Sadly, after many many years of service in Beaverton, ON, Goodwood was taken apart earlier this past summer after the passing of owner John F. last year. Thankfully Goodwood found a new owner and is now being resurrected in another beautiful Ontario location. I was happy to take up the challenge of helping move this track to its new home. After months in storage on several skids the pieces survived, albeit some badly warped, but all intact. Since the track was cut into 6 sections (using a 1/8″ bit in my trusty router) reassembling the track sections would be straightforward just as it had been built – align, glue, clamp and next…
The front straight was quite warped but with a little luck and some help from gravity it came about. This was the first time I had ever tried to straighten a piece of mdf… and it proved to be a much bigger challenge than even the corkscrew of Bass-Seca.
Since the reattached sections had fairly tight joints filling, sanding, painting and re-taping could be avoided. After adding patches over the copper joints, a little paint touch up to the track surface and the black borders – all of the original wiring and electronics were connected and tested. At first the overhead gantry wasn’t getting any power but after cleaning and reconnecting the socket everything worked as before and we were in business to run some test laps!
After thorough testing and many several 100’s of laps she is ready to go with just scenery to finish (and rollers to be added)… it took a couple of days to get this far, perhaps a few more to get the rest finished – stay tuned…
The Happy Canadian Scale Modeler!
