I've made a few adjustments to the track arrangement on my model railroad First, I've removed the second engine servicing track to allow the scene to breathe some more. The removal of this track allows me to include an engine shed while leaving plenty of room for additional trackside details that would have been difficult to squeeze in before.

Additionally, I removed a short storage track on the opposite end of Sandpoint yard as it was too short to spot more than a single car and was all but useless on my layout.

A friend in the hobby pointed me to the February issue of Railfan & Railroad where the POVA is featured on the cover of the magazine!  The article itself is very cool and very informative. I learned a lot I did not know about the railroad's history. I also finally got a good, clear sense of day-to-day operations on the modern POVA railroad.

It's been a while since I've posted a solid update on the progress of the layout itself. Well, I've gotten quite a bit done in recent months and I share it with everyone in the latest update video.

I've nearly completed my benchwork for the new layout! It's been a herculean effort and taken about 3-and-a-half months to get to this point, but I'm very happy with the results. There were a few surprises along the way, (both good and bad) and I'll be sure to share my thoughts in an update video soon. Until then, after the jump is a whole mess of photos I've taken along the way:

I've started a new series on Youtube. These will be short, vlog-style videos where I tackle a single subject related to model railroading. In the first episode I ask and try to answer the question: "Why Model Railroading?"

As my Instagram and YouTube activity goes up I've been ignoring my blogging a bit. What I am not ignoring however is my layout room. Construction continues even as the weather gets nicer and the great outdoors calls to me. I'm going a bit slow, a bit deliberately, but I am happy with the progress I've made thus far.

I find there is a certain degree of magic in this point of the model railroad construction process. It is the beginning of a long journey. It is no longer just an idea in my mind. It is a sketch, a skeleton about to come to life.

(Pictures after the jump)

This weekend I tore down my old layout modules, cut them to pieces and dumped them outside where they promptly got soaked in the rain.

No going back now!

I'm taking a page from Marty McGuirk's playbook and painting the lower half of my walls the same color that my fascia will be on my layout.  I think this will look pretty clean and should frame my shelf-style layout nicely. Deciding on a color has been a tricky (yet fun) process. I think I've decided I want to go with a darker color that will compliment the scenery (which will be very similar in color to that of my old layout) but do I go with a green or a brown color? Perhaps something more neutral?

This month I finish a wall, replace a door, and emphasize the importance of finishing the layout room before beginning the benchwork.