Moving along! Track is getting roughed in. Dad's been doing most of this stage of construction himself and I've been helping him from Skype. He sent the attached photos last night.
We're skipping any roadbed underneath. Dad's happy with the results of sitting on homasote alone. Once we get the track roughed in and all the gaps filled with cut pieces, we're pulling it all up going to paint a dark gray "roadbed" beneath.
The green and brown paint job looks very natural, and is courtesy (at least part of it)of my 9 year old daughter. We'll add details as the town gets built. Dad's got about 15 Plasticville buildings and accessories in storage that will fill the interior of the "Louisville Loop". That's the end of the layout with the 054 outer loop and single 031 inner loop.
The other end (with the figure 8) is the "Cincinnati Loop". The straight area between is the railroad corridor that roughly follows I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville through Carrolton, KY. My buddy is going to eventually paint an abstract backdrop that wraps the whole back wall and will include features of Cincy at one end and Louisville at the other.
There is a 6 inch raised grade that passes over the 031 turnout on the Cincinnati loop. It's not built yet, but the tack is still located for planning purposes.
I didn't think I would like it at first, but I really dig the tubular inner loops and the Gargraves outer loops. Neat sort of way to identify the different controlled loops really quickly.
