Back at it

Well I'm back at it.

The cold weather arrived and along with it was a LCL of motivation. The peninsula is gone. I was never thrilled with it anyhow. I wanted wide open aisles and it just wasn't going to deliver that. So a helix will serve to gain the necessary elevation and now the main level and upper level will be relatively flat. Because of that, the area originally designated as Malta is changing and will become the Eagle River canyon. This allows the upper level to actually come down 2 inches which will make viewing much better for shorter Engineers.

I was able to get the ladders for both ends of the staging yard laid out and spiked down.

And start laying out the rerailers.

And had just a few extra pieces of track.

And if you've made it this far down and care to do more than look at pictures, I have some words of wisdom. 

"Listen to those who have done, they'll know what not to do."   

I started this layout pretty cavalier about wanting to build every yard switch using my Fast Tracks #6 jig.  This turned out to be a complete time bust.  I'd build a couple here and a couple there thinking the time spent was fine as I wasn't in a hurry.  At least that's what I told myself.  What really happened was nothing got done on the layout because I was waiting on myself to build switches. These absolutely needed built so I could finish the staging yard because I couldn't build the benchwork above it and have adequate space to lay the track later without major aggravation. 

I finally broke down and decided to buy Atlas Custom switches on the advice (given at the beginning!) of an experienced layout builder.  Yah... laying out, adjusting, and spiking down BOTH ladders took less time than assembling just two Fast Tracks turnouts.  

If there is one downside it's that I'm using Micro Engineering track for the layout, and using Atlas switches and track for the staging yard.  While I've read numerous threads, posts, and rants about the profile differences of the track it really does not appear to be an issue.  Cars do not roll through the frog and point rails as smoothly as the Fast Tracks but again that's not an issue either. 

Now I'm waiting for more track from MBKlein.

Start of the Peninsula

Waiting for miscellaneous stuff to do more electrical wiring, layout wiring, track laying, etc. I decided to start on the wall for the peninsula. You'll also see the Hammerhead 360* rotary laser level I bought to help aid in maintaining deck height throughout the layout. The basement floor is not level enough to measure up from and the floor joists were too imperfect to measure down from to keep measurements consistent and verify level. It's interesting to note though, that my first method of using a 4ft level along the wall only yielded a 1/2" difference in height from one side of the basement to the other. Having the laser put a line over the complete basement all at once makes measuring so much easier however. At lower left you see the base for the staging yard. On the peninsula wall you see two strips of masking tape. That represents the main deck and the upper deck levels. The layout here will only be 1ft deep, allowing for a 3ft aisle.

From D&RGW's Tennessee Pass

Here I am measuring and doing some crude mock up to visualise the deck separations. This is at true eye level (I'm 6' tall).

From D&RGW's Tennessee Pass

Looking back the other direction.

From D&RGW's Tennessee Pass