Mainline Completed on the N.E. and Everee Railroad

This weekend marked a momentous occasion as the last spike (glob of caulk) was driven on the mainline of the N.E. and Everee Railroad. The mainline is a thrice-around design in requires a train to lap the general area of the layout three times before completing a loop.  The approximate length of the entire loop is 100ft. It’s not a very big layout, and I loath the tabletop design (I’d much rather have a shelf-style “walkaround” layout), but these were necessary compromises for the space I had to work with in the basement. The blue foam insulation board is working out well as a tabletop material. It is very easy to cut with a jig saw or narrow-bladed hand saw. The thickness of the foam sheet is two inches, and the jigsaw blade just about reaches two inches, but not quite. This means I can cut the foam on any surface without fear of going through and damaging the supporting surface beneath(like the carpeted floor). It also has sort of a “die-cutting” effect in that since the blade almost goes through, but not quite, it’s a simple matter of knocking out the cut piece from the remaining material with a firm punch. The tracklaying that remains is the yard/servicing area in the left area of the photo above. It remains open for now while I complete wiring and scenery in the adjacent area, which will be largely inaccessible once the yard track is in place (again, another problem with the tabletop design). Completing the wiring is next!