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February 2004 Work Report
Several Club members are currently working on projects at the important
town of Summit, the first town east of Williamsport. Jim Jansen, head of the layout committee,
is currently drawing up possible long-term plans for the town of Summit itself, including
new sidings, buildings, and scenery. The town of Summit has never been completed--Club members will end up
building it from the ground up. Possible ideas being talked about for the town are a
turntable for steam helpers, a closed-circuit trolley line, and a large paper mill, as well
as the entire town itself, to be built on an incline.
All of the temporarily-placed buildings in Summit have been removed,
leaving Jim Jansen with a "clean slate" for the Summit design
Pat Reardon, John Molls, and Terry Hartland recently installed a new signal bridge governing the
east end of Summit (a location known by railroaders as "Summit East"). The below photograph shows
Pat assisting Terry with the wiring, which can get quite tricky, especially for 5-head signal
bridges.
Pat Reardon and Terry Hartland hard at work on a signal bridge installation at Summit East
This next photo gives
an indication of how complex
the wiring can be. From left to right, the 5-wire terminal strips govern 1. westbound mainline; 2. eastbound
mainline; 3. first eastbound passing siding; 4. second eastbound passing siding; 5. distant
eastbound mainline. From top to bottom, each terminal of the 5-wire terminal
strips are for the 1. red signal light; 2. yellow signal light; 3. green signal light; 4. common power;
5. Ahhh...no one's quite sure what should plug into the 5th terminal... Actually, it looks like the
middle terminal is unused on each terminal strip.
20
tiny wires control the new Summit East 4-track, 5-head signal bridge
The next photo shows the bridge in action, after complete installation. John Molls (left) built
the beautiful signal bridge itself, and Terry Hartland in the background wired it up.
The signal bridge is showing the correct aspects upon its first test
There is additional work going on at Summit in the midst of signal installation. Dave Locke
recently procured a large Paper Mill kit, to be built and installed at the eastern edge of
Summit. The mill promises to be a busy GC customer, with inbound kaolin clay and woodpulp, and
outbound paper. It will be served by 2 or even 3 sidings.
Frank Schneider is currently building a badly-needed repeater panel for Summit, which will
allow operators to make better use of Summit's pair of long sidings and mainline crossovers.
The panel will become even more valuable once the town of Summit is completed, as it will become
a much more active town on the GC mainline
Bob Lindt and John Joyce are currently
installing and wiring a switch
for the long spur that joins the westbound mainline at "Summit West". This spur was added to
Summit about 4 years ago but was never wired into the layout's electrical control system, nor
was a switch ever installed. Work on this spot began by drilling a large hole under the
throw-rod of the switch, to make way for the switch motor pin itself. The shot below shows the switch
in question (to the right of the yellow alligator clip) along with some tools of the trade, including
micro-screwdrivers, micro-tweezers, and the switch motor and rack itself (bottom right). Wiring
of the switch is ongoing as of this writing.
The "tools of the trade" for a new switch installation
Meanwhile, work progresses on other parts of
the layout. As part of the signalling crew, Dave Urschel is
currently replacing old and worn/burned-out track indicator LEDs in
the Williamsport control panel with new, standardized yellow LEDs,
making use of the new detector circuitry being installed as part of
the overall lineside signal installation process.
That's it for the February 2004 work report.
- J. A. Joyce
Georgetown Yardmaster
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