February Update

The last couple of weeks has seen the front fascia painted and some initial track pinned into place. temporarily.

The main change on the layout over the last 2 weeks has been painting the fascia in a light green which really finishes it off nicely, even though the foam surface is only painted in a pale earth tone at this stage. Sections 1, 2 and 3 are connected together and have been moved away from the wall for staging track access. Sections 4 and 5 had their fascia painted also but they have been disconnected from the rest of the layout for now.

The colour is close to a PGE / BCR light green (Taubmans Mesa Verde for any Australians reading). Three coats applied with a roller provides a nice even finish. A fourth coat will probably be applied once all the messy scenery work has been completed (a long way off yet).

Also completed last week was some additional roadbed installation for the staging tracks. At this stage, three relatively long staging sidings are planned so roadbed was added to accommodate this. I have also started pinning down some track temporarily to get a feel for how things will look and where to make the join between Atlas Code 55 (for the visible sections) and the Peco Code 55 and points which will be used in staging.

I continue to be surprised at how large the layout looks given its height (53.5 inches rail height), but this final helicopter view from an elevated position shows that it is in fact a very small layout.

The turnback curve averages a 14.5 inch radius and the maximum benchwork width of the end “blob” section is 35 inches. I could have made it narrower but wanted to allow room for some foreground scenery (and to protect against any derailments ending up on the floor). The visible length of the layout in this shot is about 5 feet and 6 inches.