Thus we start a new year...

2017 grew towards expansion into new skills and processes. 

A recent article in Model Railroad Hobbyist got me thinking about my own disorganized system of storing strip wood conveniently.  The article went on to show a beautifully planned and executed storage rack, and I posted a comment some might have characterized as "snarky" about the time and effort it took to create the storage rack (taking time away from the real hobby) and the efficiency of use of the desktop/countertop space required for the horizontal storage rack.  Mea culpa! if anyone viewed my comments that way.  My bad.

Rail laid and glued, terminal wires in place and channels cut to hide them. Scene temporarily attached to layout and powered and tested. All track and turnouts working great, no shorts or dead spots. Engine easily pulls/pushes cars in/out of the intermodal yard from the mainline. Next step, laying rails for overhead gantry crane and building concrete pads.

A good friend of mine has a triple deck layout of the Clinchfield RR and he has some absolutely amazing realistic ballast, so of course I asked where he got it from and he said that he sifted his own from bags of paver base that he got from the home improvement store. I had also read that Mike Confalone had done the same for his Allagash RR, though I believe that he said he just uses commercial ballast now. Anyhow, for those interested here is the process and result: