Fascia, Fences, and First Trains

After the last big work session, progress - though it continues - has been less dramatic. There's lots of trouble-shooting and tweaking - not to mention cleaning-up. The best evidence of progress is a lot of mess and a lot of little things to adjust. So there's been plenty to do, plenty done, but not much worth taking photos of and sharing.

However, the most tangible recent progress has been the fascia that I started to install along the wye in Old Saybrook:

Here it is, with screw holes topped, sanded, and ready for paint.

Also, with help from Roman, we installed some masonite "fences" to (hopefully) keep things from falling into the Abyss onto the concrete floor.

Roman also installed some cardboard on the inside of the loops to catch any wayward rolling stock.

View of staging, with the "fence" in the background

All of this is (probably) temporary, at least until I get some scenery in that will make a much nicer "barrier." But I suppose in the staging area at least, the fencing may become a bit more permanent. No real reason to remove it and it provides a level of comfort in case things go awry (i.e. the DCC system randomly decides to launch my locomotives).

With some level of confidence that things won't fly off the curves - and now that we have the mainline (finally) wired up (more of that progress that's not worth photo-ing and sharing - who wants to watch someone wire a layout?) - we decided to run a train! Thankfully, the company videographer was on-hand...

Westbound freight highballing through Old Saybrook

IMO, it looks pretty good even without scenery. But with scenery it's even better...

First train through Rocky Hill - all that scenery hasn't affected operation at all (and no pesky errant ballast!)

Heading into the last few days before the tour, I'm in pretty good shape. Things are all cleaned up (well, mostly) and I at least have a continuous run where something can move during the visits.

Speaking of which, if you'd like to see the layout in person, this Saturday's open house would be a great time to do it. The layout will be open from 1-4pm, so if you're interested in visiting, let me know!