did not move the bridge abutment from the module before I took the picture.
The dog leg will re enter the original layout at the beginning of the city scene.
Well, we have lots of work to do. As you can see we will need to build a couple of spanner modules in order to connect the modules.
Have a good week!
Richard
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