There's nothing like peer pressure, even if only imagined, to act as a motivator. Our Thursday night round robin group, the Gandy Dancers, was coming last night, so I've spent some time in the train room preparing. First, the sky, which was painted as part of the original P&LE had to be repainted. Next was just a general clean up and organization after the departure of the former layout to Ohio. Observation: the former two level, room-size layout is gone; I've sold literally thousands of dollars worth of engines, electronics, rolling stock, and structures and there's still a room full of stuff!! The "stuff" appears like mushrooms. Anyway, the room is in better shape than it was. The new iteration of the Paducah and Lake Erie is the Paducah Switching railroad, and is based on the Winston-Salem Southbound's "Tar Branch" as it appeared in Model Railroader", January-April, 2018. That project layout was roughly 2'9" wide by about 9' long. My version makes it an "L" shaped railroad 10' x 16' x 2'.
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| This is the "new" railroad, repurposed from the room size edition. |
To recreate the "Tar Branch", I need to widen the top arm of the "L" from 2'0" to 2'9". My answer was to make a grid, attach it and cover it.
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| With the added grid work. |
The under-the-bench work was completed by Gandy Dancer Kent Tallyn (younger back) with the help of group members Dale DeWitt and Bill Levin.
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| I covered it with a 1x10 I had laying around for several years. |
Today, I heard from two of the group, offering to give up their Thursday nights respectively, at the end of February and first of March., so that the under-the-bench wiring could be completed when the track is laid. Sounds like I have a busy February ahead of me.
