| The Georgetown Branch : News : 2003 Archive I will try to keep this page up to date with my progress, and other interesting related things. Newest stuff is on the bottom of the page. |
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| A new year... tear down the walls! posted: 01/07/2003 |
I spent New Years day taking out drywall, fixtures, ceiling, and hundreds of nails from the walls to begin preparation of the layout room. The dusty work took me most of the day and the result was very rewarding. I finally got a good perspective of my available space and the challenges in front of me. More demolition to come! For pics please visit the gallery. |
| Demolition Continues... posted: 01/07/2003 |
My second day of demolition in the train room on 01/05/2003. I removed more wood from the cabinet enclosing the HVAC & water heater. I also removed a board from below a window and discovered some cracked masonry. I repaired this with some masonry caulking. Also plugged some holes. I pulled hundreds of nails from the cabinet. I am now pondering what studs to keep in place and which to remove. I have also decided to put up drywall on the existing beams/studs instead of leaving them open. I am also planning on installing a drop ceiling above the layout. |
| First Annual Georgetown Branch Walk (fans of the B&O RR) posted: 01/07/2003 |
January 18, 2003: Hosted by Barry Rubin the walk will begin at Barry's house in Chevy Chase and continue thru Bethesda and into Georgeotown for about 3 hrs. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Baltimore_and_Ohio/message/5870 for more info! There will be several learned Georgetown Branch enthusiasts on hand to point out all the interesting points along the way. |
| Cleanup posted: 01/14/2003 |
Hauled all the broken drywall, debris and excess paneling to the dump on Saturday, 1/11/03. The room is almost completely cleaned. I still have to remove some of the studs from around the HVAC / water heater area. Next I will be roughing in the electrical components for the room. I am thinking of putting the lighting & outlets for the room on one circuit and the layout power on another. Not sure that this is necessary, but it may provide for good power quality which is what I'm looking for. After electrical roughing comes the drywall and drop ceiling. Stay tuned. |
| First Annual Georgetown Branch Walk: A success! posted: 01/23/2003 |
January 18, 2003: We met at Barry Rubin's house and were treated to a great display of maps, photos, drawings and stories by Duane Carrel and all who attended. Much insight was gained into the Georgetown Branch. We did a tour of the River Rd. area in Bethesda. It was cold, snow was still on the ground and a good time was had by all. Visit the gallery for pics! |
| Progress... posted: 06/26/2003 |
Well, it's been a while, eh? Things have slowed down a bit with so many other events going on. My main focus has been to get all the electrical equipment roughed in for the layout. Because I have terribly outdated and worn electrical supply lines I have to have some electrical work done to the house. Namely, a heavy-up. I'm going from 100AMP to 200AMP some time in the near future. In the meantime, I purchased some romex cable, junction boxes, flourescent "shop" fixtures, switches, outlets and other parts to rough in. A big progression for my layout took place yesterday when some land distribution talks with my better half went well and I was able to obtain use of the entire room (YEAH!) in exchange for most of an upstairs room. So, my layout plan will most likely be changing from a 2 level w/ helix to a 1 level w/o helix. I will post more as it happens. Yesterday I ripped out the remainder of beams from around the HVAC & water heater and also cleaned up the room a bit. I still have a bunch of prep left to do, but I'm getting closer every day. Enjoy the new page in the gallery which is a study on the 3 bridges over the C&O Canal. |
| Back from vacation posted: 08/22/2003 |
Two weeks ago I spent a couple hours tearing out the remainder of the wallboards in the layout room. Now the walls are all ready to be scraped & sealed. After that I can proceed w/ the electrical installation. I was on vacation last week and spent an entire day poring over the Georgetown Branch track charts, sketching track configurations, and plugging the ideas into Cadrail. I've decided to go with a 1 level layout as opposed to 2 for simplicity's sake. I will post a new trackplan soon. I also updated the EQUIPMENT & HISTORY pages. Check them out! |
| Electrical work begins posted: 09/08/2003 |
I finally got around to starting roughing in the electrical system. It's great work, and nice to finally have it going. Spent a lot of time on Sat-Sun sketching and scheming and consulting with Dad about it, and finally got underway. I made good progress. Read about it in the Gallery. On another note, my layout planning is going well. I have decided (at this time) to go back to a 2-level layout. I have room for a helix and I really can't seem to fit all that I want to fit in only 1 level. So, I'm going for it. Layout plans should be posted soon. |
| More electrical work posted: 09/15/2003 |
Completed all the wiring for the room and installed about 70% of the outlets. I am holding off on some of the outlets b/c they are to be installed after the paneling on the walls. It's great to make this progress. I think I will paint the walls next and measure for paneling and drop ceiling. I also added a couple more links to the Links page. Check it out! |
| Screeeech... to a halt. posted: 10/29/2003 |
Recently I noticed some water leaking into the basement from the area of the front porch (concrete & brick). I sealed some large cracks in the front steps outside with masonry patching & caulk. I thought that would stop the leak. For the most part, it did. About 99% of it. In the last 3 days we've had a lot of rain and I only noticed one small drop of water. However, last night upon arriving home to my front porch I noticed water leaking thru the soffit and panels in the "ceiling" of the porch area. Ugh. Water was dripping down right next to the house, after runnning under the soffit boards and across the paneling in the ceiling. I must fix this if I'm going to proceed with putting up new walls in the basement. I don't feel like ripping the panels out because the leak continues. So, now I must disassemble the porch ceiling and check all the gutters and roof for leaks and misalignment. Another chapter begins. In other news, I've been working on the layout design and it's coming along nicely. I also recently volunteered at a B&O RR Historical Society Archives "sorting session" and located a few nice Georgetown Branch photos, from the 40's and 60's which I've posted in the Gallery. Also, I purchased a Life-Like Proto 2000 Heritage Series USRA 0-6-0 lettered for the B&O # 371, from the B&O RR Historical Society Company Store. I also picked up an I-1 Caboose resin kit. The desire to go on a tour of the Branch is increasing more and more as the leaves fall from the trees. Perhaps this winter I'll get out and walk/bike/photograph the whole Branch and create a "tour" page on this site. |
| Progress posted: 11/18/2003 |
This past weekend I purchased some more tools and supplies (plastic sheeting for walls & panels for walls) for the job. I managed to do a few things including rehanging the main door so that it swings into the rec room instead of the train room. I also corrected a small copper pipe that goes to the fridge (that was hung with nails and not brackets) that was bent and hanging. I also installed a couple more electrical outlets and switches and cleaned up the room a bit. Next up I still need to isolate and repair that water leak, put up the plastic sheeting and panel the walls. Then comes the drop ceiling. No pics, sorry. |
| Layout plans done, V 2.0 posted: 11/24/2003 |
I finally got around to finishing up the track plan version 2. Since I added to my available layout space I have more possibilities. The only correction I really feel I need to make is that of the addition of the "new" G-town yard, which was existant ca. 1948, which is when I'm modeling. See Kelly's page on the G-town track arrangements. See, my plan was more of the 1930's vintage, so it needs to be changed. Check the Layout section for the plans. I also attended another B&ORRHS sorting session on 11/22 - what a great time! I managed to dig up another photo on the Georgetown Branch (of a switcher in G-town) and a B&O plan for track laid in concrete. Check back soon, as I plan on posting these and other maps, diagrams, and plans. |
| Some additions to the site and work progress report. posted: 12/04/2003 |
On Tuesday night some members of my Model RR club helped me paint the walls in the Layout room with Zinsser B-I-N Shellac Base Primer-Sealer. MAN that stuff smells! We did most of the room, but ran out of paint. I have to do more. One of the club members suggested removing all the furring strips on the walls and redoing them. This got me thinking that I might go ahead and do this. I am going to measure the ones that are in place now and see how they stand up. I want to have consistently spaced strips and as they are now some are crooked, loose or odd. They are also fastened to the walls with masonry nails instead of screws, which to me is no good. So this may be my next project. I have added a bunch of stuff to the History section. Take a look. I added some documents, notes and maps. |
| Getting rid of the Fur' posted: 12/11/2003 |
So I started removing the furring strips. Well, actually I'm done removing the furring strips. I still have to remove about 30 more stubborn, large steel masonry nails. They are TERRIBLE. I'm using a crowbar and in some instances it's not enough. I end up hammering them until they snap. I'm going to do it right this time using Tapcon masonry anchors. I added some photos from a recent painting session in the Gallery section. Also, my thoughts on the DCC system I'll be installing. Comments please!? |
| Furring strips gone, patched holes. posted: 12/23/2003 |
I removed all the tenacious furring strip nails and patched the holes. I have to do another coat as there was some cracking. Next up, painting. Pics are in the Gallery. I also updated my thoughts on the DCC system I'll be installing. Comments please!? |
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