Well, it’s been over a half year since the last post. If you go up a bit you see the damage caused by IDA. There was a lot of that in our area, and getting everything resolved took time. Except for the flood insurance. There was none.
Lots of damage, not a lot of people to fix the damage. Our carpeting was all pulled, mold remediation (not a lot but some) was done and the floor was epoxied. Well, most of the floor. With over 65 2X4 train table legs, there’s quite a bit of floor which doesn’t have the epoxy. That will remain hidden until the layout is taken down. The epoxy was done in late October. As soon as that was completed, we headed for Florida. That gave me a half year to think about the layout.
I really like the basic track plan. It’s really just a dogbone inside a circle which are wrapped back at a 180. Both have passing sidings, but the really big bonus is that the circle has a 4 track pass through yard area. Four way switches on both sides. There is a double crossover switch between the circle and dogbone. These are minimum 072. There’s an 063 circle in the “Philly” area, 2 small trolley circles and a superstreets circle.
I liked all the houses along the back wall, which is right behind the 4 track yard area. I also like 30th Street Station and the “Philly” part of the layout made up of MTH buildings which have been slightly modified. I wasn’t happy with the amusement park area and the placement of a lot of the other structures. So I moved them.
The amusement park got moved to the large area where the trains make a 90 degree turn as they begin to loop around. That has more space then putting them in the 072 part of the dogbone. I also put in a little trolley line there. I put most of my Menards structures in the 072 part of the dogbone. They go well there. I also put in a little trolley line there. Both of these areas require a lot more work. And I still need to connect the MTH car wash, fire station and drive in fast food place.
A picture of the epoxied floor is below. I plan on posting more pictures later this week. And if I’m really energetic, I’ll figure out how to post a video.
Gerry
