This view shows the approach to Phillips from Strong.  In the future, there will be a curving backdrop behind the scenic section only allowing one to see the start of the Phillips yard.  The backdrop will divide the Farmington to Rangeley from the F&M (Strong to Bigelow) scenes on the inside of the layout.

The goals for the 11/24/03 work session were to complete the "L" support for the peninsula, start applying the cross joists, and add support for the junction portion of Strong.  To do this required a bit of planning.  Much of my planning was done by perching existing sections of the layout onto the "L" girder benchwork and drawing and measuring plans out on 1" foam.  Most significantly, I drew out the trackwork for Bigelow, along with fascia locations and joist locations.

This view shows the layout of Bigelow.  You can see the location of Dickey bridge.  The Salmon Hole bridge will be just beyond the Dickey bridge where the boxes are.  A backdrop will divide Bigelow from the two bridge scenes.  I used turnouts, structures, photos, and rolling stock to layout out the track for bigelow.

Joists have been added under Bigelow and bridge scenes.  In the distance (left) you can see a section of Strong sitting on the newly completed benchwork.

This session went well.  Don and Paul completed the "L" girder benchwork under Strong and added the benchwork support under the Strong Junction (it still needs to be stabilized to prevent swaying).  Additionally Phil Wilkin (glad to have you in town to make your first work session) and I added the joists under Bigelow, the bridges, and Phillips.  Heading into Thanksgiving, I'm happy with the progress.  I'm taking Wednesday off, just to work on the layout, so that we can continue the progress into December.

Here is a close up of the blocks used to attach the 5/8x2" joists to the "L" girders.  Don made a jig, which Phil "Screw Breaker" Wilkin used to attach the blocks to the joists.  Then Phil screwed the "L" to the blocks from the bottom to attach the Joist to the benchwork.  I tried holding the joists by hand but later found the spring clamps worked much better.  Little tricks like jigs make benchwork a snap.

Editor's note - Add photo of Jig