Well actually the college I work at started the Fall semester on Thursday, August 26, 2010 but I didn't start teaching until the Monday before Labor Day, so this is really the second week of the semster. I've got two great classes and it's great to get back to doing something useful.

So what have I been doing model railroad wise all Summer? Reading and doing more research on my chosen prototype The New York Connecting Railroad and recouperating from the mariage of my youngest last June. And of course I must admit that I have been procrastinating as the warm weather hasn't been conducive to doing anything else.

I did figure out what I am going to do with the portion of the benchwork I've completed and what I am going to use to finally finish the lower level. I am going to buy some mre stands from Woodland Scenics to complete the benchwork but I am not going to buy any more modules to go on top. It's not that I don't like them because I do like them. It's just that I may have found a cheaper slternative in blue or pink insulation extruded foam. I am sure some of you have worked with this before but from what I have read and seen, it is easy to work with and Ialready have the tools to work with this material.

I am going to start preping the surface of the foam sections already completed to receive foam or cork roadbed. I do have to put a temporary track plan on this and it will require a kind of geezer gate so I don't have to duck under anything to provide a way to have some continuos ruhnning on this part of the layout. I am not going to include any below ground ;evel runnng on this iteration of the layout as would be necessary because the route taken by trains running from Bay Ridge or the Brooklyn Marine Terminal run in cuts in most of Brooklyn and part of Queens. So this will be a partial chainsaw in this iteration. It'll also give me a chance to experiment with wiring for a Digitrax Zephyr DCC setup with DT91 and DT400R for walk around control of my locomotives which at this point are mostly Kato N-Scale products. These include 2 GG-1s, 2 SD80MACs and an SD70MAC. I also have a GP15-1 and GP38-2 which haven't been converted to DCC yet. The GP38-2 is LIRR markings and was made by Life-Like and carries the Athern label that claims its DCC ready but it would require some surgery to make it so. Looks like a job for Litchfield as they used to advertise that they can do it.

So next week will see some actual progress and I sould be able to upload some basic track plan for you to see.

Irv