03.07.06 at 13:45 hrs

Weekly Report No 296, CW 26

The staging areas are pre-fabricated and wired which enables us to just drop them into benchwork.

Naturally, the electronic guys already look forward to connect those masses of wire :)...

The first bench is up and adjusted to the correct height for the first visible station.

This very station has been placed onto the benchwork.

At this time, one can also see how many people are really needed to move such a big piece of layout! However: "Why ist it placed upside down?"

The reason is: The station has to be wired and having it upside down makes this job a lot easier. Once the wiring is done, the station will be flipped over and adjusted.

To those of you asking themselves where these guys are looking at: They try to find out the right positions for the first metal supports for the mountains. The supports have to be located in the exact right position as otherwise the layout may look a bit akward in the end...

Now the window pane covering the connection to the "old" alps section has been fitted in. If you think this is an "ordinary" window, you are completely wrong! This small window weighs a mere 251 kg and withstands a heat of more than 1,000° celsius for more than 90 minutes.

All this effort had to be undertaken in order to prevent a fire (God spare us that one) to jump from one room to the adjacent one. The small pipe openings you see will house the tracks leading from "old" section to the "new" one. In case of fire, these openings are automatically closed.

Addition to last week's topic #1: This is how the finished turnout looks after it had been soldered and painted.