So, here's what's new:
Abroad:
- I visited the (English) National Rail Museum in York.
- I shopped the Monk's Bar Model Shop in York, and I recommend it to you all. Lots of stock, lots of supplies, friendly and knowledgeable staff, and prices lower than at home.
- I visited a large rail museum outside of Naples, and was turned away at the gates.
- I visited a regional rail museum outside of Barcelona and had a wonderful time.
- I took a regional train from York to Manchester and back. The scenery was nice, and both stations were very impressive. The rolling stock less so.
- I took a regional commuter train near Naples. It reminded me of the stereotype of the NYC subway, as depicted in early 80's TV action/dramas.
- I rode a funky monorail type thing at Heathrow T5, for a 90 second journey.
- I rode Vancouver's Skytrain, which is a 4 car EMU with no driver.
In my basement:
- I brought back from england a souvenir: a Graham Ferish N scale British Rail Class 40 Diesel locomotive and 5 matching period cars. I will post a review eventually, but the short short version is that I am quite pleased.
- I also bought some supplies: N scale cows, sheep, a level crossing, some stone walls, some wall and brick and road textures and a little road car too.
- I removed a pair of switched near the base of one of my hills, ripped up the track, removed a portion of the ramp coming down, rebuilt the whole thing and laid new track without switches. Previously this area had been a source of infrequent but reliable derailments, it is now 100% reliable.
- I removed a switch in the NW corner of my layout that had given a bypass track access back onto the main and instead extended it into a longer spur that now provides adequate space to park a long train.
- I added a new siding by my north station, on the north side of the tracks. It too provides space to park a full train.
I extended the length of two sidings on my east yard and narrowed the gap between them sufficiently to allow them to terminate into a double engine shed.
- I build a wooden foundation inside my loop and then constructed a mountainous hillside on top of it, using plastercloth on a newspaper base. I then cast about 70 rocks, mounted them, painted them, and then applied terrain.
- I added skirting about the edge of the loop, and painted all of my benchwork edges black, giving everything a much more finished appearance.
- I removed the insulation foam structure in the south end of my layout and replaced it with a modular wood construction that will lift out in segments. I plan to build a small town and roadway on top here.
- I constructed a low relief house for the above town, so, maybe 12 more to go.
- At my local hobby shop I picked up two used N scale structures, the Kibri Castle and an alpine house of unknown make. Both will take some work to not look out of place among my other structures but some pain and rebuilding should do the trick.
- I installed 5 new tortoise switch machines, connected with dcc decoders, and so now all turnouts are powered and DCC controlled.
- I installed 5 sets of red/green lights with the above new switches. When the turnout is diverging, the light is red. I love them. At a glance I can see the status of the far side of the room now.
- I purchased 4 new passenger cars that entirely do not fit my layout, it's pure nostalgia on my part, they are Canadian Pacific Canadian cars, which I traveled on as a child. These augment my existing Canadian train of a F7A+B and 4 cars.
That's about it for now. I will attempt to expand each of the above points into a post of it's own with photos. If anything above strikes you, please comment, and I'll try to address it first.
JA
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