While I am in the process of scratch building a trestle that will connect the two sides of the layout, I am also continuing work on the Willow Springs mainline and siding track. I have started track between several of the turnouts and with a piece of section track as a placeholder for the trestle, I can extend working track (and running trains) to this side.
In the photo to the right, the first three turnouts and the track connecting them can be seen in place. The next step is to install the flex track curving back to the trestle placeholder and the siding flex track at the ruler location. At that point I will use the sequence I used on the rest of the layout, similar to a pilot's checklist:
- Connect the feeders
- Check visually (joiners correctly engaged, track straightness)
- Check with multi-meter
- Check by running locomotive
- Solder joiners, final install of track nails
At that point, I will install several of the Tortoise switch machines and start the turnout control panel. While I will still have the other end of the siding and all the spur tracks to go, I will be able to use Willow Springs as staging and run multiple trains.
Looking forward to hearing that you're actually running trains.
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