As usual, winter’s ravages left a good bit to do on the layout this spring. The weather has been a mix of spring-like 60s and winter-like 30s, but I’ve gotten a good start on fixing up a few of the more obvious problems… a few figures off their stands, a roof that needed to be repainted, drip line sprinklers to check, etc.
On the track side, I finally gritted my teeth and bought the R5 switches I meant to have all along. When I was building the layout I wound up with a few R1s from a collection of track I bought, so the cross-over from the outer loop to the inner one had four (free) R1s. That worked fine for two-axle cars going very slow, but not so well for longer passenger cars or when moving faster. So this year for my birthday I got the needed R5s and switched out the switches.
You can see the nearer switches near the tower in the center of the picture. They’re still bright and shiny since they’ve only been outside a few days. I’ve sent my longest coaches through at more than a crawl with no issues. I still can’t fly through there, but that’s the way the prototype works anyway, right?
I also decided to add a dedicated steam-up siding to the layout. Live steam wasn’t even on my radar when I first made the track plan, so none of the track is conveniently close to the edge of the raised layout for servicing live steamers. This hasn’t been a real problem, but I have been thinking it would be cool to have one running the loop while another is building steam… which doesn’t work when the easiest area to get to is a single track. And since it will be right at the edge of the raised area, it’s much easier to get to with my increasingly bad eyesight and knees.
Here it is laid out in its future home. I’ve since installed it, but in this picture it’s just set in place.
There’s lots more to do before I’m ready for the small open house I’m planning to have in late April. But it’s a start.
