An interesting article in my latest issue of the Nickel Plate Road Magazine on Interlocking Rules showed a sidebar piece that included a diagram. Part of that diagram showed a bridge/gauntlet arrangement with an interlocking tower on the approach.

This brought up several questions in my mind. Does anyone make a gauntlet track? (I run Code 83) Can one be made using a combination of flex/straight/switch frogs without having to have an engineering degree? Does anyone have one on their layout and experience in this type of trackwork?

 I saw this picture today posted on my Facebook feed by a BNSF engineer friend.

That's a lot of coverage there...

Modeling wise, you barely even need a backdrop minus a panorama of trees from floor to ceiling...

The CCW is up and running again in it's new home. I have finished laying all the new track work that was needed to connect my modules in the new railroad room. The overhead is up and working. I now have interchanges at both ends of the railroad.
I am posting this from my phone and get the photos to show inline, sorry.

Model animation—bringing models to life—adds enormously to the interest and enjoyment of any layout or individual model!  Recently a fellow modeler (Rick Wade http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/21049) dreamed about building a working HO scale TV—and I wondered—is that possible?  Then I found Harry’s TV shop and stopped wondering…

Ok, here's the drill. I got a static grass applicator and the colors I thought would go well.  I have existing scenery with very low ground cover and was told that I could use cheap hair spray over the existing stuff and apply the static grass over it. Is this correct? Or do I have to scrape off the old and start over? I assume that I'd have to remove the trees and replace them once the grass was installed "underneath."

This week half of my students, the eighth graders, were on a trip to Mexico so we conducted a week of special elective courses for the seventh graders. Eight students signed up to spend two days with me making progress on the model railroad.

As I redo the layout, I'm also reorganizing my equipment and supplies. 

First off, I am creating separate tool boxes for my track, electrical, and general purpose tools . Each box is a different color, and each tool is color coded to that box. I found this box at Home Depot the other day for my track tools and supplies. There's a divided tray, I used to organize my track nails, replacement ties, rail joiners, ect.:

NOTE: If you read the forum thread about this you can skip this blog post as it won't have too much new information.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been mulling over how to cross the doorway to the layout room.  I posted a question to the forums about techniques and got some good feedback.  I figure I should also add something to the blog about how things are going since this is part of the building progress.   

More work on the staging yard and fixed one of my throttles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqOrDHJwPgo