While digging through my ample stockpile of freight equipment in Rubbermaid containers I dug out something I had almost forgotten about.  In the late 1980's about the only cylindrical hopper car available was the Model Power car that was a tad... unprototypical.  Bachmann released a cylindrical car that was better than the Model Power car, but not correct for the Canadian style car.  

I recieved an email recently with some great news. I have a request to do a double clinic at the Midwest Regional Convention in April. This will be in Rockford Il. and they want me to do it twice on a Saturday. I will also be a main speaker (reason people should come) though am still awaiting final verdict from my parents.

The last couple days I put in another 20 feet of benchwork. Another 10 will go in tomorrow. I am building it with "L" girder construction. Its just what I know and its is pretty easy to move or adjust cross members as the need arises. I also put the roadbed in the waterfront area that connects the lower and upper levels. My roadbed is either 1/2 homasote on 1/2 plywood or 2 pieces of 1/2 plywood sandwiched. On top of that is regular midwest cork. I learned about using caulk in these pages. I like that better than glue. And it holds the cork and the track just fine.

The car forwarding system I've made is nothing new, but I thought I'd show it any way to make sure I haven't missed anything important. If I have please let me know!

I know car cards and pockets can be bought from various places, but I wanted ones that were a little bigger than what I've seen. So I bought a box of those book pockets libraries used to put inside book covers for check out, and use those for my car pockets. 

I'm getting closer to completing all the track work on my layout currently under construction. So I thought it was high time to iron out the operational details that I've had floating around in my head and get something specific down out paper. 

Before I start, here's a track schematic of my layout to help keep things straight during the discussion.

(Edit: Revised the schematic. Hopefully it's easier to read now.)

RAILROAD NOTES TO SELF:

WEST END PROGRESS! Been workin' on the railroad. Benchwork is almost complete with two more sections to go.