Tom triumphantly finishes laying track at the reverse loop and the Usibelli Coal Mine siding (pictured above). A modification to the original plans will be made later to extended the siding back to the bridge.

Leigh falls in love with our hot wire cutter. She uses scrap two-inch foam board pieces to experiment with various techniques. Hopefully she'll come on board to help us cut the foam board residing around the track bed.

John and Tom play with a recently purchased Tortoise switch machine and determine it will meet the layout's requirements. An additional 39 Tortoise's will be purchased soon to connect with each of the switches on the layout.

Due to lack of foresight, holes were not initially drilled at each switch to accommodate a switch machine. Tom suggests a plan to easily remove switches and drill the required holes. This effort will takes several weeks to accomplish.

Tom also suggests creation of wiring diagrams to facilitate connection of all products. This will enable the group to order the correct amount, size and color of wire.

This is an elevated view of the swing gate.

John has immersed himself over the past few weeks reading RailPro manuals and corresponding with the creators at Ring Engineering. The company has great customer service and even provided us with a custom mark-up of their products on the layout. Short blue marks denote the end of segments/blocks and the long black line is connected neutral lines between power supplies.

Almost all RailPro products have been received. Initially, two wireless throttles and five locomotive modules were ordered. Also procured were two power supplies, six circuit breakers, ten accessory modules and an auto-reverse loop circuit. The group spent about 45 minutes discussing their installation and various wiring nuances.

Tom carefully marks the location of every switch hole and then creates it using a quarter inch drill bit. Care must be taken as the cork wants to "relocate" the position of the drill bit.

The swing gate's strike plate in position and ready for business.

A power supply will reside in the center island of the layout. Running a long extension cord is unwise so we are going to add a power box at the wall and run a flexible wire conduit. With a song in his heart, LJ prepares to run the conduit.

Using metal hangers LJ mounts the wire underneath the L-girder construction.

An ice storm came through the area and we lost power at 9:03 PM. The workers never missed a beat and continued their tasks by flashlight. Mike finishes mounting the top board to the swing gate.

Tom said it would take three weeks to correct our mistake of not drilling holes under the switches for the Tortoise spring wires and he is correct. He spent the entire evening working on the switches at the north end of the Anchorage yard. First, he solders all the track pieces together.

He removes the first section of the yard and sets it out of the way.

While Tom works to remove the second section of the yard Indy jumps up to lend a hand.

I ordered wire and terminal blocks from Parts Express and it arrived several days ago. It can be seen at left.

Tom carefully removes the second section of soldered track from the yard and sets it aside.

Using the guides drawn with a green Crayola marker Tom drills the holes for all of the spring wires. L-girder cross beams are below several of the holes and will need to be relocated on another night.

Screws are put in to hold the CB-1 in place. The unit is placed at the bottom of the cross piece allowing room for wires to be inserted at the top plus easier viewing of the status light at bottom.

A view of wire pass thru holes in the L-girder cross pieces.