More About Grades and Track Placement

Since I'm  not making any headway on the backdrop, I decided to spend some time working on grades and the placement of my track work.  As I suspected, the track plan that I posted last week is now obsolete.  The overall plan is still generally correct but I had to move some track around and play a little more with the grades. I also moved a track into a tunnel to ease the clutter.  I will draw my next track plan when all of the track is fastened down.  Until then, nothing is set in stone. Nor will it ever be.

I cut some plywood to cover the part above the bench work. It is being cut to reflect the different elevation of the land but most of it will be covered with scenery and should not be considered ground level.  I have also added a filler piece to the corner which I will shape later.  I wanted a little more separation between the tracks.  Also the scenery will look better without the square corner.

Once again, I will be using flex track and the Bachmann Ready Track is just something I am using for layout.  Nothing is fastened down securely as it all has to come out to paint the backdrop.

One of the changes I made was to move a second track to the tunnel area as the area to the left in this photo was just too busy.  The lower area with the large piece of blue foam is going to be the dock area.  The curved piece of track that ends up in the air is going to the ore tipple that sits out over the water and dumps into an ore barge.  This is part of the Dolly Varden Railroad infuence. The straight piece of track passing under it will lead to the log dump area on the dock.

The brown paper that is taped to the bench work is just to help me visualize what the area will look like with the two hidden tracks showing.

I had a couple of questions about the trestle so I am including another view.  This trestle is based on a plan I found in the Narrow Gauge Gazette.  It is similar to the trestles used by the Rio Grand Southern.  It was a lot of fun to build and I spiked down the rails and guard rails to each tie, making it four spikes per tie.  It was a lot of work but makes for a nice effect.

That's it for this week.