Thank you! Notice the “bad track”. That’s the effect I wanted but, it also reflects my “modeling skills.”
It looks great to me despite the "bad track" issue. I think it lends itself to the realism as with real railroad trackage. We likely have all seen bad track conditions in real life and i had a fair share of bad layout track by my own hand as well, and while not intentional, left it as was for effect as operationally it wasnt an issue and looked ok in retrospect even though i was not intending to leave it as such.
I used code 100 track on this layout for all the wrong reasons, and when I started photographing it a few years ago the excess rail height really jumped out. I painted the rail with a rust track marker to which I must comment, never ever again. It took forever, wore out I don’t know how many expensive markers, left shiny spots around the spikes, and the rear side of the rail couldn’t be painted. Next time, spray paint. But then , I remembered how overballasted the branch back home had been. So, to try to partially hide the rail, overdid it with a mix of woodland scenics stuff to resemble the pea gravel that was used on my prototype. It came out pretty good but I long for code 70 rail on real wood ties skewed at odd angles, with scale switchstands.
Those are caboose industries high level switch stands. https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/cab...MIz6TGhNe85QIVj4bACh0ANQWvEAQYASABEgJWbvD_BwE They are supplied with targets that actually rotate, but I have yet to install them. Prototypical MP targets are made by somebody, I need to get them. Everyone likes their ground throws but I prefer these. They are a little clunky but the prototypical operation more than makes up for everything .
The layout is very narrow, 15”. The train is on the front side and the back of the “hotel” is the back against the wall.
