Throwback Thursday: Last Weekend's Work - Climate Change & Scenery

Ok - so not that far of a "throwback"... but I did get a fairly eclectic variety of tasks done last weekend, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime...

First - the ridiculous: This is what confronted me when I got to the bottom of the basement stairs Saturday morning...

Yup - that's New London/Boston/East End staging under there. Apparently, the dry air dried out what little adhesive I had keeping these spare foam boards upright. And down they came - right on top of my staging yard.

Fortunately, they rested on top of a very robust and sturdy Atlas S-2 (the old one, without easily breakable details...). Going forward, I relied, not on tape and such, but an actual mechanical clamp to hold things up.

The dry environment didn't only wreak havoc with track at Goff Brook and my erstwhile faux sky/foam backdrop, but even with one of my trees at the Saybrook wye! Yup, this poor soul had its top half literally dry out and come crashing down. Well, as much "crashing down" as a fraction-of-an-ounce SuperTree can "crash"...

Worst of all though was a discovery I made in Mill Hollow. I noticed this turnout off the passing track, leading into a siding, looked a little "off" - well, it was off, and by more than a little. Despite being glued and ballasted, it had lifted right up. And the bubble level shows by how much(!)

So, enough of what all I discovered - here's what I actually did about it all. . .

Despite my success with using a humidifer to settle the track down in Goff Brook, I decided to do a little "belt-&-suspenders" and cut some expansion gaps as well.

I first used a Dremel with a cut-off disc. Then I used a razor saw. Let me know which method you think I'll use next time - and from now on . . .

Yup, you can barely see the razor saw cut - and it literally disappears when the rails expand. It's certainly not as easy or as quick as using the Dremel, but that quick ease too often translates into quick trouble. The sides of the cut off disc are abrasive as well as the cutting edge, and make it very difficult not to cut a slot too wide...

Unfortunately, I spent a big part of one afternoon plasticizing the basement windows. Working so much in the Goff Brook area (left edge of the photo above) I realized how much cold air was coming through those windows. And that couldn't be good for the layout. So I justified the time spent as "layout time" (though indirectly) and hope that the energy savings will translate into an extra freight car - or at least less track movement...

And now for the Sublime - Actual Model Railroad Work - and SCENERY to boot! Last time I was at the "south" end of Somerset, I did the static grass. This time, I did a little more to disguise the hole in the backdrop, including adding a couple of foreground trees, as well as (and most effectively) adding a bit of backdrop behind the hole.

Here's a better, over-all shot of that area. It's certainly not perfect, but much better than what was there before. Which was, um, nothing. But fairly effective for the 10 minutes it took to do.

Speaking of trees, I also added some trees and bushes (old lichen) to the area between the box factory and the station. Adding 3D trees to complement the trees on the photo backdrop really ties the scene together.

And some bushes to the right of the station softens the transition between the horizontal and vertical scenes.

Lastly, I opened up a bunch of boxes of old (and I mean really old - like "from the 1970s" old) Life-Like trees to see if I could use any of them on the modules as practice. Well, I'll definitely have to modify them to make them look less fake, but I thought the trees in the photo above would work as-is as an orchard for the farm. You can see them there back on the hillside in the corner.

The Missus says they still look too fake - the color is all wrong/too bright. One of the pitfalls of my doing scenery - and one of the main reasons I procrastinate on doing it at all - is that I'm partially color blind. So without meaning to, the Missus may have just signed up as Color Consultant on the Valley Line >:^)

But before I do any more scenery, I need to clean up the mess and prepare for my first ops session of 2018. All in all, not too bad a weekend!

A Month's Worth of Progress

Every once in a while, it's good to step back and take stock of the progress you've made. This is especially true if you start to feel overwhelmed by the task at hand and your motivation starts to lag. It's true in life (whether you're talking about diet, exercise, or some other goal) and it's true in building a model railroad.

So please indulge me as I post here the progress I made during the month of April. These were all items that had been put on the punch list as a result of a couple of "shake-down" ops sessions in March - and some of them have already been detailed in earlier posts. But as I stare down the projects on the horizon, and start to get that all-too-familiar anxiety, I thought it'd be good to document how far I've already come. 

Besides, having a record of what all I've done to model CT Valley railroad operations in the post-war era is one of the main points of having this here blog. So, without further ado . . .

• Two reversing sections and wye all wired with new AR-1 units - so ALL track is back in service;

• All mainline turnouts powered and controlled by Saybrook panel;

• Saybrook panel totally reworked and rewired to reflect the new track arrangement, and turnouts numbered logically (instead of lettered illogically). This bullet was by far the heaviest lift and took by far the most time (had to add some toggles and new LEDs too);

• New mechanical/manual throw(rod) installed for the "back" turnout behind Middletown yard (access issue);

• Newly *powered*(!) turnout in the tunnel at Somerset, complete with associated toggle (access issue);

• Newly installed throttle bus and a panel in each aisle, for plugging in throttles when needed/if desired (in case radio throttle is ever spotty);

• Speaking of throttles, the defective one got fixed and is back - AND I've converted it to antenna-less operation (so no more whippy antennas!);

• Saybrook/Essex liftout is now powered from just the Saybrook end, eliminating a plug. And I patched/painted the hole in the wall that was there (and got rid of the extra wires/plug);

• Backdrop done behind Shailerville and down the Essex/Deep River peninsula - and it's all patched, painted, and ready for photo backdrops;

• Removed Essex Lumber Co. siding (much more trouble that it was worth, between the space it took up and the fact that the switchpoints were in the wall(!));

• Some switch machines replaced with Tortoises (now, all but three turnouts have Tortoise machines - and I used one of the MicroMark machines to power the tunnel turnout, and another one is all that can fit in another area);

• Turnout at the north leg of the Saybrook wye is now manual, per prototype (Caboose Industry ground throw);

• My second heaviest lift - installing the mainline crossover that will allow trains to get from New Haven staging to eastbound Track 2 before entering the Saybrook scene, per prototype. No more wrong-way running!

• And the Air Line - which had to be removed for construction of said crossover - is now replaced and re-wired.

Whether or not you think you're accomplishing very much, be sure to look in the rear-view mirror occasionally. You may discover that you've actually come much, MUCH farther than you think! 

A Week of Wonderful Worknights - and an Ops Session

A month of working just-about-all-out on the layout culminated in the final week leading up to the "shake down" ops session. As it turned out though, the ops session devolved a bit into a work session. But no matter - the days leading up to Friday's session were among the most productive of all, given a little help from some friends.

The final 7 days started with a "Town Hall" meeting at the Valley RR to review the up-coming season. While I've been a steam locomotive fireman there on and off for almost 30(?!) years, I'm really hoping this year to finish my engineer qualification. But the meeting got even better when I saw Roman in the audience, home from school. I wondered whether he'd be willing/able to help on the layout. Turned out he was.

So while he worked on finishing up the east end staging yard and installing feeders there and in Saybrook, I got busy installing the bus line from Essex to Deep River.

As you can see, I like neat, labeled wiring. But as good as I think I am sometimes, I really envy guys that can be so neat with much more wiring than I have. I only have track power - no switch motors (outside of Saybrook), no signalling, no cab bus. In the photo above, you see that I split the bus to go down each side of the peninsula rather than looping it around. Creates a shorter run of bus (and less chance of voltage/signal drop. What you don't see here, is the third busline run I sent through the wall to Saybrook. I'll cover that more when I describe the wiring on the liftout.

After Roman's help Saturday afternoon, I spent Sunday afternoon, Monday, and Tuesday evenings finishing the wiring on the mainline. Then Wednesday night, Bill and Dick joined Roman and I for another work night. Bill worked on fitting-in the Shailerville Bridge section (more on that in a future post) while Roman and Dick worked on feeders.

Speaking of wiring, be sure your feeders are attached to the proper side of the bus. When I tested the mainline, I got shorts whenever the train would go over the liftout - but they weren't as apparent since the mogul has a Keep Alive capacitor in it. Roman discovered the problem: I'd mistakenly switched the wires when I connected them to the bus. Fortunately, I connect the feeders to pigtail wires that are connected to the bus. So once the problem was figured out, it was a simple matter to unscrew the wire nuts, flip the feeders, and reattach them. Problem solved.

Having a few straight nights of layout work - including an especially productive evening Wednesday - the layout was just about ready to shake down. Good thing: I ended up working late Thursday night so I had to leave the layout where we'd left it.

Friday night's session ended up being about 65% operating and 35% work. The Wednesday night crew was back to enjoy the fruit of their labor, and Pieter joined in as well. For the first time in over a year, we got to operate the layout. And for the First Time Ever three local freights worked the branches around Middletown. Pieter ran the Valley Local from Wethersfield to Middletown, Roman ran the Air Line Local from the new "New Haven" staging yard track to Middletown, and Bill - having finished installing the Shailerville Bridge (and, incidentally, completing the mainline without any fanfare at all) - ran the first Shore Line Local (PDX-2 a.k.a. "The Haddam Local") from "New London" (staging) to East Haddam.

Pieter running southbound at Wethersfield

Bill working the local in Essex

Dick a.k.a. the Gopher at/behind/in the East End Staging Yard

I only have 3 throttles, but rather than double up on crews, Dick was content to "operate the speeder" - otherwise known as "cleaning the track." He did the unsung - though very necessary - job of running the Bright Boy around the railroad. You wouldn't think that newly-installed track would be so dirty, but once he discovered that it was, off he went with the track cleaning block. Thanks Dick!

Oh - about the throttles - I actually only have two of them now. Strangely, as Bill was heading up the Valley Line, his throttle decided to give up the ghost. No matter what we did, we couldn't get the wireless/radio to work. The batteries were fresh, and it would work if tethered. But we eventually swapped Pieter to a tethered throttle (he was in Middletown anyway - the location of the one and only plug-in on the railroad) and Bill finished his run with Pieter's throttle.

After the session, we opened up the dead throttle to see if we could figure out the problem. No dice. It's an NCE Cab04pr and has been upgraded within the past couple of years, so is all up-to-date. I got this system way back in 2003, but as is all-too-typical, moves and life interfered along the way, so I only have a few months' actual use on it.

So back to NCE the throttle went. Hopefully they can fix it and the cost won't be too painful.

But even a dead throttle didn't kill my mood - the Valley Line is finally operating again! - and despite the glitches we discovered during the shake-down.

So I have a punch list of some things to do before the next shake down session, including installing some more feeders, and re-installing a bunch of switch motors. Oh - and I have to deal with not one, not two, or three, but FOUR reversing sections. Given my strange Saybrook shorting problem, I decided to move the reversing sections to the ends of the dogbone mainline. So instead of one long reversing section in the middle of the main, I'll have two shorter sections at the ends. And I have the Saybrook Wye to deal with. And, finally, I will likely want to change the reversing section between Middletown/"Hartford" and Wethersfield. While that section operates ok, if I'm going to get away from using Frog Juicers as reversing units, I might as well purchase 4 auto reversers rather than 3.

Speaking of which: What kind of auto-reverser would you recommend?

Well, I've rambled enough for now. Seems it's either feast or famine with this here web-log. Now that this Final Big Push is done, I'm looking forward to settling down into a more regular routine of layout progress and posting. I hope you're enjoying following my journey as much as I am sharing it!

Marathon Work Session - 7/16/2015

I was posting pretty regularly (like, Every. Single. Day.(!)) leading up to my going away on vacation, but said vacation meant no layout work. So, knowing this would be the case - and all-too-aware that my deadline was looming - I bribed persuaded the guys to come over for One Last Big Work Session.

To my very pleasant surprise, just about every one of our merry band of men were able to make it - 8(!) guys in all. It was a ton of fun and a lot of help - my biggest challenge was trying to keep them all supplied and busy!

Here are some photos from what turned out to be a record evening . . .

The aforementioned "bribery" - still cheap labor no matter how much pizza you buy... Left to Right: Randy, Joseph, Roman, Dick, Pete, Pieter, Tom, Bill

Here's (most of) the "electrical crew" - Pieter and Dick soldering little wires on toggles for switch machine controls; Tom continuing the busway bus line down to Essex.

The other half of the electrical crew - Roman & Joseph wiring feeders under the staging yard.

Scenery crew - Pete and Bill working in Dividend & Rocky Hill, respectively (though not particularly respectfully :^)

Quality Control Expert Randy checking out the wiring on the mainline heading to staging - he also laid most of the Shoreline, with help from Joseph and Roman.

Believe it or not, Pieter was actually not feeling all that well - but apparently we were able to help, if even only for a little while. Of course, his latest creation may have had something to do with his maniacal laughter good humor . . .

Invasion of the Toggles!!
This is clearly the product of a (OTC) drug-addled mind.

I'm glad The Missus encouraged me to take photos - which I would have totally forgotten in all my running around getting stuff for folks and answering questions. On one of my many trips upstairs, she stopped me to say how remarkable it was that so many of the guys had taken time out of their schedules to come pitch in and make some more progress on the layout. And I couldn't have agreed more - I'm truly a blessed man.

So thank you again to Bill, Randy, Roman, Pete, Pieter, Joseph, Tom, and Dick (we really need a Harry to join us) - you've each put your unique mark on my layout and it's become what I hoped it would - a tangible reflection of the many-varied talents and abilities of a great group of guys.

Rocky Hill Scenery Started

Sunday work sessions are whirlwind 4-hr affairs, tucked in between brunch & dinner. Bill and Pete made it over to continue the scenery in Rocky Hill that they started last week and I tried to keep them supplied with all the necessary resources, from materials to tools to the-all-important-snacks. As you'll see in the photos, we got a lot done!

Pete's in Dividend staying ahead of Bill, who's adding more to the area just "north" of Rocky Hill.

 

Early on, they determined that it'd be a good idea to put the stone foundation for the Rocky Hill station in place and scenic around it. This, despite the fact that the station isn't built yet - there's just a mockup structure. Since it's so critical that the foundation footprint be spot-on, I decided to confirm that the mockup's footprint was accurate. Good thing I did. It wasn't. Even worse - I can't determine the actual footprint size from the Sanborn map.

If ANYbody has any information on the footprint dimensions of the Rocky Hill station and the freight house (or miracle of miracles - if you actually know where I can get plans!), please let me know. In the meantime, we're estimating the footprints based on the Wethersfield freighthouse/station kit.

BTW, the station footprint is sketched in in the photo above, and I hot glued some foam core to start the platform area.

Thankfully, my false start and insufficient research didn't diminish the progress Pete & Bill were making. And the proof is in the pics . . .

 

They tell me that "there's still more to add" but it sure looks pretty close to finished to me! I still need to figure out what - if anything at this point - I'm going to do for a background here. Nothing's really needed to be on the backdrop though, which is why I chose to start the scenery in this area.

It's starting to look pretty good! I'm glad I had a good scenery stash on-hand, but this process sure eats up lots of material. The results are worth it though - especially the first time you see a scale model in a scene you'd only ever seen in your mind.

Added Value & False Economies

According to Wikipedia (which, of course, is the font of all knowledge), synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts - and I can't think of a better example of synergy than a good layout work session.

A few nights ago I had six(!) guys over to help work on the layout. I had a pretty ambitious to-do list, including finishing the bus line for the new Shoreline section, installing feeders in the staging yard and the Shoreline's "east loop," modifying old MicroEngineering turnouts to make them DCC friendly, and even starting a bit of scenery. Fortunately, there was enough variety of things to do so that folks could choose to do something they'd enjoy (or at least avoid something they'd hate). Unfortunately, I'm still not great about making sure everybody has everything they need to do what they need to do (and I really should have remembered to put down drop cloths under the to-be-scenicked sections). But the guys are great, good humored, flexible, and most of all, patient. It made for a VERY productive evening!

Roman & Joseph hard at work on "feederizing" the "east" loop and staging yard. I'd removed all the lumber from underneath this section for more comfortable access. Tom is working on the busway bus line, but ducked out of the picture.

Pete and Bill starting scenery!! Here they are on the Valley Line between Wethersfield & Rocky Hill (aka the big turnback loop/blob in the middle of the room)

Dick & Randy hard at work helping me modify ME turnouts

Having the guys over certainly added value to the relatively limited time we could get together. Not counting the synergy, but in raw man hours alone I saved more than 2-3 full days' work - especially critical with only a few weeks left before the open house.

Not only did I save a boatload of time, but I thought I was pretty clever when I scored a bunch of MicroEngineering turnouts at a "great price" on eBay. Unfortunately, this so-called deal turned into a colossal false economy when I discovered they were the old style turnouts and would need to be made DCC friendly. That's what Dick & Randy are helping me with in the photo above.

VERY briefly (you can get much more detail/info here), these old style turnouts are "power-routing" which means that the frog, closure rails, and points are all soldered together. When you power this type of turnout, the frog/closure rail/point assembly gets its power from whatever stock rail the points are touching. Not only is relying on this point/rail connection for power sketchy at best, a wheel could easily bridge the gap between the point and the rail on the other side of the turnout. Shorts wreak havoc with DCC. The solution is to:

1. Isolate the frog
2. Connect the closure rails to the adjacent stock rails
3. Isolate the points from each other by cutting a gap in the metal throwbar.

Sounds easy enough - and the first two steps are. But - WARNING! - that last step is enough to make you want to give up the hobby . . .

In order to electrically connect the closure rails to the stock rails, you'll have to remove the plastic web from underneath the rails. That way you can (or, in my case, Randy and Dick can) solder a little bridging wire to the underside of the rails.

I had the relatively easy job of isolating the frog. A cut-off wheel in a Dremel makes this quick work. Having a foot-pedal speed adjuster makes it even nicer. Having safety glasses is an absolute must!

But I (more than) made up for the easy frog isolation with this:

That, my friends, is a gapped metal throwbar. Yes, it's attached to a full-length plastic throwbar underneath. No, I didn't cut though that plastic, so everything's still attached. Yes, this task was an ABSOLUTE BEAR to do. No, I will NEVER EVER do it again - I don't care how cheap the turnouts are (I really really should have asked the seller what type of turnouts they were before I bid...)

The only reason I even attempted this task was, well, I already had the turnouts and knew I wouldn't be able to find another sucker person willing to buy them. Oh, and I have a flex-shaft for my Dremel, a foot pedal to control speed, and a teeny-tiny cutting bit.

But even with The Most Careful work, I still trashed two turnouts. Thankfully, not only did Randy bring some PC board ties, he graciously salvaged the turnouts by soldering the PCBs in place of the throwbar, doing so with grace and humor - which kept me from tossing out the window everything within my immediate reach.

So now I have a pile of now-DCC-friendly ME turnouts to install. I can only hope that my throwbar-gap-cutting hasn't compromised the points too much. We'll see how they hold up during ops sessions...

The alternative - and what I probably should have done to begin with (other than purchasing the right turnouts in the first place) - would be to just replace the stock throwbar with PCB ties. Anticipating that I may end up having to do that sometime in the future (cuz I figure at least one of these things is gonna fail), I removed the web from underneath the rails next to the throwbar, on the frog-side. That way I can (or Randy can) solder a PCB tie to the underside of the points, even while the turnout is in place.

Whew!

After all that stress, it was nice to go back to the basement and see what all the other - more sane - guys accomplished...

Here's where Pete and Bill ended up on the blob - base scenery and a really cool rockface/cut started!

And Tom, Roman, and Joseph finished up wiring the East End - and are still smiles despite the host-induced craziness.

The takeaway is pretty clear: Don't let economizing in one area overshadow or offset the added value in another area. The mistakes of false economy will surely diminish as you focus on the synergy of the session.

Starting Roadbed, Track & Wiring

I've had a few more very productive days in the basement, thanks in no small part to a little lot of help from my friends. The pictures tell the story (with a little help from the captions)...

I'm using MicroEngineering turnouts, and Fast Tracks provides some handy templates to help you lay things out. Just print out the PDFs, cut, and tape. This is how I laid out the throat for the staging yard.

I didn't want to have to cork the entire yard, and I had some leftover homasote, so decided to use that instead. Problem is that there's a difference in height between track-on-cork and track-on-homasote (the homasote is much thicker than the cork). So I made three cuts in the plywood to allow me to shim up a ramp to the correct height.

Roman's been doing yeoman's work on laying cork roadbed and is very good at it. Here's the "Boston"/east return loop all corked. The staging yard will be in the center with most of the tracks on the homasote. 

Here's the first of three mainline tracks going through Old Saybrook. We're using wood glue to glue the cork to the plywood (unlike Elmers/white glue, it's water resistant - important for water-based scenery techniques) and thumbtacks to hold it in place while it sets.

Here comes the track gang! Joseph & Randy start laying track on the "east" loop...

... while Roman continues laying roadbed.

The "west" loop got roadbed and track so fast I was already too late to get an in-progress photo. Here it is all done and ready for connecting to the mainlines through the wall. Like the false start at the east end of Hoosac Tunnel, you see the now-abandoned hole through the wall in the back where the mainline was going to go (before clearer minds convinced me otherwise).

The wye really makes the Old Saybrook scene - and here it is just getting started. I was going to try my usual "paper doll" & cookie-cutter technique for subroadbed, but Randy suggested I just slap on a sheet of plywood and cut to fit the benchwork. Makes for a lot more latitude for track adjustment.

Track's all done on the east end of the mainline - awaiting staging yard turnouts and track.

And while all this tracklaying was going on, Tom started routing the new bus line from the command station to the Shoreline. It's a straight shot of left-over Romex with no feeders, so the Shoreline will be its own seperate power district. And the Romex looks nice enough going up over the door that I didn't end up needing to install wire conduit .

So a great start to roadbed, track & wiring after just a couple evenings of work. My deadline's getting ever closer, but we're making some really good progress.

Breaking Ground in Old Saybrook

Actually, more like "punching through a wall" - literally.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In my last post, I hinted at the head start I got on my latest expansion during my last ops session. While Tom took over the agent's duties, I got out my machete and started hacking my way through the primeval forest, clearing the way to Old Saybrook. Here's what the landscape looked like when the surveyors arrived...

Given the, um, "terrain" a number of changes would be necessary to accommodate the Shore Line mainline as well as the Old Saybrook station area & wye (not to mention a new staging track for the Air Line):

• The doorway would need to be moved left as far as possible;
• I'd need to cut a huge proscenium (I'd never even heard that term until recently) in the main wall - essentially a large picture window, looking out at the basement's foundation wall;
• Add supporting benchwork;
• Cut not one, not two, but three holes in different walls in addition to the proscenium (just love using that word)

The day after the ops session, I broke ground - or, rather, broke wall. With a little lot of help from my friends (thanks Pete, Dick & Tom!) we got started (BillS had a lot less fun in the other room working on locomotives - when he'd come anticipating doing scenery. The DEY-5 (Alco S-2) is running & sounding much better, but the K-1b is still being ornery...).

As usual, the photos tell the story best . . .

Tom, Dick & Harry Pete get started on moving the door. The destruction de-construction went so quickly that by the time I got out my camera, they were already to this point!

Meanwhile, after much hemming & hawing - and figuring now that the doorway was gone we'd reached the point of no return - I finally made the first cuts in the wall with my machete drywall saw. The sheet over the other doorway was necessary given the HUGE cloud of dust created by power sawing the drywall next to the door.  Thus, the drywall saw used here.

Whew! Here's the proscenium all cut out and the doorway area cleared. That "line" across the wall is actually the top of the section of wall I removed with Tom's help. Compare this view to the pic at the top of the post.

Another view of the proscenium, with a 1x4 installed as a "window sill" (ties together the tops of the lopped-off studs) and a 2x4 attached to the foundation wall to support the back of the benchwork that'll go here.

  

Reconstruction of the wall to the right of the doorway. You can tell by where the baseboard ends where the doorway used to be. It doesn't look like much difference, but in HO scale that extra 10" means the difference between the ShoreLine going through the wall versus through the doorway itself.

After reconstruction comes new construction - of benchwork! Although the rest of the layout (except the modules) is L-girder, I decided traditional open-grid benchwork would work best for Old Saybrook. The terrain is pretty flat, so not much undulation needed - so a full plywood base would work well. You can see above my (relatively) ingenious method of clamping everything together to keep things tight & square for drilling/screwing everything together. Turns out this ended up being a bit of overkill - later joists were just held by hand against the triangle square. TIP: build the benchwork upside down resting on the plywood - that will ensure that all of your joists are flush at the top and there'll be no waves in the plywood top when you screw it down.

Once the benchwork was completed, I put it in place to level it all up, side to side and front to back.

Here's the benchwork in place. I attached it to the back 2x4 with two vertical 1x3s - much easier to level up & attach at just two points. Also, I shimmed up the joists at the front with old business cards. You can see in the background the new plywood "sidewall" with a hole for the Air Line coming through. Also, note the plywood "ceiling" - painted blue - which doubles as the top sill of the window. I salvaged some old doorway mouldings (and purchased two new long pieces) to picture frame everything.

And this is the view you see as you come down the basement stairs. You're looking "southwest" - the AirLine will come in through that hole in the back right corner and be hidden behind the masonite backdrop (which I've yet to install - you can see the "backdrop joint backer" 2x3 propped up at the left); the Shore Line from New Haven will come through the wall just to the right of the Saybrook Wye; the station will be approximately where that plywood rectangle is; and the "loop track" that goes behind the station is mocked up as well. The "pointy part" (north end) of the wye starts the track to Essex and points north.

This is the other side of "west end" wall, showing the cutout for the Shore Line from New Haven, represented here by a return loop. The Air Line will come off the module (right end of the pic) and head through the hole in the corner. That section of the Air Line will be a generic "Middlefield area" farm scene, with a team track and a cider mill. The Shore Line return loop will be hidden under that scenery.

This expansion has really fired my motivation to complete the rest of the railroad: Old Saybrook and Middletown to East Haddam, and New London to Old Saybrook (including a large staging yard). I was going to wait until I got some scenery completed in Wethersfield - and that's still a priority and the "to-do" for an upcoming work session - but I'm eager to complete at least the benchwork and track for the Big Plan so that I can start operating sessions incorporating all the trains (and crew members!) I'd planned: not only the Valley and Air Line locals, but the two Shore Line locals, as well as some mainline freight and passenger trains (gotta have someplace for my DL-109s, PAs, I-4 & I-5 to run!).

Continued progress will have to go on a brief hiatus while I do a remodel in our living room (part of the justification for all the tools/skills I've acquired while model railroading is that I can use those tools/skills elsewhere in the house), but with motivation this high I've already put together a very aggressive work schedule, and I expect I'll be back to work on The Valley Line by next week!

(PS: If you're in the Wethersfield, CT area this Saturday morning, I'll be doing a show following the prototype Valley Local in the late 1940s, using photos from John Wallace and research I've gathered over my time doing this project.  Also, if you're interested in actually riding the Valley Line, the Valley Railroad/Essex Steam Train will be running trains this weekend to view eagles!)