Big_Boy_4005 posted:Thanks guys, and yes it does feel good to have gotten that bit done. For the last couple years, it seemed like there were always more important or interesting things to do on the layout. Combine that with my health issues, and it just kept getting pushed off. Now that I'm feeling better, the backdrop is done over there, and the benchwork is getting filled in for scenery, the time was right to get it done. There are four sections left, and three of those already have the Masonite cut. The last one will be cut and fit from two full sheets plus some added strips.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 2017 is the year that a number of things on the layout get finished forever. Still a little track to do, a little track wiring too, a few switch throws, one more piece of backdrop. I'm going to make every effort to make it all fall into place in December.
Matt - Yeah, I have a GoPro and a car that I have rigged up to carry it. I do need a new video since so much has been done since the last one almost exactly two years ago.
I just watched it to see how much has been done in that time. The list is long, but I notice all of it, and then there's all the stuff that doesn't show up.
Bob - I started the layout in late 2002. Red Wing is the oldest piece. I started building that back in 1998 at my previous house. Starting with the big hidden yard, and then the big helix, I connected Red Wing as the first piece of the main level, and from there I was off to the races until late 2006 when I was diagnosed with skin cancer. Then I gave up for 5 years and didn't touch the layout. When the oncologist said GO AWAY! in 2012, I started up again. That section of fascia was the first. My technique has improved greatly since then, mostly due to Mill City (Jon) who did a fair share of it with and for me. That's why he called it "that crap", because he's intimately familiar with it.
Eliot - Just took a ride on the link. It's good to see the bones of a layout. The big HELIX was impressive!
Thanks again.
