Staying On Track: Updates Continue

 

With the wiring and clean ups coming together in the basement/train room, I went ahead and unpacked the buildings from Nooksack and placed them in their intended locations. Having finished the background warehouse for the packing house scene, that area is ready for next layer of scenery such as ground cover application. However, before I jump into that I want to continue with the next phase of construction of benchwork and backdrop as it will be just to the left (west) of this scene.

Just in the last few days I picked up some 1 by lumber for benchwork construction. I started by cutting to length before glueing and screwing together some 1 x 2 and 1 x 3 boards to form an L-girder.  The back edge of the new section will rest on this L-girder shelf. I discussed this new section, designed to create some scenery and connect the Ferndale Junction module with Nooksack, in an earlier post. As implied by the placement of the L-girder shelf, the new section will continue with open grid construction. I explored a couple of other benchwork approaches, but decided to stick with open grid benchwork with a couple of adaptations. I do plan to drop part of the plywood below track level to create the bottom of a lowered ravine section of the cut and fill scene. I may also use a subtle cookie cutter technique to create a bit of incline for the yard lead track. A third adaptation will be a slightly curved front edge to this section of benchwork, anticipating future expansion plans where this area will accommodate a narrow aisle. While the benchwork here has all been pretty rectangular, I did build a curvey, multilevel section in my attic layout in Meadville. The next steps with this section include extending the backdrop and cutting the plywood (or cardboard template) to shape, so that I can finalize the track and framework plans. 

While the painting of the basement walls is still not complete, I did finish this section between the laundry area and the furnace a couple of weeks ago. If I would just knuckle down and do it, I have only one section of the exposed foam coating of the stone walls left to paint. Granted it likely will be the trickiest, with lots of pipes and other household infrastructure to work around, but it should be doable in one day's work. While the area behind the new section and Ferndale Junction's walls are painted, I should paint the floor and do any hydrostatic concrete repair before the permanent installation of those modules takes place. As I paint the walls, it just makes me more aware of how beat up and unsightly the floor appears. Prepping and painting the floor is a bit of a gumption trap, but I must bite the bullet before I make it even harder for myself by fixing more benchwork in place.