techhobbies

It’s been a while, but I am finally making progress again. We had some basement issues in March, and then the weather got nice, so I spent most of April, May, and June either in the backyard or in the garage working on house related items. But now, I am back to layout in the evenings. I’m giving up on all the TV I need to watch too.

Wiring is done. There’s a lot of it for a 4x8 as I have a lot of turnouts controlled by DCC. That took a lot of time. And I’m scared to death to test it. Complex things rarely work the first time out.

I’m also reworking a lot of the original track. Some of it was just wrong, and some didn’t fit when it all went in. Too many elevation changes honestly, just so I could have a bridge. So I ripped out sections to make the elevation changes simpler and easier. I also ripped out a turnout and some other track which was installed in a way that would have been troublesome. First time layout, so I make mistakes I suppose. I’m waiting on a few things from Amazon to finish the track work, and then I cut a few more rail gaps and wire up the last turnout.

While I wait, I’m putting in several sections of sculpt a mold in places where I know track is ready and won’t be modified. I’m also drawing pictures of roads and trees so I know where to put them. I took some pictures with some of the buildings just to make sure it all fit too. I started with some cork board in places to make some of the buildings fit better too. It’s starting to look like a model now, not just a collection of track, which is a bit exciting.

Good progress these last two weeks, and am hoping to run a train by the end of the month.