While I wasn't able to make any real progress on the main layout, I was able to accomplish a few things. I started constructing some of the building kits that I have. The first ones are for the yard area. These include the engine house, fuel oil tank, sand house, icehouse, water tank, and maintenance. buildings.
I also bought some HOn3 flextrack and N scale cork roadbed for a 23 inch radius circle to test the narrow gauge engine that I purchased.
After playing with it for a short while, I decided to convert it into a 2 foot by 8 foot shelf layout. This will be based on one of the layouts in the book Shelf Layouts by Reid. This will be the lower left part with a foot added to the bottom as shown below. This section is similar to a reversed image of John Allens Time Saver layout which is also pictured.
I also added feeder wires to the frogs of the older DCC friendly Walther's turnouts that I have. The new ones have a tab on the side that provides an electrical connection to the frog. On the older ones the frog is isolated without power. I removed the plastic under the frog between two of the ties and soldered the wire to the bottom of the frog. I did the soldering on a metal rack for a heat sink to prevent the plastic around the frog from melting. The photos show one of them with the plastic removed and another one with a short feeder soldered to it. As can be seen in the photo of the top of the frog area the plastic was not affected.
I need to spend the next few months getting back on schedule for building the main layout and getting it running. I also ordered some more flex track so I could finish.
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