Rich Feller came over and we placed the previously cut (done in 1995) plywood on top of the lower storage yard roadbed. This plywood for the overhead loop was something I designed many years ago and then I had a fellow with a computer driven router system cut out of 3/4 inch furniture grade birch plywood. I have moved the material three times to now when I can finally install it. Rich is standing where we laid out 6 tracks to ensure we had the clearances that I had designed in - 4 inch separation in the track radii
(note the trusty pencil and calculator). In the third shot you see the trammel in the foreground, which we used to draw the guide lines for the tracks so we have a template to lay the roadbed. In the last shot you see Rich standing by the throat of the loop which looks like a big balloon. It will be a single track coming up the hill that then opens up to a loop of 6 tracks for storage of the branch line trains that are being exchanged with the Lehigh Valley RR in Mount Carmel. This was the end of the Shamokin Branch.
(note the trusty pencil and calculator). In the third shot you see the trammel in the foreground, which we used to draw the guide lines for the tracks so we have a template to lay the roadbed. In the last shot you see Rich standing by the throat of the loop which looks like a big balloon. It will be a single track coming up the hill that then opens up to a loop of 6 tracks for storage of the branch line trains that are being exchanged with the Lehigh Valley RR in Mount Carmel. This was the end of the Shamokin Branch.
The roadbed is positioned directly below where we will raise it to within 12 inches of the ceiling. The tiles are coming out so we can put the brackets in the ceiling to hold the steel threaded rods that will hold the plywood up. Look out Gotthells, here I come!
I know how satisfying it must have felt to finally use the wood you have carted around for decades! Way to go! You knew you'd eventually put it to good use! JH
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