A little scenery makes a big difference.  One of the goals of this layout is to get a little scenery down at the same time I get the operation going.  All my previous layouts had the scenery wait while I focused on large swaths of benchwork and track.

I think the 30 minutes roughing in the tree line on the backdrop and the afternoon making the trees was well spent. 

Here is the Wilmington area with the fascia under construction:

The majority of the Wilmington trackage is in. Have to finish the coal dealer and the coal dump at the shipyard. Haven't finalized the coaling facilities at the service tracks, the turntable and approaches are stand in's until the real ones can be built.　

Now that Elsmere Junction is pretty well in, time to move on to Wilmington Yard.  The yard is recycled from my previous layout.  It has a main, runner, 5 yard tracks, a caboose track, scale track and lead.  There were a few industry tracks on the back side of the yard, across the main.  Originally only #1 track was double ended, that has been expanded in the new design to 2 double ended and 3 stub class tracks.  All tracks are class tracks, I don't have designated A&D tracks, but normally the yardmasters use the runner, #1 and now #2.

 While I haven't been posting, progress has been made on the W&N.  the latest focus has been on the Elsmere Jct. portion of the railroad.

Below is a schematic diagram of the initial phase of the layout construction.  Elsmere Jct is in the SW corner of the room, just outside Wilmington.

You can find a lot of information on handlaying switches but this may be the first on "un-handlaying" switches.

One of the latest additions to my modeling efforts was the construction of a spray booth for my workshop. When the house was built I included an exterior vent in the workshop wall. The spray booth is approximately 24" wide and about 11 to 18 in tall inside, with about a 12" deep spray area. It has a 10x20 air filter in the back of the spray area. There is a squirrel cage fan with the motor outside the blower housing moving the air.

I have installed almost all the risers for the Wilmington terminal.  It has been a bit of work but I think it was better to have spent the time.  I originally planned to have the bottom of the backdrop at 49" ATF (above top of floor) and the layout at 50" ATF.  I later decided  it would be better to lower the roadbed to 49" ATF.  After trying that I decided that would create issues with the joint between the backdrop and the layout.  So I raised the layout height by 3/4".  Why 3/4"?  More on that later.

I have made some significant progress over the last several weeks.

I recently moved and the old W&N Branch layout had to bite the dust.  Now almost a year later, the new right of way has been secured and the new and hopefully improved W&N Branch will rise from the ashes.

I have a roughly 23x25 ft room with a door roughly centered in the short wall.  There are no windows in the room.  It is finished and carpeted.  I have a separate work room and the basement rec room adjacent for a crew room.

I model the P&R  in the 1900-1905 era.  I obtained a 1903 P&R operating rule book and transcribed the majority of it into a word doc, to preserve and share it.

I have attached a copy to this blog post.

If you are familiar with post WW1 timetable and train order rule books you will note some differences.  I call rule books from this era "international" rule books because all the examples of train orders  use international capitols as the station names (... run extra Berlin to Istanbul...).

Enjoy.