Keeping the year-end BHAG in mind, I wanted to complete track-laying on the north section before the end of October. Saturday was October 33rd, and I made a last-ditch effort to get it done. When the dust settled around three in the morning, the clocks had retreated an hour (bonus!), and I had all the stock rails and guard rails in place.

If I can get the closure rails and points done by the end of the week, I'll have won back at least two weeks from the slippage in September and October. Of course, next week I'm away on business travel, so November is almost certainly not going to see the completion of the cabinets that the layout will sit on and under. At this point, I'm predicting no better than an end of January installation date, rather than end of 2013.

An update on the river bank: The paper really should be sealed both sides before you go spraying it with water or other scenery fixative. It's pulling away from the roadbed in a most unsightly fashion, and I'm going to abandon it until after installation now. On the third attempt, I will use styrofoam: enough experimenting!