Work still progressing

So with Taxes (ugh), house cleaning and the various bits of other things that take up my time, I’m remiss with getting updates done.  Oh yeah, and also a few other things like working on Murray’s home layout.

So far, we have completed four turns on the main helix, the majority of the benchwork for the peninsula is in place (Trackboards still need to be cut and secured though) and the amount of track laid has tripled from March.  Of course, that’s easy to do when the helix chews up a lot of track going around and around and around… And unfortunately, Cam and I discovered my work with the 26″ radius 60° arc design was a little flawed.  When the start of the helix construction came around, we discovered the shape didn’t match the 120° arcs and the ready-rod wouldn’t work due to lack of support on many of the inside holes.  So they got pitched and we’ll need a few more 120° 26″ radius arcs cut.  But we’ll likely have enough to connect Parksville with the lower deck, and at some point soon, we’ll be able to run trains from the middle deck to the lower deck.  Not going very far mind you, but it’s still progress.

I’ve also started building the Code 70 turnouts for the visible portions of the layout.  They’ll be needed in a hurry for the Parksville area.

And with that, I think I’m going to build a few more…