May progress

My big event for May was a trip to Ireland with my mom. We came and went from Dublin, but the majority of the 10 days were spent in the west - mostly Mayo where my mom's grandmother left in 1900 when she was 19 years old. I also made great progress on the layout in order to be ready for the NMRA region convention in June.

The typical mall bookstore in Dublin had an amazing selection of train magazines.

A hobby shop on the north west side of Dublin mostly had plastic vehicle models and Hornby trains.

The line to Kiltimagh has been abandoned, but the depot remains and serves as a museum.

Back home, I continued to lay track.

This pano was taken where the slight bend is around the furnace closet. You can see the bucket on this photo and above.

One of the biggest challenges in linear layout design is the turnback blob. I am using curved turnouts from Walthers to add crossovers in the blob.

This side of the peninsula is primarily the Billings warehouse district and passenger station.

By the end of May, most of the switching area was in and I had moved around to the other side which is mostly the Billings yard.

Spline Benchwork

The upper deck of the left peninsula is starting to look like a railroad after getting the spline roadbed installed.

Lance Lassen came over and helped me get started. We got the first few splines in and I started to realize I needed more spring clamps.

We also added the n-scale cork on the passing siding in Hardin.

The next day I added more pieces to the outside and extended the length to the end of the peninsula.

A couple days later, Matt Latham came over to help me add more splines.

More spline, more clamps. I got in a habit of adding splines in the morning before I went to work and in the evening before I went to bed in order to give the glue time to dry.

This end view shows the progress of the peninsula.

April progress

With 2.5 acres of lawn to mow, progress slowed quite a bit in April as more and more of my free time was taken up with yard work. I did get the valence hung over the peninsula, and here are some photos.