Looking forward to watching as your layout comes together.  Were having company this weekend but I hope to paint my layout space "Saskatchewan Sky Blue" once they are gone!

There is a flex track tool, in Xtrkcad, it's all I use anymore.  In a bit of a rush right now, but I'll post more soon.

The flex track tools are essentially the Add Straight Track and Add Curved Track tools.  It's a matter of using the right keystrokes to get them to behave the way you need them to.

Edit:  I also use the Add Circle Track command a lot now.  That's under the Add menu, Circle Track, Fixed Radius Circle, or F8.

When I draw a layout plan, I start with some fixed radius circles wherever I have a blob or curved track sections.  Then I'll use the Create Straight Track tool to place the straight sections, leaving spaces between straight sections   I use the Join Two Tracks Tool and select the end of a straight section and then the point on a circle where I want the track to be cut and joined.

Does that make any sense?

Company at the door so have to cut and run for now.

I have a "blue" question, so I knew who to ask.  Is Saskatchewan Sky Blue similar to Montana Sky Blue?  Maybe a bit more billiant?  Or maybe those tails of ionized air toward the top of any backdrop?

Don,

I think Saskatchewan blue and Montana blue would be quite similar if not identical.  Certainly beautiful in either case.  In my case, this is the sky we photographed one sunny day in July.

Yes, absolutely beautiful.

Now, that photo brought a smile to my face, as soon as I saw it.  Thank you.

my credit card was charged, so it should be on its way!!  I haven't had much time to do any work on finishing the table top, but hope to do that on Monday.  I spent the day building a bed and raking leaves.  The raking leaves part is really irritating to me, as I don't actually have leaf-bearing trees in my yard.  Somehow, my neighbours get these trees and I end up cleaning up the leaves because the wind blows down the street and end up in my yard.  Oh, well.

Still, I managed to get 3 Bull Frogs built today so they are ready to install.  I have to say, the more I use FastTracks products, the more I love both the quality and simplicity.  You look at the Bull Frogs and they really don't look like much, but spend 15-20 minutes putting them together and they are a pretty solid little unit.  I'll try to post a photo of them tomorrow, though it isn't that thrilling.  Oh, and I also built my Tie Breaker.  I wasn't going to spend the $15 on this tool because I should be skilled enough to cut the ties on my own.  However, after cutting ties for 6 turnouts, I thought I might as well spend the money.  I will likely build hundreds of turnouts, and every 5-10 minutes saved will add up very quickly to complete other tasks.  

That's it for today.  Hopefully Monday or Tuesday will see me get some track to start playing with some trains again!!

This certainly wasn't the week I had planned on, to say the least.  After two unplanned hospitalizations of my wife and mother, the week sure went by.  Both are OK, thankfully, and hopefully life will go back to "normal" for a while.  

However, this was still a very productive week, prior to all the excitement and also last night.  The layout room now as lights and electrical outlets!!! FINALLY!!  Its so nice to have so many lumens looking at the layout area so I can see what I'm doing.  I also managed to weather my first ever loco.  I had always been scared to "ruin" a nice loco, but I came to realize, that is the point.  It looks OK, but I'm going to do a little more on it when I it bugs me too much.  Here is a photo:

I also did a little more weathering on a few pieces of rolling stock, and added some weight to the boxcars:

And I also did a little work on my diorama.  I'm going to take it to work today as Take a Train to Work Day is next Friday and that's the day I come home.  I figured I might as well have it on my desk all week.  Some of the things I did to it include an attempt to tone down the spring static grass that I added just to test out my static grass fly swatter applicator.  The spring grass by itself is just too bright to me.  I also put in a waterfall and dry-brushed some white into the creek to make it look like its moving.  I'm quite happy with the results.  Then I added three of Pete Vassler's (from Canyon Creek Scenics - an MRH sponsor) small "background" conifers from my daughter's diorama to give it a little more "pop."  Pete's "background" trees are much better than my foreground trees.  And, finally, my track, last three Rapido N passenger cars (yes, another MRH sponsor) and my weathering paint pens came last night at 6:00.  So, I popped open the weathering paint pens and did some more weathering to the track.  Here are a few photos:

I've really got to learn how to take pictures.

So while I didn't get any track down this week, I have the table in place and screwed to the wall so it won't move.  I also cut the length of the DCC bus wire and have it ready to install before I put the table top on, just for simplicity's sake.  And I watched Joe's DCC video a couple times while having lunch and folding laundry.  I can't wait until January when I bring home the Zephyr and decoders to run trains in DCC.  It gives me a tonne of incentive to get motoring and lay some track.  Now I just have to finalize that plan... 

I like the weathering.  Faded and dirty works for me.

Those Canyon Creek trees are really great!  I'd like a bunch of those.

Hope the family is all safe & sound.

I watched the DCC video of Joe's three or four times this weekend and started prepping the wiring for the chainsaw.  I figured it would be easier to get the short management wiring in place before putting the top on the table so I'm not laying underneath doing everything.  I had a couple issues and I'll throw out a couple questions that should be simple answers, but honestly, I don't know what the best answer is and we have lots of experience here to ask things.

First, here is the picture of the 1156 bulb wired with a SPST switch and then it will go to the third bus for powering the curve in this case (roughly 4.5 feet of track and a turnout at either end).   

The green wire running in front with the open suitcase connector is the third bus and I just have to run a wire from the terminal block to the suitcase connector, then on to the main feeder terminal strip shown below.

Here, the white bus wire is tapped and goes to the terminal strip in the first photo.  The black bus wire is just going to the black side of the terminal strip for feeders.  The other side is where the tap wire from the third bus will feed the "white" feeders, protected from shorts through the tail light bulb.  

So now come the questions.  I had a heck of a time getting the wire to solder to the tail light bulb and I'm not sure why.  Perhaps I need to review some soldering techniques, but I finally got it and used plenty of solder to get it on tight.  It was frustrating and I uttered a couple of bad words.  Any suggestions on that would be appreciated.  Still a novice at soldering, though my turnouts are getting better and better.  The other thing is that I soldered the SPST switch in seconds with no difficulty, so I don't know if the material the metal the bulb is made from just doesn't take solder well or what.  

Second, about the SPST switch, I'm certain these are the same ones (or nearly the same) as Joe has in his video, but I can't see how he attaches it to the benchwork from the video.  It seems like such a simple thing, yet I'm not sure how I should do it.  I thought about just using some "sticky tack" stuff, but not sure if that is a good solution over the long term.  Anyway, here is a close up of my SPST switches:

If anyone has any helpful hints, feel free.  I'm not sure how much I'll get done tonight, but tomorrow I'll have a few hours to work on it and hope to finish the short management set up on the one side and put the table top on.

Your soldering problems could be a  couple of things.

If you are using a lower wattage iron, you may be having trouble getting things hot enough to solder quickly.  Lower wattage irons typically have less capacity for heating larger surfaces.  Soldering the 1156 bulbs to the buss wire would be easier with a 100 watt gun if you have one available but can still be accomplished with a 40W iron.

Make sure your tip is freshly cleaned and tinned before starting. 

Are you using any liquid flux besides the resin flux in the solder?  I could see the bulb requiring special care to clean it.  I would use a scratch brush or similar tool to clean the area before fluxing.  Then with enough heat the solder should flow well.

One way to mount the switch would be to make a mount for it from thin Masonite.  The switch could be through-hole mounted and the Masonite attached to the bench work.

I attach the switch to the benchwork with a dab of hot glue. Very easy and fast.