It is the end of 2018 and looking back on the year I made a lot of progress on the layout.

I had enough working on electrical and switched gears to my big trestle. A few commercially built bents, some of my own, basswood, balsa wood, glue, imagination a few days and the scene is coming to life.

I got most my wiring done on the swing gate so when it is open there isn’t any power on the gate and 18 inch’s of dead tracks off the gate. I wasn’t thinking about how many switch’s I required to do this when I was in the planning stages. As a result I currently only turn off the power on one end of the approach to the gate. I will purchase a couple more switches in the near future and complete the wiring.

Work continues on completing Trackwork on the lower level. Risers are in and I have started the cork roadbed.

I put the crossover in and happily the risers did stop short of it. Guess I measured that correctly.

I hope to get all the cork down and start fitting track by weekends end. 

There will be a lot of work to get the track set correctly at the swing gate and have smooth running across the gaps.

Patience required this weekend.

Tim Schwartz

I did not get as much done on my bench work as I planned mostly due to the lack of materials to work with.

However I did manage to get a 4 ft section in and the frame for my swing gate. 

Here are a couple of photos of the progress.

until next time.

Tim Schwartz

In just two weeks we went from 31 Celsius temperatures to snow. It is time to get back into the swing of things and get my layout going around the room.

now that my garage is built and I got all of me tools and garage junk out into the garage, I have room to continue building. First project is a work area. 6 and a half feet of desk to store stuff on. The layout will go over the desk to allow a continuos loop of track.

now to work on that portion of the track. More to come soon.

Wiring continues on my layout, albeit slow paced. I realized I needed some hookup wire and a few other odds and sods to get the job done. Then spring arrived and I have been outside enjoying the good weather. I did get facia on and my MRC prodigy advanced2 hooked in. Just about to tackle the final hook ups on the turn table. I do wire in toggles so I can shut power off to the tracks. 

Time to get back to work before the day gets too nice and I head outdoors.

Of all the parts of the hobby, wiring is my least favourite . You spend a lot of time working on it but change is not obvious. 

I have all of the bench work completed where I was able to. I put led strip lights under the top level so I can see my track while doing the wiring. I got my turntable in and the roundhouse repaired an set in place. 

Here are a couple of panoramic views of the layout to date.

As part of my new layout here in Emo, I decided to add a helix and create a double deck layout. As of yet I don’t have a workshop to do any specialized cutting so cutting helix sectors was on hold.

The walls are all painted, part of my bench work is now in so it is doodle time. 

I have tried CAD design for my layouts in the past, but I enjoy doodling ideas.

i have modified that technique by using my template and further modified the process by doodling on plexiglass over top of the scaled drawing.

The plexiglass technique I got from my wife who Doodles on quilts as she designs quilting patterns.

But enough about quilts.

Here are a couple of photos of some doodling.