The Interim Layout

     After really deciding to go on with the big change, the disassembly and moving about of the components began.

       Scratch one duck-under!  I put the cut-off wheel to the tracks and sabre-sawed through the sub-roadbed, then took out the risers and track pieces, unscrewed the section and out the stripped section came..

    The old commercial/industrial I wanted to save intact and place in a different area.

Shown here is the old Central District.  I had to piece together several photos as as I couldn't do it in one shot.

    I removed all the structures and disconnected this entire area and removed it from the supporting legs. 

I was able to stand it on edge and by the luckiest of chance it just barely fit under the header and lower ceiling between its new location.  I then placed the old supporting legs there and tipped the entire district onto it.  Wow!

    Some of the old benchwork was stripped clean for the new Blue Island.

 The Cal-Sag Channel is to the left of the "plywood plain," with some of the old layout showing below.

    Then new Steel-stud benchwork was made using much of the old for this configuration.

 In the background is Blue Island with the foundry placed to be adjusted, and the new benchwork that will be Brighton Park yard.

Some of the carnage going on during the rebuild.  Riverdale is on the left where most of the rolling stock was moved to before demolition/reconstruction.  Cal-Sag and Blue Island in the background.

 A new alignment of tracks in the Central District was needed.

 

Some of the track here was part of the main line and Central District lead.  This was re-aligned to become, the track on the right, the lead down to an different industrial area, and a new track just to the left became the mainline going to Brighton Park.

    I never made an actual drawing of this plan, but here is a rudimentary sketch of what went on.

 The result was a point-to-point operation between Riverdale and Brighton Park.  The structures were replaced in the Central District and an interesting new industrial area emerged I will talk about in another post.  The elevated line was re-used from the old layout although shrunk from 13 feet to about nine and connected the Central District and Brighton Park.

    I will have a number of additional posts of this layout coming up.