The main line benchwork is finished!

<Written October 2012>

The benchwork is DONE.  Here are some photos of the completed benchwork.  I have laid out the track in roughly the locations that they will be when the layout is done.  The track lying on the lower sections will be on plywood on risers to allow the landscape to be contoured in front of and behind the track.  There are now more trains in the staging yard to see how long they can be.  The sidings in the staging yard are disappointingly short.  So far that’s my biggest disappointment.  I’m guessing when trains finally roll I’ll be using the sidings to store extra cars instead of automating a switching-off of two trains per track.

Above is the view from the same angle we’ve seen twice before.  The section on the right has been shifted about four inches right to make room for the right-most metal post.  Note the lower sections of benchwork on the left side.  Again, here the tracks will be on risers to allow me to have depressions in front of the track.

Above is a picture from the opposite corner of the image above it.  There is an 18-inch gap between the layout and the wall for access to the backside of the staging yard.

Above are a couple views of the staging yard.  The sidings are so short I'm tempted to revise the track plan yet again to try and accomodate longer trains on the sidings.

Here’s a nice view of the S-curve.  I can’t wait to see how this looks with a long freight train traversing it!

Finally, here is a view of the Höchst station.  In the original track plan, I put the station on the curve.  In the revised plan, I pulled the station tracks to the right side and along the edge of the layout.  This allows the station tracks to be longer.  I liked the look of the station on the curve aesthetically better, but the station tracks were very, very short.  This new design will allow me to someday have passenger trains with the longer 4-axle passenger cars stopped at the station.  At the top left of the photo above you can see the switch that will go to the branch industry (I’m planning on making that a brewery, but we shall see) with the white boxcar sitting on the end of the line that will eventually snake up to the Königstein station which will sit behind it, above the staging yard which in the picture is occupied by trains.