More Progress Pics

Things have been really going Full Steam Ahead lately, thanks much to Roman's help. Here, without further much comment, is what we did the other night...

Roman took care of cutting all the joists to length - I took care of placing them (admittedly easier) - and here he is doing the most difficult part: attaching them to the L-girders. For each joist, two screws from below up through the flange into the joist.

While he was screwing up joists (literally), I took care of "tunneling through the sky" - a.k.a. cutting a hole in the backdrop for the mainline east of Saybrook station to go through. I just drilled a starter hole to clear my saber saw blade and cut it in place.

And here's the result, without too much trouble.

Next it was time to do something even more fun: mocking up some trackwork! Here's the "balloon" track that will go behind the Saybrook station. I needed to make sure I had adequate clearance for the vinyl backdrop that will cover that white molding.

And because we were in a backdrop mood - and especially because this is MUCH easier to do with 2 people instead of 1 - we put up the backdrop behind the turnback curve between East Haddam (left side of the aisle) and Deep River (right)

Finally, I did a little what I hope will be overkill in securing the leg under the Saybrook wye bechwork. It's really exposed and vulnerable here, so I hope this is adequate.

Another task Roman took care of was making up the MANY risers we're gonna need for the Essex to East Haddam part of the railroad, made into a "T" of 1x2 vertical and 1x1 crosspiece, glued and clamped. They're all here - now all we need is subroadbed to go on top of them!

So that's were we're at currently. Things are really motoring along now. Dare I hope that I could have something running on the mainline by next week?