Hell Frozen Over?

Doug placing some track on his new bench work

Last weekend I helped Doug Gurin start building the benchwork for his long planned layout.  As many folks know, he has been planning his layout for years. He wrote an article in the first issue of Model Railroad Planning that describes his basic concept . That was 1996. The layout has evolved into a single deck design with staging in one room and the main switching areas in the other larger room. But the basic idea remains. 

Original Plan from 1996. Since modified.

After the first day

We had a good time building open grid benchwork in his basement. It is an older house with decidedly unsquare and non-plumb walls. But in about 8 hours we got the benchwork for his staging area done. Hopefully, we can continue to build the rest of the benchwork in early 2022.  

Doug is looking for help with his wiring switch motors as he plans to use Tortoises for most of them. If you want to help, please let me know and I can pass it on.

Meanwhile, on the Aquia Line I installed most of the fascia for the extension. I wondered if this was a good time as I still need to hand lay some track going into the tunnel. But I decided to make the cuts of the long pieces while I had the tools out.  Plus, an installed fascia helps make an unfinished layout look a lot better.

The fascia is thin to avoid encroaching on  the TV and book shelves. 

 I still need to add the hand laid track for the bridge and tunnel scene