I have reconnected the down pipes and dust collectors on one bank of Blast Furnaces. I fabricated more realistic "Gas Scrubbers(washers) out of 1.5" CPVC pipe plus 1/2" CPVC Pipe and card board coat hanger bottoms.

View the construction of the Blast Furnace Dust Collectors and Gas Scrubbers(washers) on the Youtube "links" below.. Many of the waste gases from the Blast Furnace are flammable such as Carbon Monoxide. Loaded with soot, Ferrous Oxide(“rust”) and...

Now just because this is our final day of the trip and we are on the return leg home, it doesn't mean we let up on our fanning.

Early morning light found us back in the yard at Eugene to catch a Cascade "bat train" with a cabbage on the rear. As we got our shots it was making to leave out for its days service. Also in the yard was UP Olympic unit #2001, an unexpected bonus.

Springfield turned out to be only a minor bust as it turned up some new info for our...

So I finally got around to tearing out Layout Five. I knew it was only a short-term loop layout from the git-go, and it made it about 2 years. That's OK, because I think I'm ready for a MUCH better layout, more to come on that.

Anyway, I tore out a large bank of cabinets in the train room that were pretty much sub-par. Upon loosing 14 very large drawers, I was forced to go thru my N-scale empire, and weed out the unnecessary. I tossed all the useless packaging, as well...

I have bought a 4X4 section of "Particle board" and painted it black. This is where all 8 blast furnace (in two rows of 4) plus the "High Line" which brings in Iron Ore, Coke & Limestone for the furnaces from the stock house. I have cut holes in the cast house roofs to fully enclose the furnaces as in the prototype. I have added "casting porches" for the hot metal cars to go under to get filled with 3300F molten pig iron. I added yellow safety railings made from...

It's taken a while; with several rewires, a few bad SPDT switches and a lot of head scratching, but I'm almost done.


Halland Control Panel

I tested the Jump Throttle just a minute ago and it works! I've also tested all of the switch ports. And they all work! Last step is wiring these Tortoise motors to the switch ports and It'll be operational.

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