Wordless Wednesday #457 - Grassing up Saybrook

 

A Quick Update . . .

As you can see from yesterday's post, I haven't given up on the blog - though it may look like it. Suffice it to say that the past four weeks have been unusual.  The Missus and I were supposed to leave the morning of December 23rd to head down south to visit my family for the holidays. In fact, we were all packed - presents and everything - & ready to go that Friday night, but I came down with some sort of bug (not COVID, fortunately) that laid me out for over a week. Long story short - we didn't get to visit my family and between being sick, the holidays, and ramping up for the 2024 legislative session, things haven't been quite normal.

But layout progress - though often thwarted - has continued, at least a little bit. I have folks literally from around the world visit during the Big Railroad Hobby Show (aka "Springfield" aka "The Big E show" aka "The Amherst Show")) later this month, so I want to get some more stuff done.

As of the last layout update, I'd finished the Bethel cottages and was getting ready to start on the scenery. I did some ground goop and placed the foundations, but progress there has pretty much stopped while I try to figure out how to proceed. I have to figure out the photo backdrop - and 2 of the 3 foundations have "settled" & are no longer dead level, making me consider ripping them out and doing them over again...

So I turned my attention to the Saybrook Scene, which is the first thing visitors see when they come down the basement. Once BillS did the structures and scenery there (I don't even want to hazard a guess as to how long ago THAT was!), I turned my attention to the rest of the layout. But it's become High Time to ballast the track there, and finish up the scenic details and other scenery - not to mention the Route 1 overpass, photo backdrop, etc.

Check out the photos from yesterday to see how things stand there as of now . . .

Since I got water in my basement last weekend (another setback we don't need to get into :^), I lost a few more good layout work days, so I doubt I'll be able to get this scene finished in time for the Springfield show, but at least I'm making progress despite all the challenges. #DoOneThing  has really helped make sure progress, even if it's slow...

Speaking of #DoOneThing, if you don't mind Facebook, remember there's a Valley Local group over there. You don't have to love FB to parachute into the cool groups over there and follow the progress. And, I hate to admit it, it's a *lot* easier to post quick progress pics there as I'm working. So be sure to check it out.

That said though, I do plan to do more regular posting here - and was, until I got derailed a bit this past month. So thanks for your patience and hopefully you'll stay tuned!

In the meantime - Happy New Year!

(which reminds me - I haven't done an "Accomplishments/Goals" post in forever...)

Wordless Wednesday #456 - Saybrook Ballasting & Passenger Platforms