Layout update

I finished relaying part of the mainline track and the staging tracks, and have finally drilled holes to run the wiring thru the door & foam (I'm using block wiring for now, but don't rule out DCC sometime later).

The tracks were painted with Floquil paint pens- Rail Brown for the rails, and Tie Brown for the ties. After the paint dried, the rail surfaces were burnished to remove the paint. Afterwards, the track was ballasted using 70% isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent (applied with a disposable plastic pipettor) and a 1:3 dilution of white glue (also applied with a plastic pipettor).

Turf was reapplied to most of the layout (Woodland Scenics), and trees are being planted. So far, I have a small forest on one corner of the layout.

In relaying the staging track, I also installed trackage to head toward a future staging area- this track was painted & ballasted as well. It'll be partially hidden by more trees. The turnout in that area is an Atlas remote-control turnout (much like what is in the staging area).

I still have some empty spaces of layout, which is basically pink foam. I painted the partial-hiding foam section the same color base brown as the rest of the layout surface, and will go back to finish painting all the pink foam areas before I locate buildings and streets.

Considering the area I'm modeling, I may drop the paper mill concept, and model an enlarged poultry feed mill area, furniture plant, and a pulpwood loading facility. This will still give the local switcher plenty of work to do.

When I get pics, I'll post 'em here.

 

Can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but the layout is in N scale, on a hollow-core door.