Long Weekend

I had an extra long weekend due to the Memorial Day holiday.  Well sort of.  I had Thursday, Friday and Saturday off, then worked Sunday, and had Monday off. I took advantage of this time to get a big project done, one that I have been putting off. 

On Friday morning I picked up my cargo trailer, unloaded all the train gear that was stored inside, then loaded up the Fiat for summer storage.  I did get rid of most of my old layout two years ago, but I still had a lot of setup gear, including racks for transporting the modules, floor mats to keep our feet fresh during long days in expo halls, and 4 modules still in my possession.  

This dreaded swap project only took about 3 hours, far less than I anticipated and much easier.  I was even able to push the little Fiat up the ramp and into the trailer all by myself.  So, now it will sit in the trailer until fall or winter when I will make the train/Fiat swap again and work on the car.

Giovanni, our 1959 Fiat 600 fits inside my cargo trailer with room to spare.

It turns out that the swapping part of the project which I was dreading was the easiest part of all.  Rearranging the garage and getting the new modules setup was much more work.  How does our garage attract so much random crap??  I heard a comedian talking about how we Americans have drive nice cars, only to park them in the driveway because our garages are full of crap we need to hold on to.  

On Saturday I was finally able to setup all four of the new modules and begin making some progress again.  

Module 1 (top of pic) and module 2.  This will be the 16 foot side of the layout, so there will be two more modules beyond module 1.  So far, module 1 will be home to the train depot, several old town buildings, and The Toy Factory.  I also plan on adding a modern Shell gas station from Summit Customcuts, and a drive in diner of some sort.  The balsa wood road that runs up and down on module 1, will continue on module 2 and climb up for a RR crossing at the bottom of the pic (where the 18v battery is being used to hold down the rail while the glue dries)

This pic is from module 2 looking towards module 4.  As you can see, there are a few storage sidings and a passing track for the mainline on the left, and the mainline on the right continues to climb up to 4 inches in height.  Right now I'm thinking there will be some sort of light industry where the tape measure is sitting in the middle of the pic. 

Here is a closer pic of module 4.  The lower mainline and its passing track continue around to the left, as does the high line. The high line will be in a tunnel at this point.  A small mountain will fill the corner of the this module.  A working chair lift will run from the left side of the module to the top of the mountain on the right corner.  Visitors will also be able to look into a cutaway of the mountain on the right side.  They will see some sort of a mine or cave scene.  We plan to create a Z scale mine train that runs a loop into the mine for 'tourists'.  Module 4 will lead into module 5, which will be a 12" wide duck under bridge, making it easier for us to get inside the layout.  (On the top left you can see a side of one of my transport racks and stacks of legs from my old layout...anyone need a bunch of 36" 1x1's?) 

This is a closeup of module 3.  There are two sidings at the top, a passing track, a mainline and an industry siding at the bottom of the pic.  Not seen just below the bottom of the pic is the high line.  This siding at the bottom has a little stub to the right for a car or two, or a switcher to sit.  To the left, it runs down to module 2 and the light industry I spoke about above.