Well, this may be the last post for a while. I have run out of track.
"But Carsten, how can that be?" Well, I'm glad you asked.
It all has to do with the picture-a-day calendar someone on one of the Marklin Facebook groups posted back in January:
I admired this photo for a good long time, specifically how cool and realistic the gentle curve of the station looked. I have decided that, instead of straight station tracks, I want to use some of the Marklin 1-scale flex tracks to build a gentle curve into the station. I have some of those Marklin 5998 flex track building sets, but was planning on using them to build the final curves I need on the ends of both of the ramps coming up from the middle section. So now I need more of the 1020mm and 1176mm radius curves. And they are hard to find and damn expensive!
That's not to say there hasn't been any progress...
This is the section of the layout against the back wall. The place where trains are parked is the three track staging yard on the lowest level. What sits above it are the two opposing ramps leading up to the third/top/station level. These two will loop around and connect in the station. If you look to the right of this photo you will see...
...the track benchwork swinging around towards the front of the layout. The track will come around another 45 degrees at the end of the benchwork before the station switches. Note the lack of curves. To complete the curved section on this side approaching the station I need 6 of the 1020mm and 1176mm curves. Now, if you were to instead look to the left of the previous picture of the two ramps you would see...
...the track benchwork from the middle level swing up and around the curve here, too. Again, I'm missing some pretty important curved track. However on this, the 'north' end of the layout, you can see that I have proceeded further with the building of the track roadbed, and that benchwork, at least provisionally, continues all the way to the front of the layout, where...
... I have done some provisional laying of track at the entrance to the station. The right-most tracks (the shorter ones in the image above that split from the right-most curved turnout) are the station tracks in one direction, and the two tracks next to it are the station tracks going in the other direction. The track on the left that comes off the left-most curved turnout will go to a small yard, only two or three tracks. This small yard will give me the ability to take manual control of a train or two to do some shunting in the yard versus just watching trains run around the layout.
Note how the two tracks in the middle (the two 'left' station tracks) have a slight bend to them. These are, in fact, built with the Marklin 5998 sets. In both cases I started the three-foot long section of flex track with a tighter radius and then went to a broader radius for the gentle bend in the station.
As soon as I get my hands on the needed curves I will post again, hopefully with pictures of the rest of the station with the gentle bend in it...
