Club Layouts --> Permanent Layout

Construction of the Layout

Construction has commenced and much completed

Construction started in the Meeting Room area with the Staging yard, Wye, and hidden mainline. Why there? This necessitated making two holes in the wall that separates the meeting room and the South Layout Room. If that turned out to be a problem some layout redesign would be necessary. The issue would need to be resolved before continuing. So do it right the first time.

With that well in hand the benchwork for the engine terminal and yard in the South Room was constructed. The peninsula structure followed. Then the middle and north Room benchwork was constructed. The DCC power bus wiring was put in place where ever possible before the benchwork top was put in place. It was easier to do it from the top than the bottom. A case of doing the work while standing rather that crawling under the benchwork later. Scenery is in place across most of the layout. Some is just roughed in, other areas are finished or nearly so.

Much progress has been made in recent months in resolving some nagging DCC electrical issues. Unfortunately much wiring work was done on the fly rather than being designed and documented prior to installation. It resulted in spaghetti looking wires which are difficult to impossible to follow. The DCC power bus wiring is being replaced and new track feeder wires added where needed.

The mains power for the layout was changed to a new circuit as it was found to be connected to the power panel of the adjacent business in this building instead of the panel in our side. A benefit of this work was a simplification of the mains power switching from 2 locations to a single location.

Various areas of scenery and towns are being redeveloped due to changes in ideas. For example, the passenger station was moved from the freight yard to one of the towns, a more reasonable site for a passenger station. The former site was chosen just on availablilty of space for the station.

Some track realignment has been done. Because the Amtrak station had been moved a new siding was needed to serve the new station and prevent a stopped passenger train from blocking traffic on the main. The container yard in the north room was relocated to allow a broader curve and straighten the connection to the main line near the sand mine.

Here are some pictures of the construction