South Fork Viaduct

I worked this week on the Winston Salem Southbound's South Fork Viaduct. Although not exactly to scale, and the ground is around it is really mostly grassy, I am pretty happy with it so far.

Workin' The WSS In The Heat

With record-breaking temps the last 2 weeks, I haven't been able to do a lot on the layout. By the time the AC units get it cool, it's almost time to quit for the night. What little I did was to continue on the WSS/HPT&D island. I am trying to get as much scenicked as possible so I can put on the lower valance. The top level is pretty much done as far as wooded areas, and I just have to come back and add in the industry buildings as I get them done.

I am not really looking forward to all the scratchbuilt buildings I have to do, mainly because it's not my strongest suit. I guess I can look at it as a chance to improve.......yeah right. For today's Show & Tell, I have a couple of areas on the WSS. First, the interchange with the NS in downtown Lexington. My version ended up in a corner as the track passes thru the island wall, thus the curve right.

South of the interchange the WSS crosses I-85. I still have work to do here including striping the southbound lane. This is another spot where I had to try out the Grassinator.

Down the road from I-85 is a siding leading into the PPG plant. Cut banks line both side of the tracks here.

Changes To Trackplan - WSS

As I was looking over the WSS from Bill Yard to the end of the island, it dawned on me that there was a lot of space for more industries. My problem was that just wasn't prototypical. In a blinding flash of light I realized that whole thing wasn't perfectly prototypical anyway, so I decided to make a few changes.

First, where I had added the house track and planned the old Lexington Depot near 5th Avenue I would change to be the siding for Owens-Illinois in Welcome. There is also room for another industry and haven't totally decided what to do. It could be a fake Carter Lumber (although there is not really a spur there) or it could be Carolane Gas (no longer receives rail shipments).

The entire other side of the WSS is the NS interchange, PPG and Cotton Grove siding. There really is nothing else there unless I just add something in.

First Run On The WSS/HPT&D

On Friday, Feb 15 at 21:49:32 GMT, the first complete loop was made on the WSS/HPT&D sub of the Central Carolina Southbound.

The trip started at Bill Yard with an SD80MAC and 6 cars. It traveled south thru Lexington, Southmont up the helix by Flat Swamp, then northeast thru Denton where it picked up another 6 cars, to High Point where the loco turned on the Wye and returned to Bill Yard.

There was 1 hopper that went on the ground not once but twice, and was immediately bad ordered. There were no other problems encountered.

Signed
KB, Owner, Superintendant, Yardmaster, Trainmaster, Engineeer, Conductor, Brakeman, Chief Cook, Bottlewasher