January 15th, 2012

After working on one side of the train room for a while, I turned my attention to the other side. I had originally set up the layout this time around to have a center penisula come straight out from the rear wall of the room, as see in this picture. The more I walked around it, the more I really didn't like having it in that position. With the center penisula facing that way, it made the run from Walker Canyon to Bridgeport awefully short. It also put the turnback blob real close to where the yardmaster will be standing most of the time, which will make it hard for "people passing". With my last layout, I liked the fact that when you entered the room, you couldn't see the whole layout from the first view. With it in this position, you could. So down it came and after some drawing board positioning, I put it back in almost the same place it was on the last layout, only a foot further back. I'll have the same configuration of the yard as last time, just a foot longer, which we all know is a lot of room in N scale!

With the new penisula wall put in, this also gave me more width at the end of the penisula, which allowed me to turn the wall 90° and face it back towards the helix/room entrance. I did drop my squeeze points from 27" to 24", but so far this has not been an issue while walking around the layout. The bonus is I now have a place for the huge Owens Valley Produce industry that I was lacking on the old layout. So far, things are going pretty good with this design!

 

Adding in the helper pocket off the June Lake siding.

 

Making sure I have enough clearance.

 

Helper pocket completed.

 

Center penisula wall location change. I put it back to pretty much where it was on the last layout, just 12" further back.

 

It now blocks your ability to see the entire layout from the room entrance, which tricks your brain into thinking the layout is bigger than it really is, or so they say ;)

 

First support up.

 

By having the wall this way, I was able to squeeze out having the backdrop curve 90° and come back towards the helix.

 

Tying in the supports on the left to the new center penisula wall.

 

Cross bracing installed.

 

More bracing...

 

And we are done.

 

Another checkerboard shot. Need to get some backdrops in to help define this area.

 

Laying out some masonite strips to get a sense of where the main line will go. Yard will be on the left.

 

Turnback curve. The area inside this curve will be the location of the huge Owens Valley Produce building.

 

Looking back towards the helix. I think I need more lighting installed....next update.

 

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