Aberfoyle Junction - 5
going out to where the railway benchwork would eventually
be. With this done, we had a contractor pour a concrete floor
on October 5, 1982. We then studded and drywalled the south
end of the building. Six-foot-high knee walls were built north-
ward along both sides.
Where a knee wall met the arch roof, we found a way to run
framing boards horizontally up the curved surface to the 11’
mark. This area was then drywalled. Finally a suspended ceil-
ing was installed across the room. By the time the layout was
brought over, this work had been completed in the south half
the structure, allowing it to act as storage for the pieces while
we worked our way northward.
We had decided we would have a lounge area across the north
end. The footprint of the building was 100’ by 40’. By allowing for
a 17’-deep lounge, the train room became 83’ by 40’. Above the
lounge area. we constructed a storage attic and a small balcony
overlooking the train room. Each end of the Quonset hut had slid-
ing barn doors. We sealed these shut at the south end, creating a
blank wall. At the north end, a studded wall housed windows and
the entrance doors. The sliding barn doors on the north end were
closed when we weren’t there, providing security.
By early 1983, construction was well along at the north end.
This allowed us to reassemble the original layout at that end,
and it became the beginning of the new layout. Plans for the
new layout were being devised throughout this same period.
As the new sections were built we used L-girder benchwork
and spline roadbed, covering the splines with ½” Ten-Test,
a commercial paneling product. The track work was largely
complete by spring of 1984, with the exception of the city
of Wellington, which would be a later project. Wiring was
installed by May of that year, and the control panels in the
tower were wired up.
Opening for shows again
We planned to have our first set of weekend shows for
October of 1984. We wanted the layout to have a finished
look, even though it was far from that. We gave the layout a
plaster-over-wire-mesh covering and finished this with ground
cover made of dyed sawdust and chopped foam. Gwen had
been making trees throughout the construction phase, and
there were over 1,000 ready for planting. Over the next few
years many more trees and scratchbuilt structures were added.
As the night scene was being developed in 1987, building inte-
riors were installed, along with lighting. To operate the night
scene, Chuck constructed a slowly rotating drum. There are 64
micro-switches on cams of various lengths. These are wired to
the hundreds of lights in the buildings and street lights. Two
switches on the drum begin the dimming of the ceiling lights,
and after eight minutes bring them back up again.
Work on Wellington began about 1989, first installing the
benchwork and track, followed by designing and building the
structures, with completion about 1993. From then on, we
“Our first set of weekend
shows, October of 1984.”
“... the night scene was
developed in 1987.”
MRH-Dec 2014
