Consolidation

So we got moved in, and we've got a lot of unpacking to do.

And just like any "new" home, there's a little of this to repair, a little of that to tweak.  And we've still got unpacking to do.

There's actually a workbench in the furnace room in the basement that I've laid claim to.  That's going to be my hobby area.  After we get done unpacking.

In the meantime, I'm still fiddling around with the layout.  Looking at the 3D view from Scarm, I didn't care for the obvious transitions (my mind says gaps) between what used to be the modules.  So I decided to massage the approach a little by blending them together. I also decided that rather than having what would be an obvious fiddle yard on one end, I'd move the actual rail yard down to one of the loops, and use its classification yard as staging also.  The basement takes the shape of an L, and the previous yard was at the end of the L which would be least visible, so I decided to move the mine to that end, to make the train yard more visible.

I also decided that rather then use the two main lines as eastbound and westbound of a dog-bone, I'd actually have a single track main line, with the two tracks in front for passing but a single track completing the loop about 2/3 back, in front of and sometimes through the hills for the mine branch line.

With the smallest radius on the main line being 19", I decided to add a passenger station for the town also.  I've only got a couple of passenger cars now, but who knows what I'll have in 15 years.  We're not moving again.

The main line itself actually extends off of the layout to the west (left) and the southeast (right front).  For actual operations, I will "red-flag" the turnoffs on either end which join to the "loop" track, essentially turning it into a point-to-point layout.

That's a pipe against the wall in the eastern half of the layout that I show in the layout.  The kitchen sink has to drain somewhere, I guess.

We're going to finish the basement, since the outer walls are cinder block.  Coincidentally, that will give a better canvas for the backdrop.

Postscript:

Just to confuse matters, I leave you with the fact that the layout is along the east wall of the basement.  This means that the layout north is actually east, layout east is south, and layout west is north.  All directions are (and will be) given in relation to the layout and not to the house.