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Directions#176 The Big Train Project Status Report: 2023 Christmas Layout
November 27, 2023
The Halloween and Christmas holidays are the busiest time of the year for EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ). To provide visitors with added incentives to come, EJ sets up special attractions prior to Halloween and prior to Christmas in its Display Area. One of the biggest challenges for the EJ employees and volunteers is the change-over from […]
Read More >#174 – October Status Report
October 27, 2022
Crossing Gate Repair This month’s report details the work done to repair the crossing gates located at two road-track crossings in EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) Modern City (one pair across from the restrooms and the other pair across from the entrance to the Display Area). The first pair of gates appeared on the layout in March […]
Read More >#173 – August Status Report
August 4, 2022
This month’s report details the work done to repair the EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) Inclined Railway and return it to operation. EJ’s Inclined Railway, or Incline for short, is located behind the Roundhouse in the EJ layout’s Middle Period (Figure 1). Its purpose is to provide passenger access between the lower level Engine Servicing Facility and […]
Read More >#172 May Status Report
May 2, 2022
This month’s report shows the most recent addition to the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) layout. It’s a new house planted in the former party grounds (Figure 1) located between the parking lot for the Modern City’s central subway station and the series of residences along the EJ aisle toward the Lift Bridge. This house is very […]
Read More >#171 March Status Report
February 28, 2022
This month’s report is about the rework of the ball signal that operated at the turntable end of the town of Riverbend in the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) layout’s Early Period. It’s another example of how the EJ modelers use electro-mechanical design concepts to create operating models for the layout. Also, this report provides documentation of […]
Read More >#170 December Status Report
December 15, 2021
The Big Train Project Status Report (Part 170) This month’s report is about the special displays which EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) has added for the 2021 holidays. As a follow-up to last month’s article, Figure 1 shows the Christmas Town Square completed with added decorations, details, and figures of holiday visitors. It’s shown ready to be […]
Read More >#169 November Status Report
November 11, 2021
The Big Train Project Status Report (Part 169) This month’s report looks at some of items on the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) layout that I found of interest that I had not noticed or reported on before. As usual, the order in which they are presented is in the order a visitor would see them […]
Read More >#168 October Status Report
October 6, 2021
The Big Train Project Status Report (Part 168) This month’s report is the second part of the story of the animated skaters for the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) layout. In last month’s report, I described the driving mechanism for the skaters: a turntable on a trolley. This month I’ll describe how we use that mechanism to drive the skaters in a somewhat realistic […]
Read More >#167 September Status Report
September 14, 2021
This month’s report is about a new project in work at EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ). For the Christmas holidays, certain buildings on the EJ layout are replaced with items more representative of the holiday spirit. One of the buildings in the Modern City will be temporarily replaced by an ice-skating rink, complete with ticket booth, concession […]
Read More >#166 August Status Report
August 9, 2021
This month’s report covers some lessons learned from the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) Aerial Tram. The tram has been operating reliably for over a year since January 2020. Interestingly enough, it has not been working quite the way it was intended. For all appearances though, it has done what it was supposed to do: start the […]
Read More >#165 July Status Report
July 15, 2021
The Big Train Project Status Report (Part 165) This month’s report is a bit unusual in that it is multi-purpose. First, it addresses some maintenance issues with EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) Aerial Tram. Second it documents the method for installing and removing the hooks that attach the Tram’s haulage rope to the Tram car trucks for […]
Read More >#164 June Status Report
June 4, 2021
This month’s report is about new items added to EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) layout. As is usual for these reports, the order of the descriptions will be in the order a visitor would come upon them while walking the layout’s aisle. First up, on the canal that runs parallel to the aisle, just past the civil […]
Read More >#163 April Status Report
April 5, 2021
This month’s report is about a new addition to EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) American Railroad Museum. It’s John R. Hixson’s collection of live steam machines and mechanical threshers, now located in the American Railroad Museum’s theater. John was born in 1900 and grew up in farming country in Pennsylvania, where he had the opportunity to work […]
Read More >#162 March Status Report
March 8, 2021
This month’s report is about another significant feature of the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) layout. It’s one whose significance could easily be overlooked. It’s the “live water” feature, which, for most of it, is not very visible from the EJ aisle. It provides such an amazing variety of scenic opportunities, most notably in the Early Period near the […]
Read More >#161 February Status Report
February 8, 2021
Last month’s report looked at some of EnterTRAINment Junction’s (EJ’s) big “wow” features. This month is focused more on impressive features that express certain feelings or give certain messages via the modeling. This report is ordered in the more usual way, showing items in the order visitors would see them as they progressed along the […]
Read More >#160 January Status Report
January 12, 2021
With the end of the most unusual year 2020, I thought it a would be good to take a look back, not at 2020, but farther back to happier times. There is a lot of “art” in the EJ layout. I’m talking about things that are beautiful or have emotional content, are technically impressive, or […]
Read More >#159 December Status Report
December 4, 2020
The Big Train Project Status Report (Part 159) This month’s report describes a scenic element that was recently applied to the vacant area on the shelf on the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) mezzanine wall. This shelf is the destination of the Aerial Tramway and the location of the Cliffside Restaurant, which were the subjects of previous […]
Read More >#158 October Status Report
October 13, 2020
This month’s report goes back to a previous style, reporting things that are new or interesting at EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) since the last such report, which was well before the Covid19 shutdown. One of the last events before that shutdown was the EJ Modeling Expo, which included a large number of 1/6th scale models, some […]
Read More >#157 September Status Report
September 15, 2020
As mentioned is last month’s report (Part 156), We needed to simulate an elevator in the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) upper Aerial Tramway Station. Figure 1 shows the two related doors which would be “visible” on the model. The door on the left is the ground-level access door leading to the elevator waiting area inside the […]
Read More >#156 August Status Report
August 31, 2020
With the move of the restaurant to some distance away from the EnterTRAINment Junction (EJ) Upper Aerial Tramway Station, as described in last month’s report, the idea of an elevated walkway from the tram station to an upper floor of the restaurant has become unrealistic. A more realistic solution is that tram customers would ride […]
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