When I scrapped my old layout and began the planning for this, it's replacement, I knew that it would be quite a long project but it is only recently that it has hit home just how long it will take and how much effort. Thing is, I think I am one of those people who take more pleasure from the construction side of things than the running of stock, which is just as well really as none of my locos have turned a wheel in well over six months, other than to test pointwork (e.g. a quick few runs backwards and forwards over a length of about 1' of track, and that was using a Dapol Pug, which has the coarsest wheelset to check everything).
As mentioned in my original post, I am tackling a number of the buildings first for a number of reasons, the main one being that I want to build the railway around the town, rather than the other way round and end up with a compromise, where buildings are slotted in to fit around the railway, not always in a prototypical style (e.g. roads to nowhere, hills that are over steep, roads that are too narrow and have bends that are far too tight, bridges where there is no need for a bridge, etc). I am also tackling building my own pointwork from PCB for the first time, after discovering that soldering isn't the complex and frustrating task that I always believed it to be. As such, I am sure that my trackwork will shock those with knowledge of such things and I am sure that I will need to revisit certain elements of it at a later date but it is giving me immense satisfaction to be starting with a bag of bullhead rail, a bag of PCB and a length of solder and end up with a turnout that seems to work.
The last time I posted, I had constructed a few plain (e.g. straight) turnouts and had the Templot plan printed out for the station throat. After examining this again, the curved crossover was way too tight so had to be re-planned but now that Templot doesn't confuse me quite as much as it once did, that was pretty painless. I also located a large enough length of flat board to enable me to begin construction of the pointwork for the station throat and began soldering.
Not sure if it is the done thing or not, but where turnouts flow into one another, I have built them together to hopefully ensure better alignment. When RMWEB crashed, I had reached the below stage.
That evening, with the girlfriend out on the beer and me home alone (I know, something not quite right there), I pressed on with the curved crossover, which proved to be quite tricky to get right but with a few choice words that the swear filter doesn't like and a few adjustments, I got there in the end. The below photo shows the pointwork curving into the platform ends; still one more to do (the release from the far platform run-round and corresponding catch point or kick back siding). At present, it is simply laid out with lengths of SMP flexi positioned roughly, to get an idea of what it will look like. Once all other turnouts are constructed, I will start work on cutting and raising the baseboards along which it will be located, followed by mounting turnout motors, laying the C&L foam underlay, etc. That could be some way in the future.
As mentioned in my thread in the Scenery, Structures & Transport sub-forum, I have also progressed with the various terraced houses that will be required. Many more to build yet and as can be seen, some of these are in a rather embryotic state. The idea for the layout will be that the railway will be on the level of the station building, with the ground falling away in the direction of the platforms, the lowest point being a road underbridge and river passing under the railway just after the platform ends (the river being the reason for the valley, if you see what I mean). The ground will then rise again towards the goods yard and beyond. This means that for the central section of the layout, the railway will be raised about 2.5" above street level, and the houses (and mill, still to be started) will obstruct viewing the railway head-on. Now this may seem a bit of an odd thing to do (after all, why put all this effort into the track, etc., only to block it from view) but from the normal operating position, the view that is provided will enable me to see the vast majority of the railway.
Wow, I've rambled on for ages. If you've lasted this far and not got bored to tears, here's a few more photos of what I've been up to as a really crap reward
Corner shop
A view up the street (houses to the left were started on Wednesday and I have run out of embossed Plastikard)
Looking back down the hill (which you will need to use your imagination for, but basically the front doors will be at street level rather than being at the top of the biggest step ever)
A Hornby LMS brakevan that I am attempting to improve. Brake shoes replaces with in-line ones (I knew that keeping the leftovers from Parkside kits would come in handy one day), moulded handrails removed and holes drilled ready for wire replacements, toolbox (is it a toolbox?) added underneath, very thin coat of Bauxite added before I ran out. This is very much a side-project to relieve the monotony of turnout / terraced house construction and as such, may take some time to complete.
And finally, apologies for the even poorer quality photos than usual. For some reason, my PC won't connect with my camera so these were snapped with my iPhone.