I realized I haven't posted to my blog in awhile so I thought I'd show y'all what I've been up too with the layout. It became quickly apparent while trying to finish the branch to the mine that I was going to have to have some idea of the footprint. I first though I was going to have enough room for a Walther's New River Mining Co. pretty much box stock with three tracks. Probably could have shoehorned it in there but it would have looked "crammed in".

I was bored late last night so I decided to put together one of my new Accurail 55 ton hoppers. Not too complicated and would be a little relaxation before bed. Or so I thought......

Funds have been really tight for my family as of late and back a few months ago when I decided on a scale change from N to HO, it probably wasn't the smartest decision as far as hobby finances. It had to be done though. As much as I've always loved N scale, my nerves were getting to the point where I just could not handle dealing with couplers and small detail parts anymore.

Wow, I wasn't sure this one was ever going to happen! After making the switch from N to HO I made pretty good headway on getting the basic part of the new layout up but then  after getting it to the point seen in the second progress report, it was like I hit a brick wall.  I just didn't ever seem to feel like working on the layout despite the fact that I've has some mandatory four day work weeks and had scheduled vacation days around the forced unpaid days so I'd have longer weekends.

Well, it took a lot of of figuring and a bit of trial and error but I made significant progress on the valance for the new layout.  Pictured is one piece of what will be a two piece design. For those of you who were worried about clearance issues when building scenery and working on track, that was a good call and I designed the valance over the main portion of the layout in a two piece removable design.

I posted some pics over in the challenge thread of where my layout stood the day after Memorial day and what I hoped to get accomplished by labor day.  In no certain order the plan was to finish up track laying and wiring, get the fascia done and get the valance and lighting in.  Anything else was "gravy"!

Those of you who have read some of my post know that I'm a dyed in the wool freelancer. You also know that I don't really "get" the fascination that some guys have with modeling particular prototypes down to an exact blade of grass.  When guys start off a description of their layout with something akin to " I'm modeling the second subdivision of the fourth division of the ninth galaxy of XYZ railroad on Oct.15th 1955 at 12:01 PM when the temperature was 58 degrees and the relative humidity was"...blah blah blah....  it sort of irritates me.

I've been posting here for a bit now so I thought maybe it was time to upload some pics  of the progress I've made on the benchwork for my new HO layout. Nothing fancy here, just the spare bedroom I've been given rights to for my layout and my computer and ham radio station plus my layout. I've built three different N scale layouts in here to varying levels of completion with the last being ripped out  because I decided to make the switch to HO. This used to be my daughters room, hence the pink walls.

I didn't always mind it so much. Over the years though, as I've built more and more layouts, I've come to despise it. I've tried all different types, including some of the varieties with two inch foam, but if I had to pick a so called favorite it would be L-girder with plywood sub roadbed which is what the new one is.