Progress

Greetings all and welcome back for another update!

Between work, school, and other priorities in life (as I'm sure we all can relate to) progress is slow. However there is progress none the less! Two layers of pink foam board have been glued down as well as some road bed. The creek is still being worked with, but the basic track of it is in place. I've also started work on the sub road bed for the grades.

As you can see there is a bit more done than the last few photos of the layout, though there still is a long way to go. The roadbed is Woodland Scenic's N scale "Trackbed", which is supposed to be a sound deadening foam material. My original plan was to use a layer of homasote and then glue foam board on top of that. However finding a sheet of homasote was difficult with the nearest supplier being about an hour's drive from here. I didn't feel like waiting around so I just slapped down an inch's worth of foam for a scenery base. The track plan was then marked out with a sharpie. In order to keep my curves a consistent radius I used a scrap section of foam and a bamboo skewer. The skewer was inserted into the foam at the curve center point. then in the scrap foam I measured 8 inches and then made another hole to hold the sharpie. Most of my curves are 8" radius, with one acceptation. as the line climbs up it crosses over the creek and then hugs a steep mountain side. Then curves into a tunnel on a 6" radius curve which broadens into an 8" curve. Since this is, I think, considered a compound curve I plan to use a section of N scale flextrack to help make the radius transitions smoother. I will also use N scale flextrack in my tunnels to minimize the possibilities for derailments.

Here's another view of the layout, but from the opposing side. I think my little mixed train makes a good scale reference for the size of the layout, which just as a reminder is 5'x18". I still need to finish laying the roadbed for the lower return loop, most of which will be concealed by a tunnel. 

This picture is of the beginning of the grade that will climb and cross over itself, twice, before reaching the upper return loop and the layout's only industry. And that will be a mine of some sort.  I know sever minerals were mined in the Cascades, everything from gold, silver, and even coal! Which mineral I want the mind to produce is still up for debate, but more on that another time.

The grade is a steep 5%, give or take a few scale inches. Using a 20' boxcar I made a paper ruler that is about 100 scale feet. And then further divided that in increments of 5 scale feet. So for every 100' of travel the line climbs up 5 feet. This is just to establish the grade itself and I'll come back and create a stronger foundation for the grade with foam scraps and expandable spray foam.

This is a close up of the creek so far. Granted it's a creek and not a river, but it seems too shallow to me. Plus I want to have some small rapids with rocks and such here so I feel that the creek should be deeper. I may just cut out the whole creek down to the base board and then back-fill and shape the creek with plaster.

That's about all for this update. Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned for more!