After the last update I continued working on the Cody branch.

On August 14th I extended the power buss to the middle of the turnback curve at the end of the peninsula.

By the 17th I added cork roadbed to Vocation and laid the track partway through.
That was the end of working on the Cody branch for awhile.

During this same time period I spent many hours at the computer, running virtual operating sessions and analyzing the flow of petroleum tankcars around the layout. I haven't been happy with how JMRI has been handling the cars to this point. Many have just been left sitting in Casper yard session after session.

I ran a few sessions, made some tweaks to the program, then ran a few more. Finally I got to the point where most of the cars move during a session, and Standard Oil will get many more empties in the future than it has in the past.

A bit more about he overall system schematic - Each station has a list of all industries underneath it. The large numbers indicate scale feet length of the passing siding (where there is one) or the longest industrial siding. The numbers in parentheses is the maximum length train of 40' cars that can be in the siding and clear of the main. It includes an allowance for a waycar and locomotive.

This will be useful for the dispatcher to track trains during future operating sessions.

On the 18th Steve came up from Evanston. We spent several hours reworking the helix in the hopes of not having to add another loop. We reduced the grade in the helix by about half a percent, which allows the Mikados to haul a couple more cars up the hill. Here's Steve making adjustments inside.
After thinking it over for the last ten days or so, I think I'm going to go ahead and add that extra loop to the helix anyway. It will reduce the grade a bit more, and especially on the ramp leading from Greybull down to the helix.

On the 19th Dave from Basin and Kevin from Harriman joined us at my house for a day of planning how to improve my operating sessions. Here we're gathered around the kitchen table brainstorming ideas.

During our brainstorming session we confirmed a need for station signals on the layout, an idea I began playing with a couple months ago. We'll use a train order style of operation, wherein each train gets dispatcher permission to move onto the main lines of the layout. If there's a change to those orders, the dispatcher will flip a switch on his panel and a red light at a station on the layout will illuminate to indicate to the train crew that they have to stop and call in for new orders. There will be four phones spaced around the layout for crews to call in to the dispatcher, who will be in an office I'll build under the stairs.

All stations will display a green light if there is no orders update to be transmitted.

Here's the first set of indicators mounted on the fascia at Hudson.

In places where there is no fascia yet, Steve helped me mount small Masonite coupons to support the signals for now. This is Thermopolis.

Here's the area under the stairs where I'll build the dispatcher's office.

A few days later I began installing the wiring for the signals. Here the first signal, for staging (near its control panel), has been wired.

I hooked up a small power supply in the to-be dispatcher's office to test each signal installation. Here's the green indication for staging:

And the red indication, meaning "Call the dispatcher."

I worked my way around the lower level of the layout from staging, installing the line for Casper, and Douglas, then Greybull. Here's the green signal for Greybull all lit up.

By the time I have all sixteen stations connected I estimate I'll have run nearly 1000 feet of thermostat wire around the layout.

The last few days I've spent working on the dispatcher's office. Here' the first wall, 1/4" plywood, installed:

Today I got the second wall in...

It's been about six weeks since my last update, so this will be a bit long.

One of the things I didn't mention in my last update was the replacement of the water heater on June 2nd.

The water heater was an unavoidable obstacle in the layout room. An operator had to almost squeeze around behind it (from the point of view of this photo) to get to the west switches in Thermopolis.

It was a bit of pain, especially during construction work in the area, but one that I just had to live with. Then in late May of this year, the control system started failing. The pilot light wouldn't stay lit. I could light it manually and the heater would heat up a tank of water, but when the flame went out the pilot would go out with it.

After consulting a couple of plumbers, I decided to replace the water heater entirely. I could have replaced the control unit for about $300 bucks, or the entire tank for about a thousand. Since the tank was fourteen years old it was past time for a replacement anyway.

I took the opportunity to have a tankless water installed instead of just replacing the old tank. This did two things - reduced the cost of heating water (and making the supply effectively endless), and, joy of joys, got the water heater out of the way of the layout!

On June 2nd the new heater was installed. First came removal of the old tank. In this photo it's been removed. You can see the round hole in the wood flooring where it sat. It sure freed up the area at the end of Thermopolis!

The new water heater is completely out of the way, hanging on the back of the furnace wall right next to the furnace itself.

I planned to replace the wood flooring to eliminate the hole, and finally got around to that yesterday and today. Here's the newly "finished" floor:
I probably won't add the composite flooring on the top of this new section, but time will tell.

Back to layout construction at the end of June -

Just after completing the last website update I added the track to connect Powell to the section I'd installed next to the furnace earlier in June, then on the 27th began extending the power buss westward from Powell.

In mid-June I trimmed the end of the subroadbed back a bit on the Hudson side of the gap, then modified the benchwork to allow for the river. I neglected to mention that work in the last update as well. Here is the trimmed subroadbed on June 18th.

Later that day I trimmed the benchwork to match the new end of the Hudson subroadbed.

On July 1st I continued preparing the area between the Hudson and Lander benchwork sections for the bridge over the Popo Agie River by removing the cleat that was left over next to the wall. Since it was screwed in from the wall side of the stringer, I had to chip it away with a wood chisel. Here it's halfway removed.

After chipping away the entire 2X3 I used my Dremel to cut the screws off flush with the stringer.

At the very end of July I added the stringers and plywood to support the bottom of the river.

Going back to the beginning of the month, on July 3rd I posted a layout update video:

By July 3rd I'd finished the decoder installation in the GN Pacific and tested it before reassembling the locomotive.

The loco ran fine, but after I reinstalled the superstructure I had some sort of intermittent short when it was backing around curves. I let it set for a bit over a week, then disassembled it again. I didn't find anything that might be causing the short, so I reassembled the loco again, and this time it ran just fine. I never did figure out what was causing the problem.

The second week in July I added the road number and other data to the locomotive to finish it up. Here I've finished one side of the locomotive. The decal set from MicroScale didn't have the data for the H-6 class of locomotive, so I had to assemble it from several other data blocks. Those characters were really tiny!

Here the engineer's side is complete:

July 19th I tested the Pacific under load for the upcoming operating session (for which I got no pictures - again), and it ran just fine up the helix with a couple of heavyweight passenger cars. Here it's rollong into Greybull after exiting staging.

Scrolling back to early in the month again, I continued building the Cody benchwork. Here the Vocation benchwork is now installed in the foreground; on the other side of the peninsula the adjacent section will support the Husky Oil refinery in Cody.

Then I built the end section that will tie both sides of the benchwork together at the end of the peninsula and got it installed.

The next day, July 6th, I added a joist across the legs at the end of the peninsula to support the COdy branch turnback curve.

For the next couple of weeks I was busy with other projects (we'll get to those in a minute), and with getting ready for my July 22nd operating session, and attending a session at Dave's in Basin the day before that.

I got back to the Cody branch work on July 24th, extending the subroadbed from Vocation around the turnback curve.

A couple days later I had the new subroadbed graded and permanently attached to risers on the benchwork.

On August 10th I cut the base / subroadbed for the Husky Refinery. Right now it's just set on the Cody benchwork.

Then yesterday I extended the power buss from the area behind the furnace to the west end of the Vocation siding. This will be extended further, around the turnback curve, in the next few days.

Going back once again to July, on the 11th I finally added the "tarpaper" roofing I'd made in May to the Ice House. Here it's mostly installed, but a few pieces still need trimming.

The next day I painted on the tar that's applied at the edges of the rolls of tarpaper.

Then I weathered the roof, which all but eradicated the tar stripes.

I set the ice house temporarily in place at the end of the icing platform. The building still needs details and weathering on the sides and probably some lighting added, but that won't be done for awhile. I'll probably get to it when I finally tackle painting and lighting the platform itself.

My operating sessions have been pretty unstructured to this point, which has led to some pretty chaotic things going on at times. Several friends have volunteered to help improve the sessions. This spreadsheet is the beginning - Kevin put this together to help determine train locations at various times of the "day." Several of us are getting together in a few days to work out more details.

I spent part of the last couple of days developing this system schematic for a dispatcher to use during sessions. It will be discussed and refined at the meeting in a few days too.

On August 3rd I posted another layout update video:

Two days ago I cut a section of Masonite off a panel to use as a large-scale map of Casper mounted on the wall over the town. Several of the operators have complained that they can't find some of the industries they're supposed to switch, so I hope this will help.

And finally on the 10th of August I also marked and cut another circle of subroadbed for the helix. I'm going to add another entire loop to it to reduce the grade so my steamers can handle longer freights up the stiff grade (currently about 3% when adding in compensation for the curve). I'll reduce distance between the decks by about 3/4 of an inch, which will reduce the total grade by about 0.4%. That will allow one to two car longer trains to make their way uphill.