MichelsWunderland

Carcass

Laying the tracks, which had been fitted with rail clamps allowing for screwed connections, begins two weeks after the construction's start. Meanwhile the hot-galvanized girder for the bridge of 2m length over the pond's narrowest spot had been delivered by the locksmith's shop, too. The foundations for the bridge bearings are shuttered and casted.

On my last holiday and contrary to all speculations during the last weeks the first train rides along the tracks of the layout built from scratch. Without jolting, without swinging - OH WELL ! THIS piece of work really payed.

Done ?

At best partially. The control system still has to be build and put into operation. The board geek is late and the HTML based software for the PDA is rudimentary, at best. At times I'm asking myself whether all this is breaking a butterfly on the wheel.
Open ends are dealt with step by step. The boards arrive and I can equip them during another week of vacations. The graphical user interface for the PDA is created as time allows.
In mid-September it finally occurs: First performance of

Figaro's Marriage

The IP65-boxes (protection class for outdoor installations) are prepared for the controller boards' installation along the track and the wiring of the all the components like power supply, data lines, turnouts and illumination etc. begins.
Two e-technicians play cable-Figaro for three days and marry the components. After 60 hours of work power is supplied to the setup - and it runs straightaway ! Everything, without exception. This resulted in an indescribable delight which called for a reasonable amount of beer to drink to that.