February 2022 - Progress Update

As seems to frequently be the case, life and other commitments have impacted progress on the railroad. However, I'm back to 'working on the railroad' and have made some good progress. 

Progress in December included the completion of Dolores Yard.

As you can see the yard came together nicely. This is a representation of Dolores. I could use more real estate, but I only have so much available. 

Coming out of Dolores, I had to curve the track as the wall makes a 45-ish degree turn. This provided an opportunity for what has become a pretty cool flow in the track. Giving it more character.

Feeders, feeders, and feeders. I've been soldering them to the track. Nothing interesting to show there. Dropping feeders and wiring have the least visible results of anything. My philosophy is that every piece of track gets feeders. I prefer not to depend on rail joiner to carry current. I use them for alignment.

I had a issue with a crossing in one of the industries. I was using an Atlas crossing and once installed, there was a kink. When testing with rolling stock, everything worked perfectly. However, it was a big distraction for me aesthetically. I needed a crossing with a curve built into it. My buddy and helper Jason built a custom crossing with the radius included on one leg. Thanks to Jason, it turned out great. 

I'm moving forward with the benchwork as well. 

First was to add the next section of benchwork continuing from Alameda moving toward Taylor Yard. Here is the section installed with the cross members still to be spaced out and welded. 

And to the left are the pieces connecting the left and right benchwork sections together. Once connected, the benchwork will be solid. I've found that as construction continues, the peninsulas become more and more stable. 

Next was the benchwork section for the Glendale area. In the picture to the right, I'm ready to weld the section in place. And the finished product.

I also started the process of getting the second peninsula installed. Since I'm attaching to the corner of the wall, I made a triangular piece of benchwork to join the long section of benchwork to and the join to the wall as well. There will be a helix in the corner going from the main level to the upper level. Below this main level will also be staging yards representing the Valley and harbor areas.

In addition to doing work on the layout, I finally began working on SD7Rs and SD9Es. I'm using Proto 2000 models and finally accumulated all the parts required to super-detail them. First up is stripping the paint. This is a multi-step process using 90% IPA. 

Since I've started this project, I'm sure that will get Athearn to release their new models. Isn't that always how this works?

I must vent as well. I use the Blogger tool and the formatting can be very difficult. I would prefer to reduce more white space from my posts, but the tool has limitations. I guess that's a result of using a free tool. 

I'll be trying to get back to monthly progress updates. I hope you've enjoyed the update.