Construction Continues

10/12/03 My number one son, who lives near the site of the original Monte Sano Railroad, walked the trail and brought me some stones from the area. I am going to use them in the ravine - so there will be material from the actual site used in building the model. In this picture, the stones are laid out on the carpet in front of the layout.
	Here is a first try at arranging the stones in the ravine.
A view of the rocks, looking under the trestle.
	A few bushes struggling to grow among the rocks and one tree that has managed to push up alongside bring a little life to the ravine. The larger trestle still needs some horizontal and cross bracing between the bents.
A little different view of the ravine with vegetation.
	The track is down! No ballast yet, and the trestles are not spiked, but the gauge is good and the train runs!
Well, I got the ballast on the roadbed today. It took two tries, because the wet water spray used in the first attempt loosened the glue holding the ties to the roadbed and the track sprung loose. Fortunately, I came back to take a look and was able to reposition the track and pin it back down. Today, I cleaned up the mess from the first attempt and added more ballast as necessary.
	The civil engineer took over today and added some very necessary cross-bracing between the bents of the big trestle. Now it doesn't look quite so flimsy.
Cabelet Spring is reproduced. Compare to the picture on the Layout Concept page. As of 12/30/04, this scene has been modified to better represent the water flowing out of holes in the keg. This picture also shows the Americanized Egger Bahn loco coming into the scene.
	12/15/03 A steam engine to power the stone crusher - the last major scene gets started! FYI, this is a Keystone Locomotive Works Horizontal Mill Engine.
12/23/03 The portable boiler is about finished and is shown here sitting beside the steam engine - still needs some piping, or the steam will never get there! Next will be the stone crusher. The boiler is also from Keystone Locomotive Works.
	9/18/04 The stone crusher scene is coming together. Here you see the portable boiler in the background, with the stationary steam engine on cribbing at the left, the stone crusher on cribbing in the center, a conveyor to move the crushed stone to the rail cars on the right, as the AHM Baldwin waits with a short train of cars to receive the stone. Still needs a drive belt and detailing, but compare this scene to the concept scene. The stone crusher is from Western Scale Models and the conveyor is from Walthers.

9/21/04 The stone crusher scene with the drive belt added. This angle matches the concept scene pretty closely.
9/20/04 Just adding a picture of the Buttonhole Cut for you to compare to the concept scene.