Well, the year is just about gone, Christmas festivities are winding down, and another year is about to roll upon us.  Looking back over the past year, despite loosing much of the past three months of construction time, much has still happened on the Louisiana Central.

The staging trackage is largely finished as well as most of the Illinois Central trackage.  The Louisiana Central main has entered the layout and is ready to enter the Willis yard.  Subroadbed and roadbed have been completed heading though and west out of Willis and up to Maynard, the next town on the line.  Actual track construction will start along that section hopefully soon.

A lot of electrical work has been done below the layout.  About 60 percent of the track buses are complete.  The booster bus is complete.  The optical detection system at the staging behind Monterey is coming along quite nicely, mostly needing the actual panel be built and installed and a few other connections here and there.  The OD system at the other side of the layout (behind Willis and under the logging branch) has about half of its detectors installed.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve settled on my control panels and will start construction of them once I start putting the fascia up.

It was disappointing to lose so much time this fall and early winter due to my health issues.  Even though I’m not through that yet, I’m still able to get some work done even if on a limited basis.

I plan to snap a few pics sometime during the upcoming week which I’ll post on the website under the benchwork construction photos section.  That will update the website to where the layout stands visually.

I hope all of y’all had a Merry Christmas, and I wish you the best for a Great New Year!

-Jack