In June my NMRA Division along with the Dallas area division hosted our Regional NMRA convention in Arlington. It cut into my progress some, but then again it encouraged me to get the layout ready for my first open house.
The focus since May has been the Billings yard area. I started by drawing a line from one end to the other where I thought the mainline needed to go. I used a laser to connect the two endpoints. We will see that I didn't really have the right location in mind on the right side where the mainline needs to be near the wall in order to make the turn around the room to come up the wall on the left of this photo.
With a line drawn, I laid the first track in the yard.
Billings has a small yard with the double track main going down the middle. The prototype doesn't have a proper yard lead, so neither is my model. Since the yard isn't a classification yard, it should be OK. I picture mostly block swaps and some trains terminating. It will also give a place for cars to be blocked before switching the Billings Industries.
Looking back the other way, I tried to keep all the tracks from being parallel to the edge of the benchwork.
Before the LSR convention we had a joint division meeting in Allen and Soundtraxx came and demonstrated the new Tsunami 2 decoders.
Here's a short video of the first train on the lower level with cars.
I spiffed the place up a little for the open house. Also, I placed the three Walthers Double Track truss bridges temporarily.
This is a much of the yard that was done by the time of the open house.
By the time the throngs of people came (5) my number one helper Katy had unboxed a bunch of building that were packed away.
We were able to run a couple trains back and forth.
After the convention I took the family to Frisco, TX to visit our new National Computer Gaming Museum. Among other relics, they had my first computer a Comodore Vic20.
Next to the Video Game Museum is what someday may once again be a train museum - the former Age of Rust museum from Fair Park... not the Museum of the American Railroad. Unfortunately, it's not open.
April was a pretty productive month. A lot of changes took place on the layout. Mostly centered around the Billings passenger station and warehouse district, but I also put the connection to the other side of the section house in by adding shelves along the wall in what used to be the bathrooms.
On the first Saturday of April I had a group of guys from the division over to see the progress. I gave a clinic on the spline benchwork I used on the upper deck.
I had my two best helpers painting sky.
Katy is a great helper and her attention span is infinitely longer than her brother's. Here she is mounting the top of the valance to the wall where the bathrooms used to be.
I picked up some LED strips to add some light for the lower deck. I went ahead and doubled up the LEDs, but I think another two strips will be needed to make it bight enough. That's makes the cost about $48 for 16 feet plus a $10 power supply. At $3 a bulb, the light strings are about $52 for 16 feet - but produce a lot more light.
With both shelves in along the wall where the bathrooms used to be, I was able to see where the Yellowstone River crossing is going to be. Somewhere I have a third bridge. I'll paint them all black. The tree boxes also need to be built. I was thinking about kitbashing these Walthers kits into 150' bridges. They are a little short now. The middle pier is from Chooch and the concrete abutment is from Walthers.
Starting to get some track along the downtown Billings section. The LED lights aren't on in this photo but the lights in the valence provide good light for the front of the layout.
More painting for Katy. I recycled masonite from Shane's old layout here. I'm not sure I like it the way it is, but it was easier to work with than the sheetrock. The Homasote is painted with some light brown Oops paint I picked up that is perfect. I need to figure out some kind of cover for the breakers that I can paint blue and will be easy to remove in an emergency.
I had the guys from my LSR division come over and see the progress... or lack there of on January 17, 2015. This seems to be the kick in the ass I needed to get going.
