On To the Second Level and Center Section

The answer to the question in my last post about getting the second level done before Easter is "Yes, sort of".  I did get the bottom level and a good chunk of the second level completed, but it may have taken slightly past Easter to achieve it.

The beige roadbed on the right side of the photo above is the formerly white foam from the previous post.  I gave it a light brown paint job which will form the basis of ballasting it.  This way if there is any sort of gap in the ballast you won't see bright white shining through!  

I have started to install the risers for the top level, where the station will be.  When I first started the layout I tried to be very careful about the height of the original benchwork because I wanted to make sure that the top level wasn't too high up (it's hard to visualize when you don't actually see anything other than an empty room).  I'm a little nervous that I may have gone too high.  We shall see once the station is in place!

  

And finally I added the benchwork for the middle of the layout.  Unfortunately it means I have to duck now when I go from one side of the layout to the other, but it was time.  This center benchwork is where the two returns for the ends of the dogbone, one on the bottom and one on the middle level, are located.  As you can see in the picture above I have already installed supports and provisionally laid the track in the middle.  Also, in the foreground  of the photo you can see the two-track staging yard for the middle level on the left coming together via the switch in the foreground. EDIT: It occurs to me that the track plan shows that the staging yard for the middle level was supposed to be on the other side of the layout, above the lower staging yard.  I discovered that I needed a little too much space over there, and that it made more sense to have the staging yard tracks on the opposite side.  So a train coming from the station will enter the second level on the track on the inside of the second level (the track directly above the switch in the foreground), go across the middle via the upper return, swing around to the left in the back where the two-track staging yard starts, and then come down the left side, around the bottom / foreground, and back up to the station.  The idea is to have one train coming into the staging yard and the train on the other track going out.  This mixes up the traffic in the station a little.  

Next up is finishing the center section and the return loops, and adding the benchwork to make it up to the top level of the layout!

The Upside (if there is one) to COVID-19

I took a look at the January 23 post to see what progress had been made on the layout just over two months ago.  What would normally take years has been completed in a matter of weeks.  Without further ado...

I took my test oval apart (leaving the staging yard in place, of course) and began the bottom level main line.  I chose to leave off the 'return' on the dog bone that cuts through the middle of the layout so I wouldn't be restricting my access to the area in the interior of the layout, or have to duck and crawl under that center section all the time.  My plan is to leave that open as long as possible, likely until the bottom and middle layers have been built, and only installing it before adding the station on the top level.  The first step was to build the incline out of the bottom level and through the parade section on the middle level.  

The incline from the bottom level to the middle level has no tracks underneath it, so I could use some 1x10 plywood to build risers for the track.  Note the clamps on the risers- I switched from screws to glue to hold everything together.

The image above shows the same section (in the background) as the picture above it with plywood and shelf liner added.  I also have the curve on the right side of the layout done, coming up from the bottom level.

Next up is the parade section, which requires realistic track ballasting and scenery.  I used an old trick from the original Carstenbahn One using Styrofoam and a hot knife to form the roadbed.

The rectangular foam sheets get glued to the plywood roadbed and are carved to fit using the hot knife. 

  

Before carving the embankment it's important to place the track in its final position.  I have to make sure there is enough clearance between the tracks.  My passenger cars have the biggest overhang so I use a pair of those for clearance testing.   Although I used the Marklin 1-gauge flex track kits to have a gentle curve transitioning to the straight section of the parade line, I did have to use the 'swine radius' for part of the curve.  

Once the track was properly positioned, I use a self-bent wire in the hot knife to carve the edges of the roadbed.

And there is the result before painting and ballasting.  The flex track looks really nice,  Had I known how good this would look (and how short the parade section would be) I would have made the curve longer!

I have continued to build the roadbed on the second level.  The curved sections are particularly difficult to support.  In addition, I discovered that by putting the tracks on the lower level all the way to the edge of the layout I didn't leave a spot for the supports for the levels above it.  

My trio of clearance testers!

So that's where we are now.  The bottom level is done except for the wiring of the reed switches and the track switches, and the middle level has been started.

Now, can I get the middle level done before Easter?