March progress

With most of the upper deck of the west peninsula wired, I added some facia to see how it would look.

I need to secure it better and trim the top to match the profile and paint, but this gives a pretty good idea what it will look like. I also need to clean up a little.

I operated with Eric Mumper on March 1, which is always fun. Eric models the Fox River Branch of the CB&Q in the transition era. He's my go to guy for all things Burlington around here.

I started adding a lower deck. I used 1x4 joists. Mostly salvaged from the club layout.

The deck is pretty high grade 3/4" plywood. I like to be able to put track right on the plywood if necessary.

Inspired by layout construction

Coming back from Prairie Rail I was definitely motivated to work on the layout. While visiting Steve and Cinthia Priest, I snuck some construction photos for ideas. I've done this in the past, I supposed I should go back thru Lightroom and grab all the benchwork photos and study them. In the mean time, here are some closeups of what will surely be one of the finest layouts in the country.

Stephen and his crew have very tidy benchwork and wiring. You can see the LED lighting he has chosen to use.

Here is some more of the benchwork without the facia. This appears to be a very good method of turnback blob construction.

Stephen adds signs everywhere something needs to be done so that when crew members arrive, they know exactly where the projects are.

I'm not sure how much I like having the wiring in the front. On one hand it is accessible and on the other, it is in the way.

Some Central Valley bridges roughed in.

Another smaller, bridge with a pier or abutment on either side.

A nice deck bridge with a shallower drop in the benchwork.

Another one. This bridge screams Santa Fe to me.

Now that's what we're talking about. 

CMRI circuits neatly wired along side NCE.