hidden access to finish layout????

Stephen,

I too have the same "hatch drop out section" in my layout.

What I did was take 2 Eye Hooks and put those through the boards and then bent the bottoms over the underside of the pop out .

What that gave me was 2 places for me to put my thumbs and lift the board off the layout. Sometimes I just get under the layout and push it up and my wife grabs the pop out piece. We are planning our farm area on top to keep the weight down and also so nothing falls off during the process. I am planning on just gluing the Horses, Cows and pigs to the grassy board with a fence around them.

I will try to get you a few pictures today.

Hi Brian,  I love to see pictures of other layouts. Can,t wait to see them.  Your setup sounds really good. Steve

Stephen,

here are a few pictures of my layout in progress.

I just finished (almost) lots of wiring and switches for the houses, farm stand and towers, etc..

Plenty more to go, but plenty done already.

I am having a blast building this layout.

I just wish I had about 30 more feet of space.

Hi Brian, that is quite the race car collection. I like your track layout,lot's of curve track I love S curves and big sweeping turns when I have the space. You did an excellent job on the table structure. I am old school so I hope this question does not sound stupid but were are the switch motors or are they manual? and the table is on casters is it not? The layout looks GREAT but I guest that Train Time slows a bit this time of the year so keep the cards and photos coming. Thank's for sharing.  Steve

Stephen,

Never a stupid ??, especially here on OGR..

YES, I have a total of (9) Casters under the layout. Each caster has 3 wheels purchased at Harbor Freight for $3.00 each. I installed them onto 2x4,s with a 3 inch lag bolts from under the caster assembly. Nut, Bolts and washers to the table.

It rolls like a dream on my Forever Floor. I can move it around all by myself.

The only 2 switch tracks I have are controlled manually as they are right in front of my control area.

We are leaving tonite for the York Show. It is about 3 hours drive from here so we can get an early start tomorrow.

Thanks for the notice of my Dale Earnhardt Sr. & Jr. collection. Trains and Nascar will learn to live with each other. If I ever take over the other 1/2 of my basement I plan on building one of the Nascar Tracks into the layout so I can display some of my Haulers and 1/64 scale cars. Maybe someday. will see!!

Stay Tuned.

Have a great time at the show. Don't spend to much money.......   Steve

A hatch like that is an opportunity to have some fun.  On my layout, I have one duckup like that.  I have three hatch covers for: just need three boards and fit it (inds about 24 x 30 inches).    One of them is flat and painted so it makes it a pond, another is flat and makes it a green space as for a soccer area.  The third is just covered with some buildings: I just put sidewalks and buildings on it so that they break even with the edges - as long as theterritory around it blends in well enough, it or any of the other two look good.  Each puts a different flavor on the layout and I can change them out as my mood strikes me.